merovingian-marvels

[merovingian-marvels]

This is a minor thing but it is very annoying to me when people replace every instance of "th" with þ, while ignoring the existence of ð. Like those indicate very different sounds I'm sorry you are not really saying "þat, þis, þose" unless you are hosing me down with saliva

[merovingian-marvels]

In a fascinating archaeological find, a 9th-century Viking woman's burial revealed a ring inscribed with the Arabic phrase "for Allah," highlighting intriguing cultural connections between Norse and Islamic worlds.

Discovered in Birka, Sweden, a prominent Viking trading hub, the ring's inscription points to the extensive trade routes and interactions of the Viking Age. This discovery suggests that the Viking woman, possibly of high status, had significant contact with the Islamic world or was part of a broader exchange network.

[merovingian-marvels]

Gold earring with glass gems, Lombardy, 500-700 AD

from The Victoria & Albert Museum

[merovingian-marvels]

Silver and rock crystal pendant uncovered near Gotland, Sweden, circa 1100-1500 AD

from The Historiska Museum

[merovingian-marvels]

Cast Bronze Boar Figures, 150-50 BCE, Hounslow, Middlesex, British Museum, London

These were found together and may be the crests from sheet bronze helmets rather than free-standing figurines. Stylistically they are the earliest animal figurines found in Britain.

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[merovingian-marvels]

Anglo-Saxon Garnet Pendant for a Noblewoman, 600 to 700 CE, Hull and East Riding Museum of Archaeology, Hull

[merovingian-marvels]

Viking gold brooch, Hornelund, Denmark, 10th century

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The Louvre

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The British Museum

[merovingian-marvels]

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

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The National Museums, Liverpool

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The Victoria & Albert Museum

[merovingian-marvels]

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

[merovingian-marvels]

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

from The British Museum