Archaeology of Early Medieval Central and Eastern Europe in the Context of “Global Middle Ages”

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The intent behind the notion of “Global Middle Ages” has generally been to broaden the scope, especially geographically, that we examine when discussing the Middle Ages. An important component of this has been widening the field of view beyond western Europe and the Mediterranean. However, a broad territory, situated geographically in the very area between western Europe and the Mediterranean, has largely been left out of consideration, especially in English-speaking scholarship: we rarely see central and eastern Europe discussed in works that bear a “Global Middle Ages” tag. This paper argues that central and eastern Europe was strongly embedded in the medieval world and the study of the Middle Ages cannot be truly “global” without including this broad territory. One reason for the absence of this region, especially for the earlier part of 500–1500 CE, could be the lack of consistent written sources in most of this area before the eleventh–twelfth centuries. This is where archaeology can play a decisive part—the archaeological record is rich and detailed, albeit less well known in an international context.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38315.0