merovingian-marvels

[merovingian-marvels]

Viking gold brooch, Hornelund, Denmark, 10th century

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Gold and carnelian ring, Merovingian France, late 6th-early 7th century AD

from The Louvre

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Silver armlet, uncovered in Gotland, Sweden, 10th-11th century

from The British Museum

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The Hunterston Brooch, 700CE, likely Dunadd, Argyll, The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

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Gold ring with garnets and a pearl, Frankish, 450-550 AD

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Gilded silver brooch with garnets and glass stones, Anglo Saxon England, 6th-7th century AD

from The National Museums, Liverpool

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Gilded silver bow brooch with garnets, France, circa 500-550 AD

from The Victoria & Albert Museum

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So I might’ve actually lectured my lecturer. He’s an archivist, but not a historian (in the broadest version of the word).

Previously mentioned: Roman archives, didn’t really survive because of wax tablets and papyri decaying but we know they wrote and archived. Sure.

After the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire (he was very safe with his word choices here), archiving or writing large amounts of texts wasn’t really a thing, until the Arabs came by the 12th century and Europe was archiving again.

HOLD THE FFING PHONE RIGHT THERE! And I did ask why he was reasoning this way. He didn’t really got me immediately so I provided him with examples.

Roman law didn’t disappear, it was held up and added upon. (Fine = income!) we know this because A) we have catholic additions on it making pagan elements in society illegal, B) we have written versions of the Lex Salica as old as the 8th century, C) Carolingian Minuskel is a thing, learned how to read it at previous Uni.

They just continued copying/translating Greek to Latin to f.e. Diets.

Laws are only useful when you have an institute that has them, can check on them and execute them. All those laws are stored somewhere (= archived).

Handy for cloisters to know how many properties they have and what they provide in income and how much they cost.

Roman law became regional, the Goths, Salic Franks, Anglians all had written law. The Catholic Church even invited Irish monks over to baptize Europeans and they introduced the space in written language in the process to make it easier for them. Writing… archiving…

The Catholic Church was very keen on making martyrs immediate saints. Their stories were recorded (!) into hagiographies. We still have those. They were kept (archived!) in churches and cloisters.

They like their heroes. Tales like Beowulf are 8th century. The church wrote their hymns down so they could hand it out to their singers. The church provided education. The male elite could write…

Gregorius of Tours wrote his Historia Francorum. He wrote the history of the Francs, while they were still around! That’s archiving!

Yeah sure, they wrote how the Vikings were invaders and so on and on. But the wrote it down in the cloister archives!

I mean I can continue. But these were the things I mentioned in class.

To clarify, the Arabs did not re-introduce the production of archiving material and archives themself. They were just never gone. What the Arabs did do was re-introduced science! (Scream it out loud for the people in the back!). While Charlemagne was busy killing Slavs, the Arabs had libraries (Baghdad House of Wisdom) and research institutes and were good mathematicians and astronomers (many stars in our night sky have Arab names to this day). Europe owes a ton of stuff thanks to the Islamic Golden Age. But not really recording and archiving.

On the other hand, I was later informed that the lecturer started panicking because i apparently cornered him good. I just took the one time I get to prove that the last five years of me working around the Early Middle Ages wasn’t for nothing. I don’t want to apologise

[merovingian-marvels]

Gold pendant with lapis lazuli, a garnet, glass, Byzantine, 5th-7th century AD

from The Cleveland Museum of Art

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Gold cross pendant with garnets and a Byzantine coin, uncovered near Wilton in Norfolk, England, 7th century AD

from The British Museum

[merovingian-marvels]

Hello everyone!

Due to many job and/or study related situations in my personal life, I will have to take a temporary break from posting every week.

I usually have at least three posts in queue to maintain a posting schedule, but since I have too little time to research every post, I’ll have to skip this week (perhaps more weeks).

Do not worry, I will be back!

Thank you for your understanding

@ochipi (merovingian-marvels)

[merovingian-marvels]

Merovingian dynasty saints

Saints and martyrs had an interesting part in the Early Middle Ages. Martyrs of Christianity during the Roman age turned into saints because of their devotion to spread Christianity, which was still figuring itself out (Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Arianism).

A new wave of martyrs came during the christianization (of preferably Catholicism) in the Germanic age. Religious conversion was a process of great effort, because a lot of people had difficulties transitioning from an animistic-polytheistic to a monotheistic religion. Violence was sometimes the end result of this. Those martyrs instantly became saints, some even hoping and preparing for it during their lifetime, dying willingly.

It is also theorized that saints became of great importance in Catholicism to win over doubting Germans. To accompany the people’s needs to call on someone or something for specific requests or ailments was not really accounted for in Christianity, where God does acts of greatness but he was not considered (back then) to heal people’s tooth aches.

Saints/martyrs life stories (hagiographies) came out immediately after their deaths and they had done plenty of miracles during their lifetime, which some researchers correlate to fallen heroes going to Walhalla (receiving the greatest gift/honor of all).

Pagans needed something (new) to look out for after death. A goal to aspire to during their life, which happened to be turning into a Saint. During this time, a large number of churches dedicated to saints (that had dies just previously) came to be, all including and even trading relics of the saint.

Image above:

St. Willibrord (Clemens Willibrordus) ca. 658 - 739, Northumbria, by an unknown monk

Codex from Archbishop Egbert von Trier 10th century A.D., National Library of France (Paris), Lat. 10510

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Cabochon finger ring

This stunning finger ring is decorated with dark glass paste, rather than a semi-precious stone. The simplicity of the ring indicates that it is Carolingian rather than Merovingian. The Carolingians embraced Catholicism on a much broader scale with the top-down process of baptism/religious conversion having reached the middle and even some of the lower classes.

This results in more minimalistic dress. Jewelry becomes very minimal and brooches that were included into ones appearance were once again reduced to their functional level. A finger ring like this does not proof that the wearer was in fact no longer pagan, but it does show that the wearer followed the fashion of the (Catholic) elite. Wearing finger rings also indicates that the wearer performed little to no physical labour as it risks damaging the jewel and it is also a means to show your wellbeing to the world.

The metropolitan museum of art, New York City - United States of America

Museum nr. 17.192.217

Found in Northern France (7th century)

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@lesmerovingiens I remember a specific instance on “robbing someone’s house.”

The more people involved the higher the compensation from court. However, when a certain, (large) number of people robbed the place, there was no compensation given because they thought only the king could raise that many men and the king is free to do as he pleases. Even robbing your house.

The Salic Law/ Lex Salica

The Salic Law is the written law of the Frankish empire. Its origin is both in Germanic customary law and Roman criminal law. Continuing Roman law fitted in the “Imperium Romanum Aeternum" or the idea that Rome was everlasting (the early Merovingians still saw themselves as Roman and didn't consider the (Western) Roman Empire "fallen").

There are many versions and interpretations of the Salic Law, depending on the Germanic additions made to it. This is especially true for customary law, punishments and inheritance. The most famous rule included in the text is that Kings/rulers have to be succeeded by their eldest son.

In some instances, new laws and punishments were added after incidents occurred which were not previously considered. There were for example different punishments for people who were free vs. slaves. Punishments could also vary, depending on the amount of people involved. Later Catholic additions include the banishment of pagan elements such as animistic practices, future predictions or the names of our weekdays. Some of these banishments are the only documented proof of certain pagan elements which were successfully oppressed by Christianity, such as the habbit of saying "bless you" after a sneeze. This indicates that a sneeze was used for interpretations (foresight, good luck charms, etc.) that could not coexist with Catholic devotion. "Bless you" was installed to replace whatever it was Germans did after a sneeze, turning it into a "positive" that survived into our current time.

Image: page from the 794 AD Salic Law

Library of the Sankt Gallen abbey - Switzerland.

[merovingian-marvels]

The Salic Law/ Lex Salica

The Salic Law is the written law of the Frankish empire. Its origin is both in Germanic customary law and Roman criminal law. Continuing Roman law fitted in the “Imperium Romanum Aeternum" or the idea that Rome was everlasting (the early Merovingians still saw themselves as Roman and didn't consider the (Western) Roman Empire "fallen").

There are many versions and interpretations of the Salic Law, depending on the Germanic additions made to it. This is especially true for customary law, punishments and inheritance. The most famous rule included in the text is that Kings/rulers have to be succeeded by their eldest son.

In some instances, new laws and punishments were added after incidents occurred which were not previously considered. There were for example different punishments for people who were free vs. slaves. Punishments could also vary, depending on the amount of people involved. Later Catholic additions include the banishment of pagan elements such as animistic practices, future predictions or the names of our weekdays. Some of these banishments are the only documented proof of certain pagan elements which were successfully oppressed by Christianity, such as the habbit of saying "bless you" after a sneeze. This indicates that a sneeze was used for interpretations (foresight, good luck charms, etc.) that could not coexist with Catholic devotion. "Bless you" was installed to replace whatever it was Germans did after a sneeze, turning it into a "positive" that survived into our current time.

Image: page from the 794 AD Salic Law

Library of the Sankt Gallen abbey - Switzerland.

[merovingian-marvels]

The marvelous story of Rouillac

The area surrounding French village Rouillac (dep. Charente, Ar. Cognac) is an Early Medieval unicum.

Of Gallic origin, Rouillac as a village came to prominence due to Roman occupation. Rouillac is likely derived from Rulliacum (domain of Rullius). The area bloomed because of its close proximity to the Via Agrippa. This is visible in the presence of a Roman theatre, bath houses and a Gallo-Roman burial site/sanctuary (located in Bouchauds). Unique finds include a statuette of Epona, a Gallic goddess.

Like most great Roman settlements, the area continued to be inhabited by people after the fall of the (Western-) Roman Empire. The site was inhabited both by Merovingians and Visigoths.

The area continued to be a rich society, shown in the Germanic burial site at Herpes. The site also shows how the Goths and Franks lived in good coexistence with each other.

Rouillac is because of this coexistence the southernmost and westernmost Merovingian village and the northernmost Visigothic village.

The parure above is Merovingian, but shows clear gothic influences (predominantly in the radiate-headed brooches).

The British Museum, London - United Kingdom

Museum nrs. 1905,0520.994

Found in Herpes, Charente - France

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Silver brooch, part of the Galloway hoard, a Viking age treasure hoard uncovered in Scotland, dated circa 900 AD

from The National Museum of Scotland