Neglected Barbarians (Studies in the Early Middle Ages) - Hardcover

Florin Curta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 2503531253 ISBN 13: 9782503531250

Publisher: Brepols Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

Although barbarians in history is a topic of perennial interest, most studies have addressed a small number of groups for which continuous narratives can be constructed, such as the Franks, Goths, and Anglo-Saxons. This volume examines groups less accessible in the literary and archaeological evidence. Scholars from thirteen countries examine the history and archaeology of groups for whom literary evidence is too scant to contribute to current theoretical debates about ethnicity. Ranging from the Baltic and northern Caucasus to Spain and North Africa and over a time period from 300 to 900, the essays address three main themes. Why is a given barbarian group neglected? How much can we know about a group and in what ways can we bring up this information? What sorts of future research are necessary to extend or fill out our understanding? Some papers treat these questions organically. Others use case studies to establish what we know and how we can advance. Drawing on those separate lines of research, the conclusion proposes an alternative reading of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, viewed not from the 'centre' of the privileged but from the 'periphery' of the neglected groups. Neglected Barbarians covers a longer time span than similar studies of this kind, while its frequent use of the newest archaeological evidence has no parallel in any book so far published in any language.

About this title

Review

"...Neglected Barbarians brings valuable contributions to the ongoing discussion and deserves a prominent place among the works dedicated to exploring the transition from Roman to post-Roman in Europe and the Mediterranean." --Arnold A. Lelis, University of Wisconsin Stevens Point, The Medieval Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 2503531253
• ISBN 13: 9782503531250
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 656
• Editor: Florin Curta