Framing the Early Middle Ages

Bibliographic Data

ID23148367
AuthorsChris Wickham (0000-0002-0808-1541, corresponding author)
Year2005
Pages990
Publication date2005-09-22
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueFRAMING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES: EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN, 400-800. (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264490.001.0001
OpenAlexW2501584516
Open LibraryOL22708969M
ISBN9780199264490
LanguageEN
Citations received409

The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country. This book integrates documentary and archaeological evidence together, and provides a history of the period 400—800, by means of systematic comparative analyses of each of the regions of the latest Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt (only the Slav areas are left out). The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These are only a partial picture of the period, but they are intended as a framing for other developments, without which those other developments cannot be properly understood. The book argues that only a complex comparative analysis can act as the basis for a wider synthesis. The book takes all different developments as typical, and constructs a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it.

Ancient history · Archaeology · Aristocracy (class) · Art · Documentary evidence · Economic history · Economy · Estate · Framing (construction) · Geography · Middle Ages · Peasant · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · 392-814 · 400-800 · civilization · Europe · Excavations (Archaeology) · Medieval · Medieval Civilization · Mediterranean Region