The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World

Edited by Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira

Oxford Handbooks

Examines research from a variety of fields, including archaeology, bio-archaeology, architecture, hagiographic literature, manuscripts, liturgy, visionary literature and eschatology, patristics, numismatics, and material culture
Diverse list of contributors, many whose research has never before been available in English
Provides substantial research regarding women's history in the Merovingian period
Expands research beyond Europe to include other cultures that came in contact with the Merovingians

The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World

Edited by Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira

Description

The Merovingian era is one of the best studied yet least well known periods of European history. From the fifth to the eighth centuries, the inhabitants of Gaul (what now comprises France, southern Belgium, Luxembourg, Rhineland Germany, and part of modern Switzerland), a mix of Gallo-Roman inhabitants and Germanic arrivals under the political control of the Merovingian dynasty, sought to preserve, use, and reimagine the political, cultural, and religious power of ancient Rome while simultaneously forging the beginnings of what would become medieval European culture.

The forty-six essays included in this volume highlight why the Merovingian era is at the heart of historical debates about what happened to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The essays demonstrate that the inhabitants of the Merovingian kingdoms in these centuries created a culture that was the product of these traditions and achieved a balance between the world they inherited and the imaginative solutions they bequeathed to Europe. The Handbook highlights new perspectives and scientific approaches that shape our changing view of this extraordinary era by showing that Merovingian Gaul was situated at the crossroads of Europe, connecting the Mediterranean and the British Isles with the Byzantine empire, and it benefited from the global reach of the late Roman Empire. It tells the story of the Merovingian world through archaeology, bio-archaeology, architecture, hagiographic literature, history, liturgy, visionary literature and eschatology, patristics, numismatics, and material culture.

The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World

Edited by Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira

Oxford Handbooks

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
List of Contributors
Map of Merovingian Gaul
Merovingian Family Tree

Introduction

1. Pushing the Boundaries of the Merovingian World
Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira

PART I MEROVINGIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY AND THE HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY
2. From Gaul to Francia: The Impact of the Merovingians
Paul Fouracre
3. Writing the History of Merovingian Gaul: An Historiographical Survey
Agnès Graceffa
4. Two Centuries of Excavating Merovingian-Era Cemeteries in France
Bonnie Effros

PART II EXPRESSING IDENTITY
5. Transformations of Identities: Barbarians and Romans in the Merovingian Realm
Magali Coumert
6. Migrants and Minorities in Merovingian Gaul
Wolfram Drews
7. Human Remains and What They Can Tell Us about Status and Identity in the Merovingian Period
Andrea Czermak
8. Gender in Merovingian Gaul
Guy Halsall
9. Children's Lives and Deaths in Merovingian Gaul
Émilie Perez

PART III STRUCTURES OF POWER
10. The Merovingian Polity: A Network of Courts and Courtiers
Yitzhak Hen
11. Elite Women in the Merovingian Period
Edward James
12. The Military and Its Role in Merovingian Society
Laury Sarti
13. Corporate Solidarity and Its Limits within the Gallo-Frankish Episcopate
Gregory Halfond
14. Public Health, Hospitals, and Charity
Peregrine Horden
15. Merovingian Monasticism: Voices of Dissent
Albrecht Diem

PART IV MEROVINGIAN GAUL IN A WIDER CONTEXT
16. The Merovingians and Byzantium: Diplomatic, Military, and Religious Issues, 500-700
Stefan Esders
17. The Movement of People and Things between Britain and France in the Late- and Post-Roman Periods
Robin Fleming
18. De gente Scottorum monachi: The Irish in Merovingian Settlement Strategy
Jean-Michel Picard
19. "Alors commença la France": Merovingian Expansion South of the Loire, 495-510
Ralph W. Mathisen
20. The Merovingians, the Avars, and the Slavs
Matthias Hardt
21. The Merovingians and Italy: Ostrogoths and Early Lombards
Jonathan J. Arnold

PART V MEROVINGIAN WRITTEN CULTURE
22. The History of Historiography in the Merovingian Period
Helmut Reimitz
23. Merovingian Legal Cultures
Alice Rio
24. Merovingian Hagiography
Jamie Kreiner
25. Letters and Communication Networks in Merovingian Gaul
Andrew Gillett
26. Merovingian Epigraphy, Frankish Epigraphy, and the Epigraphy of the Merovingian World.
Mark Handley

PART VI MEROVINGIAN LANDSCAPES
27. The Role of the City in Merovingian Francia
S. T. Loseby
28. The Fate of Small Towns, Hilltop Settlements, and Elite Residences in Merovingian-Period Gaul
Luc Bourgeois
29. The Fate of Late-Roman Villas in Southern Gaul between the Sixth and Seventh Centuries.
Alexandra Chavarría Arnau
30. Merovingian Religious Architecture: Some New Reflections
Pascale Chevalier
31. Rural Life and Work in Northern Gaul during the Early Middle Ages
Edith Peytremann
32. Good and Bad Plants in Merovingian Francia
Paolo Squatriti
33. Livestock and the Early Medieval Diet in Northern Gaul
Jean-Hervé Yvinec and Maude Barme

PART VII ECONOMIES, EXCHANGE, AND PRODUCTION
34. Maritime and River Traders, Landing Places, and Emporia Ports in the Merovingian Period in and around the Low Countries
Dries Tys
35. The Evidence of Numismatics: "Merovingian" Coinage and the Place of Frankish Gaul and Its Cities in an "Invisible" Roman Empire
Jürgen Strothmann
36. Bead and Garnet Trade between the Merovingian, Mediterranean, and Indian Worlds
Constantin Pion, Bernard Gratuze, Patrick Périn, and Thomas Calligaro
37. Merovingian Gaul and the Mediterranean: Ceramics and Trade
Michel Bonifay and Dominique Pieri
38. Long-Distance Trade and the Rural Population of Northern Gaul
Frans Theuws
39. Belt Buckles and Burials in Southwestern Gaul
Ralph J. Patrello

PART VIII THE SUPERNATURAL AND THE AFTERLIFE
40. Amulets and Identity in the Merovingian World
Genevra Kornbluth
41. Magic and Divination in the Merovingian World
William E. Klingshirn
42. Visions and the Afterlife
Isabel Moreira
43. Inscribed in the Book of Life: Liturgical Commemoration in Merovingian Gaul
Els Rose
44. Liturgy and the Laity
Lisa Kaaren Bailey
45. The Life of Penance
Kevin Uhalde
46. Merovingian Meditations on Jesus
Lynda Coon

Index

The Oxford Handbook of the Merovingian World

Edited by Bonnie Effros and Isabel Moreira

Oxford Handbooks

Author Information

Edited by Bonnie Effros, Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History, University of Liverpool, and Edited by Isabel Moreira, Professor of Medieval History, University of Utah

Bonnie Effros is the Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History at the University of Liverpool.

Isabel Moreira is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Utah.

Contributors:

Editors
Bonnie Effros, University of Liverpool
Isabel Moreira, University of Utah

Contributors
Jon Arnold, University of Tulsa
Lisa Kaaren Bailey, University of Auckland
Maude Barme, Centre de Recherche Archéologique de la Vallée de l'Oise (CRAVO)
Michel Bonifay, Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CCJ, Aix-en-Provence, France
Luc Bourgeois, Université de Caen Normandie / UMR 6273 - CRAHAM
Thomas Calligaro, Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France, C2RMF, Palais du Louvre/ PSL Research University, Chimie ParisTech-CNRS, Institut de Recherche Chimie Paris, UMR8247
Alexandra Chavarría Arnau, Università degli Studi di Padova
Pascale Chevalier, Université Clermont Auvergne - UMR 6298-ARTEHIS Dijon
Lynda Coon, University of Arkansas
Magali Coumert, Université de Bretagne Occidentale
Andrea Czermak, University of Oxford
Albrecht Diem, Syracuse University
Wolfram Drews, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Bonnie Effros, University of Liverpool
Stefan Esders, Freie Universität Berlin
Robin Fleming, Boston College
Paul Fouracre, University of Manchester (emeritus)
Andrew Gillett, independent scholar
Agnès Graceffa, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Bernard Gratuze, Centre Ernest-Babelon, IRAMAT, UMR 5060, CNRS-Université d'Orléans
Gregory Halfond, Framingham State University
Guy Halsall, University of York
Mark Handley, independent scholar
Matthias Hardt, Leibniz-Institut für Geschichte und Kultur des östlichen Europa (GWZO), Leipzig
Yitzhak Hen, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Peregrine Horden, Royal Holloway University of London
Edward James, University College Dublin (emeritus)
William Klingshirn, Catholic University of America
Genevra Kornbluth, independent scholar
Jamie Kreiner, University of Georgia
Simon Loseby, University of Sheffield
Ralph Mathisen, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Isabel Moreira, University of Utah
Ralph Patrello, independent scholar
Émilie Perez, Université de la Polynésie française
Patrick Périn, Musée d'archéologie nationale (emeritus)
Edith Peytremann, Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (Inrap)
Jean-Michel Picard, University College Dublin (emeritus)
Dominique Pieri, Sorbonne, Collège de France-CNRS UMR 8167-Orient et Méditerranée
Constantin Pion, Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA-KIK), Brussels/ Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles
Helmut Reimitz, Princeton University
Alice Rio, Kings College London
Els Rose, Universiteit Utrecht
Laury Sarti, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
Paolo Squatriti, University of Michigan
Jürgen Strothmann, Universität Siegen
Frans Theuws, Universiteit Leiden
Dries Tys, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Kevin Uhalde, Ohio University
Jean-Hervé Yvinec, Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (Inrap), UMR 7209 du CNRS