The End of Alamannic Princely Forts and the Supposed Merovingian Hegemony

Bibliographic Data

ID19448352
AuthorsRoss Samson (corresponding author)
Year1994
Volume2
Issue2
Pages341-360
Publication date1994-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of European Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0965-7665 • E-ISSN: 2057-7869
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1179/096576694800719193
OpenAlexW2037429790
LanguageEN
References cited7

This paper summarises German archaeologists' interpretation of hillfort occupation and abandonment in south-western Germany from the fifth to ninth centuries AD. It argues against the dominant belief that hillfort occupation ended around AD 500 and that it was related to Merovingian conquest. The archaeological changes enumerated by Konrad Weidemann are shown to be fortuitous, illusionary, or of the wrong date, while the strongest contacts archaeologically documented continued to be with northern (Gothic then Lombardic) Italy. Merovingian hegemony is argued to have had little impact on Alamannic lordship. The lack of coinage, diocesan and monastic church organisation, and royal estates east of the Rhine during the Merovingian period are taken as proof of a less 'advanced' form of lordship. Changes in lordship during the Carolingian period are finally suggested to have parallels in Scotland, where hillforts much like the Alamannic Runder Berg were abandoned for 'manors' or villae/curtes as they appear in the Carolingian documents

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · CONQUEST · German · Hegemony · Ninth · Parallels · Political science · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy

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