Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: the history of Europe 500–700
- 1 The later Roman Empire
- 2 The Barbarian invasions
- 3 The sources and their interpretation
- PART I THE SIXTH CENTURY
- PART II THE SEVENTH CENTURY
- PART III THEMES AND PROBLEMS
- List of Primary sources
- Bibliography of secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece"
- Plate section"
- Map 3 Gaul/Francia in the sixth and seventh centuries"
- References
3 - The sources and their interpretation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
By
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: the history of Europe 500–700
- 1 The later Roman Empire
- 2 The Barbarian invasions
- 3 The sources and their interpretation
- PART I THE SIXTH CENTURY
- PART II THE SEVENTH CENTURY
- PART III THEMES AND PROBLEMS
- List of Primary sources
- Bibliography of secondary works arranged by chapter
- Index
- Frontispiece"
- Plate section"
- Map 3 Gaul/Francia in the sixth and seventh centuries"
- References
Summary
The past, as is often said, is made in the present. Today’s early Middle Ages are very different from the early Middle Ages of 1911, when the first volume of the first edition of the Cambridge Medieval History was published. That difference in appearance stems largely from a difference in the lenses through which the early medieval period is viewed. There are two aspects to these lenses; first, there are the sources of evidence available; and second there are historians’ ways of seeing the past. Since the first edition of the Cambridge Medieval History both have altered radically. Historical approaches to the written sources have changed in many ways and at several analytical levels. The written record, furthermore, is no longer seen as the only, and in some instances not even as the most eloquent, evidence left of the early medieval past. New evidence – new lenses – have become available. In addition to providing the newcomer to the period with a brief overview of the types of western European sources upon which the other contributions to this volume are based (with some reference to evidential forms further east), this chapter will therefore also present a short survey of the ways in which those forms of evidence are approached and the sorts of questions which they can, and cannot, answer.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New Cambridge Medieval History , pp. 56 - 90Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
References
(1997), People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, Cambridge
(1988), España entre el mundo antiguo y el medieval, Madrid
(1988), España entre el mundo antiguo y el mundo medieval, Madrid
(1993), The Techniques of Archaeological Excavation, 3rd edn, London
(ed.) (1977), European Towns: Their Archaeology and Early History, London
(ed.) (1997), The Routledge Companion to Historiography, London
et al. (1994), Identifier sources et citations (L’Atelier du Médiéviste I), Turnhout
(1992), ‘La diffusione dei reperti longobardi in Italia’, in (ed.), I Longobardi, 2nd edn, MilanGoogle Scholar
(ed.) (1991), The Annales School and Archaeology, Leicester
(1990), Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. and , Cambridge
(1977), Outline of a Theory of Practice, trans. , Cambridge
(1994), Life and Letters on the Roman Frontier: Vindolanda and Its People, London
and (1984), Vindolanda: The Latin Writing Tablets, Gloucester
(1972), The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2nd edn, trans. , 2 vols., London
(1972), The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2nd edn, London
(1994), Historiography and Episcopal Authority in Sixth-Century Gaul: The Histories of Gregory of Tours Interpreted in Their Historical Context, Göttingen
, and (eds.) (2000), Towns and Their Territories between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Leiden
and (eds.) (1999), The Idea and the Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Leiden
and (eds.) (1999), The Idea and Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, London
(1981), ‘The dating of the Sutton Hoo coins’, in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, II (BAR British Series 92), OxfordGoogle Scholar
(1971), The World of Late Antiquity, London
(1971), ‘The rise and function of the holy man in late antiquity’, JRS 61; repr. in (1982a)Google Scholar
(1977), ‘Relics and social status in the age of Gregory of Tours’, The Stenton Lecture, University of Reading, 1977; repr. in (1982a)Google Scholar
(1978), The Making of Late Antiquity, Cambridge, MA
(1981), The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Chicago
(1982a), Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity, London
(1982b), ‘Town, village and holy man: the case of Syria’, in (1982a)
(2002), Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman World, 2nd edn, Cambridge
(1990), Les Fouilles du quartier Saint-Briceà Tournai: l’environnement funéraire de la sépulture de Childéric, I, Louvain-la-Neuve
(1991), Les Fouilles du quartier Saint-Briceà Tournai: l’environnement funéraire de la sépulture de Childéric, II, Louvain-la-Neuve
(1997), ‘La tombe de Childéric et la topographie funéraire de Tournai à la fin du Ve siècle’, in (1997)
(1953), Wattenbach-Levison: Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Vorzeit und Karolinger: Beiheft: Die Rechtsquellen, Weimar
, and (1991), Dictionnaire des auteurs grecs et latins de l’antiquité et du moyen âge, trans. and , Turnhout
(1985a), Literature and Society in the Early Byzantine World, London
(1970), Agathias, Oxford
(1985), Procopius and the Sixth Century, London
(1992), ‘Ideology and allegiance in East Anglia’, in and (eds.), Sutton Hoo: Fifty Years After, Oxford, OHGoogle Scholar
(2001), ‘Villae y necrópolis en Hispania durante la antigüedad tardía’, Bulletin de l’Association Pour l’Antiquité Tardive 10 (n.p.)Google Scholar
(1990), Seeing Beneath the Soil, London
(1977), ‘Julian of Toledo and the royal succession in late seventh-century Spain’, in and (eds.), Early Medieval Kingship, LeedsGoogle Scholar
(2000), ‘The battle of Dunnichen and the Aberlemno battlescene’, in and (eds.), Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Medieval Era, East LintonGoogle Scholar
(1998), ‘Dwellings, settlements and settlement patterns in Merovingian southwest Germany and adjacent areas’, in (ed.), Franks and Alamanni in the Merovingian Period: An Ethnographic Perspective, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
(1995), Theoretical Archaeology, London
(2000), Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, Stroud
and (eds.) (1997), Rural Settlements in Medieval Europe (Papers of the Medieval Europe Brugge 1997 Conference 6), Bruges
(1999), ‘Adding insult to injury: Julian of Toledo and his Historia Wambae’, in (ed.), The Visigoths: From the Migration Period to the Seventh Century, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
(1987), Views from a Many-Windowed Tower: Studies of Imagination in the Work of Gregory of Tours, Amsterdam
and (eds.) (1998), La Datation des structures et des objets du haut moyen âge: méthodes et résultats (Mémoires de l’Association Française d’Archéologie Mérovingienne 7), Condé-sur-Noireau
(2002), An Introduction to Medieval History, London
, in and (eds.) (1994), Archéologie des villes dans le Nord-Ouest de l´Europe (VIIe-XIIIe siècle), Douai
(1980), ‘The present state of Anglo-Saxon cemetery studies’, in , and (eds.), Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries 1979 (BAR British Series 82), OxfordGoogle Scholar
(1926), Roman Society in Gaul in the Merovingian Age, London
and (eds.) (1999), The Late Roman World and Its Historian: Interpreting Ammianus Marcellinus, London
and (1993), Sources et méthodes de l’hagiographie médiévale, Paris
(1992), Review of (ed.), The Annales School and Archaeology, Medieval Archaeology 36
(2002), Caring for Body and Soul: Burial and the Afterlife in the Merovingian World, University Park, PA
(2003), Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages, Berkeley
, , and (1980), Fieldwalking for Archaeologists, Andover
(1994), Power (The Essential Works 3), ed. , London, 1994
(1984), ‘Observations on the outgrowth of Pippinid influence in the “Regnum Francorum” after the Battle of Tertry (687–715)’, Medieval Prosopography 5Google Scholar
(1999), ‘The origins of the Carolingian attempt to regulate the cult of saints’, in and (1999)
(1997), ‘Tours de Grégoire, Tours des archives du sol’, in and (1997)
(2000), ‘The Franks as the New Israel: education for an identity from Pippin to Charlemagne’, in and (eds.), The Uses of the Past in Early Medieval Europe, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
and (eds.) (1997), Grégoire de Tours et l’espace gaulois: Actes du Congrès international Tours, 3–5 Novembre 1994 (13e supplément à la Revue Archéologique du Centre de la France), Tours
(1987), The Rise of the Carolingians and the ‘Liber Historiae Francorum’, Oxford
(1984), The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, London
(1988), The Narrators of Barbarian History (AD 550–800): Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon, Princeton, NJ
(1987), ‘From Historiae to Historia Francorum and back again: aspects of the textual history of Gregory of Tours’, in and (eds.), Religion, Culture and Society in the Early Middle Ages, Kalamazoo, repr. in (1989), no. 10Google Scholar
(1988), The Narrators of Barbarian History, ad 550–800: Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, Paul the Deacon, Princeton, NJ
(1989), Rome’s Fall and After, London
(1951), Numismatics and History (Historical Association pamphlet G19), London
(1988), Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception, Cambridge
(1992a), ‘Changing symbols in a changing society: the Anglo-Saxon burial rite in the seventh century’, in (1992)
(1992b), Angelsächsische Waffengräber des 5. bis 7. Jahrhunderts, Cologne
(1989), ‘Early Saxon weapon burials: frequencies, distributions and weapon combinations’, in (ed.), Weapons and Warfare in Anglo-Saxon England, OxfordGoogle Scholar
(1990), ‘“Weapon graves”? The background of the Anglo-Saxon weapon burial rite’, Past and Present 126Google Scholar
(1992a), Angelsächsische Waffengräber des 5. bis 7. Jahrhunderts (Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, Beiheft 6), Cologne
(1992b), ‘Changing symbols in a changing society: the Anglo-Saxon weapon rite’, in (ed.), The Age of Sutton Hoo: The Seventh Century in North-Western Europe, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
(1999), ‘The idea of the town in the Byzantine Empire’, in and (eds.), The Idea and the Ideal of the Town between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, LeidenGoogle Scholar
(1992), ‘The origins of the Reihengräberzivilisation: forty years on’, in and (eds.), Fifth-Century Gaul: A Crisis of Identity?, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
(1995), Early Medieval Cemeteries: An Introduction to Burial Archaeology in the Post-Roman West, Glasgow
(1997), ‘Archaeology and historiography’, in (1997)
(1998), ‘Burial, ritual and Merovingian society’, in and (eds.), The Community, the Family and the Saint: Patterns of Power in Early Medieval Europe, TurnhoutGoogle Scholar
(2000a), ‘La Christianisation de la région de Metz à travers les sources archéologiques (5ème-7ème siècle): problèmes et possibilités’, in (ed.), L’Evangélisation des régions entre Meuse et Moselle et la fondation de l’abbaye d’Echternach (Ve-IXe siècle), LuxemburgGoogle Scholar
(2000b), ‘Archaeology and the late Roman frontier in northern Gaul: the so-called Föderatengräber reconsidered’, in and (eds.), Grenze und Differenz im früheren Mittelalter, ViennaGoogle Scholar
(ed.) (2002), Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Cambridge
(1994), ‘Review article: the archaeology of rural settlement in early medieval Europe’, EME 3.2Google Scholar
(1999), ‘Tiempo y identidad. La datación por la Era en las inscripciones de la España tardoromana y visigoda’, Iberia: Revista de la Antigüedad 2Google Scholar
(2000), ‘Inscribing time and identity in the kingdom of Burgundy’, in and (eds.), Ethnicity and Culture in Late Antiquity, LondonGoogle Scholar
and (eds.) (2000), The Long Eighth Century, Leiden
(1991), Goths and Romans 332–489, Oxford
(1991), Goths and Romans, Oxford
(2001), Gregory of Tours, trans. , Cambridge
(1988), ‘From public to private: the western barbarian coinages as amirror of the disintegration of late Roman state structures’, Viator 19Google Scholar
(1988), ‘Frompublic to private: the western barbarian coinages as amirror of the disintegration of Late Roman state structures’, Viator 19Google Scholar
(1966), ‘Coins and chronicles: propaganda in sixth-century Spain and the Byzantine background’, Historia 15Google Scholar
(ed.) (1987), Archaeology as Long-Term History, Cambridge
(ed.) (1991), Archaeological Theory in Europe: The Last Three Decades, London
(1982b), Dark Age Economics: The Origins of Towns and Trade, ad 600–1000, London
and (eds.) (1998), The Sixth Century: Production, Distribution and Demand, Leiden
and (eds.) (1988), The Rebirth of Towns in the West, London
and (eds.) (1999), The Cult of the Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown, Oxford
(1977), The Merovingian Archaeology of South-West Gaul (BAR Supplementary Series 25), 2 VOLS., Oxford
(1999), Archaeological Theory, Oxford
(1991), Les Goths (Ier-VIIe siècles après J.-C.), Paris
(1963), Great Historical Enterprises: Problems in Monastic History, London
and (eds.) (1983), Statens Historiska Museum Studies 2: Vendel Period, Stockholm
(1952), Wattenbach-Levison: Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter: Vorzeit und Karolinger: I Heft: Die Vorzeit von den Anfänge bis zur Herrschaft der Karolinger, Weimar
(1994), ‘Beyond positivism and genre: “hagiographical” texts as historical narrative’, Viator 25Google Scholar
and (eds.) (1995), L’Habitat rural du haut moyen âge (France, Pays-Bas, Danemark et Grand-Bretagne), Paris
and (1997), ‘Images de la Gaule rurale au VIe siècle’, in and (1997)
(1997), ‘Housewives, warriors and slaves? Sex and gender in Anglo-Saxon burials’, in and (eds.), Invisible People and Processes: Writing Gender and Childhood into European Archaeology, LondonGoogle Scholar
(1986), The Sources of Social Power, i: A History of Power from the Beginning to ad 1760, Cambridge
(1989), The Roman Empire of Ammianus Marcellinus, London
and (eds.) (2002), The World of Gregory of Tours, Leiden
(1995), ‘Cassiodorus and the Italian culture of his time’, Proceedings of the British Academy 41Google Scholar
(1955), ‘Cassiodorus and the Italian culture of his time’, Proceedings of the British Academy 41Google Scholar
(ed.) (1984), Überlieferung und Geltung normativer Texte des frühen und hohen Mittelalters (Quellen und Forschungen zum Recht im Mittelalter 4), Sigmaringen
(1983), Germanic Kinship Structure: Studies in Law and Society in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Toronto
(1986), The English Settlements, Oxford
(1982), ‘The aims of Jordanes’, Historia 31
(1980), La Datation des tombes mérovingiennes: historique – méthodes – applications, Paris and Geneva
(1998a), ‘La progression des Francs en Gaule du nord au Ve siècle: histoire et archéologie’, in (ed.), Die Franken und die Alemannen bis zur ‘Schlacht bei Zülpich’, BerlinGoogle Scholar
(1998b), ‘Possibilités et limites de l’interprétation sociale des cimetières mérovingiens’, Antiquités Nationales 30Google Scholar
(2002), ‘Cemeteries and settlements in Merovingian Gaul’, in and (2002)
(1980), Un Exemple de site fortifié au haut moyen-âge: l’habitat mérovingien de Larina, Grenoble
and (eds.) (1996), Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader, Oxford
(1983), ‘New approaches to medieval archaeology Part I’, in (ed.), 25 Years of Medieval Archaeology, SheffieldGoogle Scholar
(2001), Excavation, Cambridge
(ed.) (1997), Clovis: histoire et mémoire, I: Clovis, son temps, l’événement, Paris
(1989), A Treatise on Social Theory, II: Substantive Social Theory, Cambridge
(1987), ‘Social structures from Reihengräber: mirror or mirage’, Scottish Archaeological Review 4.2Google Scholar
and (eds.) (1994), Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter, Vienna
(1997), ‘Introduction. Regarding medievalists: contexts and approaches’, in (1997)
(ed.) (1990), Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: A Reappraisal, Stroud
(1982), Frühgeschichtliche Sozialstrukturen in Europa: Eine Analyse der Auswertungsmethoden des archäologischen Quellenmaterials, Göttingen
(1999), The Spindle and- the Spear: A Critical Enquiry into the Construction of Gender in the Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Rite (BAR British Series 288), Oxford
(1999), The Spindle and the Spear: A Critical Enquiry into the Construction and Meaning of Gender in the Early Anglo-Saxon Burial Rite (BAR British Series 288), Oxford
Tablettes Albertini, ed. , and , Paris (1952)
(1991), ‘Landed property and manorial organization in northern Austrasia: some considerations and a case study’, in and (eds.), Images of the Past: Studies on Ancient Societies in Northwestern Europe, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
(1991), ‘Landed property and manorial organisation in northern Austrasia: some considerations and a case study’, in and (eds.), Images of the Past: Studies on Ancient Societies in Northwestern Europe, AmsterdamGoogle Scholar
(1974), Der historische Diskurs bei Gregor von Tours: Topoi; Wirklichkeit, Berne
(1989), A History of Archaeological Thought, Cambridge
(1997), Introduction aux sources de l’histoire médiévale, new edn, Turnhout
(1985), Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul, Berkeley, CA
(1993), Saints and Their Miracles in Late Antique Gaul, Princeton
(1997), ‘La part du Bas Empire dans la formation de l’habitat rural du VIe siècle’, in and (1997)
(1990), ‘On the growth of young medieval archaeology: a recollection’, in , and (eds.), Medieval Archaeology in the Netherlands, Assen and MaastrichtGoogle Scholar
(1992), English Heritage Book of Anglo-Saxon England, London
(1995), Refiguring the Post-Classical City: Dura Europos, Jerash, Jerusalem and Ravenna, Cambridge
(1988), The Emperor Maurice and His Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, Oxford
and (eds.) (2000), The Long Eighth Century: Production, Distribution and Demand, Leiden
(1997), ‘Ancient landscapes and the dead: the reuse of prehistoric and Roman monuments as early Anglo-Saxon burial sites’, Medieval Archaeology 41Google Scholar
(2002), ‘The individuality of Gregory of Tours’, in and (eds.), The World of Gregory of Tours, LeidenGoogle Scholar
(1989), ‘The Jutes of Hampshire and Wight and the origins of Wessex’, in (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, LondonGoogle Scholar
(1977), ‘Paganisme, christianisme et rites funéraires mérovingiens’, Archéologie Médiévale 7Google Scholar
(1997), ‘Pratiques funéraires et mentalités païennes’, in (1997)
- 7
- Cited by