The Frisians and their Pottery: Social Relations before and after the Fourth Century AD

The beginning of the present-day Frisians lies in the 5th century, when new inhabitants, ‘Anglo-Saxons’, arrived in the virtually abandoned terp region of the Northern Netherlands. The Frisians that are mentioned by Roman authors, had largely abandoned the area in the 3rd century, and the area was virtually empty in the 4th century. In this chapter, some of the evidence that is indicative of social relations between different groups inhabiting the northern coastal areas of the Netherlands and Germany will be presented. The same social mechanisms, such as visiting, gift exchange and intermarriage functioned before and after the 4th century, and the same social networks and regions were involved. To understand the ‘new Frisians’ and their descent from migrating Anglo-Saxons, we cannot ignore the ‘old Frisians’ and their contacts with the Chaucans, the later Saxons. The focus is on pottery, since that is the most wide-spread material category, and a telling one when social relations are concerned.