Week 1: Early middle ages, migrations and cemeteries

• The middle ages


  500-1500 CE
• The middle ages


  In the middle between classical and renaissance
• Characteristics of the middle ages

  • Christianisation
  • Death of Charlemagne
  • Settlements = texts and archaeology (written information rather than historical)
• Sources of knowledge about the middle ages

  • Texts: lawbooks, charters, literature, epigraphy
  • Phenomena: archaeology, surviving material culture, architecture
• Development of mediaeval archaeology

  • 19th century: antiquarian interest in early mediaeval cemeteries
  • 1950s: rural and urban settlements
• The migration period had no control over most of Western Europe, Ostrogoth king Odoacer
• Foederati


  Germanic people with treaty to settle within Roman empire
• Laeti


  Smaller groups of people who were granted land in Roman empire
• Foederati and Laeti had military obligations and entered the Roman world
• The traditional idea behind the migrations is incorrect, as Huns were not involved in the first migration by Goths, Foederati existed in the 3rd century, and Goths were not a chiefdom but an early state
• People involved in the migrations in the 4th/5th century

  • Goths
  • Vandals
  • Alamanni
• Types of societies involved in the migrations

  • Sedentary agriculturalists (Germanic and Slavic peoples)
  • Nomads (Huns, Avars, Skythnians, Alans, Arabs)
• Barbarian kingdoms


  Different groups as to means of existence and language, emerged in the early medieval period
• Characteristics of early mediaeval 'barbarian' kingdoms are particularly difficult to grasp
• Thanados cemeteries in Schwanenstadt, Austria

  • 450-750 CE
  • 101 graves/features, 125 burials/stratigraphic units
  • Graves with swords = 1 iron knife?
• Lankhills, Lowland England


  • Typical late Roman ends 410 CE
  • Several burials of males wearing military-style belts
  • Early Anglo Saxon (410-660) = cremation + patchwork of petty 'kingdoms'
  • Deceased buried dressed, many grave goods, burial marked by barrows
  • 7th century = less grave goods, more standardisation, cemeteries closer to settlements + 670 CE = grave goods disappear and cemeteries near churches start
• Northern Gaul


  • Late 4th century = rich burial in small groups
  • Mid 5th century = phase with few grave goods
  • Burial arrange in rows + deceased in coffins/chamber
  • 7th century = more standardisation, less grave goods
• Southern Germany


  • Small farmyard cemeteries (575-625)
  • Oberflacht = waterlogged => wooden objects preserved (bed, musical instrument, candlestick)
• Scandinavia


  • 8-9th century = most simple cremations and inhumations
• Antiquarianism gave rise to the study of cemeteries in the 19th century
• Characteristics of early middle age row cemeteries

  • Furnished burial - with grave goods (not furniture) e.g. weapons, accessories, vessels
  • Inhumation = supine position, crouched burial, prone (face down)
  • Cremation = collection of bones in ground + urn
• Merovingian kingdoms


  • 6th century: emergence of Austrasia and Neustria
  • Coinage: individual mint masters
  • Only gold coins: solidus and tremissis (used for prestige transactions)
  • End of 7th century: golden currency stopped, silver coins instead
• Dating methods for early medieval archaeology

  • Radiocarbon dating
  • Dendrochronology
  • Numismatic dates
  • Artefacts
  • Written information
• Ethnicity in early middle ages

  • Flexible, situational, dependent on circumstances
  • Identity, question of self-definition
• Cremation and horse burials are not necessarily pagan, as grave goods (pagan) and no grave goods (christian) both occur
• Wealth and status in early medieval burials

  • Founders' graves often more opulent
  • Grave goods and size of burial pit important
  • Burial in a church = prestigious
  • Burial with few grave goods =/ low status person