Spanning the years 500 to 1000 A.D., this volume illustrates the conflict between brutality and civilization that seemed to characterize the period so often called—not improperly—the "Dark Ages." Islam and Byzantium, as much as Western Europe, figure in the twenty-two chapters of documents offered in this book, part of the ten-volume series, "Sources of Western Civilization."

Kings, aristocrats, peasants, and the Church are among the shared features of most early medieval societies. However, these also varied dramatically in time and space. Can petty regional kings, for instance, be compared to those in charge of a whole empire? Scale is a crucial factor in modelling, explaining, and conceptualizing the past. Furthermore, many issues that historians and archaeologists treat independently can be theorized together as processes of scale decrease or increase: the appearance of complex societies, the rise and collapse of empires, changing world-systems, and globalization. While a subject of much discussion in fields such as ecology, geography, and sociology, scale is rarely theorized by archaeologists and historians. This book highlights the potential of the concepts of scale and scale change for comparing and explaining medieval socio-spatial processes. It integrates regional and temporal variations in the fragmentation of the Roman world and the emergence of medieval polities, which are often handled separately by late antique and early medieval specialists. The result of a three-year research project, the nine case studies in this volume offer fresh insights into early medieval rural society while combining their individual subjects to generate a wider explanatory framework.

The 500 years following the collapse of the Roman Empire is still popularly perceived as Europe's 'Dark Ages', marked by barbarism and uniformity. Julia Smith's masterly book sweeps away this view, and instead illuminates a time of great vitality and cultural diversity. Through a combination of cultural history, regional studies, and gender history, she shows how men and women at all levels of society ordered their world, and she allows them to speak to the reader directly in their. own words. This is the first single-author study in over fifty years to offer an integrated appraisal of all asp.

The Early Middle Ages (400-1000) was one of the most dynamic and crucial periods in the formation of Europe. It covers the transition from the relatively diverse world of Roman Empire in late antiquity, to the disparate world of early medieval Europe, where local differences assumed fargreater significance, but where, nonetheless, the institution of Latin Christianity lent coherence to the successor states. In this book, McKitterick and five other leading historians have collaborated closely to produce a set of thematic interpretations covering politics, society, economy, culture,religion, and Europe and the wider world. Military matters and warfare are treated within these chapters, reflecting their entrenchment in social, economic, and political stuctures. The definition of 'Europe' is ambiguous in this period, but for the most part, 'Europe' coincides with theever-expanding horizons of Latin Christendom. However, this book also looks at crucial interactions with other areas, such as Scandinavia, eastern Europe, the Islamic Middle East and North Africa, and Byzantium. Providing a coherent view of the most important elements within the period, this bookgives a sense of the complexities and excitements of six hundred years of transition.

This illustrated book is a coherently conceived collection of interdisciplinary essays by distinguished authors on the city of Rome and its contacts with western Christendom in the early Middle Ages (c. 500-1000 AD). The first part integrates historical, archaeological, numismatic and art historical approaches to studying the transition of the city of Rome from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and offers groundbreaking new analyses of selected sites and problems. Attention is given to the economic, social, religious and cultural history of the city. In the second part of the volume historical, archaeological, liturgical and palaeographical approaches address Rome's contacts and influence in Latin Christendom in this period, with particular regard to Rome's place within Italian politics and its cultural influence in Carolingian Francia and Anglo-Saxon England.

Annotations in modern books are a phenomenon that often causes disapproval: we are not supposed to draw, doodle, underline, or highlight in our books. In many medieval manuscripts, however, the pages are filled with annotations around the text and in-between the lines. In some cases, a 'white space' around the text is even laid out to contain extra text, pricked and ruled for the purpose. Just as footnotes are an approved and standard part of the modern academic book, so the flyleaves, margins, and interlinear spaces of many medieval manuscripts are an invitation to add extra text. This volume focuses on annotation in the early medieval period. In treating manuscripts as mirrors of the medieval minds who created them - reflecting their interests, their choices, their practices - the essays explore a number of key topics. Are there certain genres in which the making of annotations seems to be more appropriate or common than in others? Are there genres in which annotating is 'not done'? Are there certain monastic centres in which annotating practices flourish, and from which they spread? The volume thus investigates whether early medieval annotators used specific techniques, perhaps identifiable with their scribal communities or schools. It explores what annotators actually sought to accomplish with their annotations, and how the techniques of annotating developed over time and per region.

The papers gathered in this volume were all given in 1999 - at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds and during a day conference held at York. They agree that looking at the wide range of narrative forms available provides new ways of viewing the Middle Ages.

"The Early Middle Ages" covers one of the darkest periods in European history—from the collapse of the Roman Empire through centuries of chaos, destruction, and barbarian rule. The Germanic Invasions, civilizing power of the church, the rise of feudalism, and life in a medieval castle are among the topics vividly documented in this richly illustrated text. Challenging map exercises and review questions encourage meaningful reflection and historical analysis. A unit test and answer key are included.

In Historical Theology for the Church, editors Jason Duesing and Nathan Finn bring together top contributors to survey key doctrinal developments in every era of church history. They not only trace the development of various doctrines within historical congregations; they also provide a resource for contemporary congregations. Steered by the conviction that historical theology serves the church both local and global, each chapter concludes with an application section that clarifies the connection between the historical doctrine being covered and the Christian church today.

This volume presents the first multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis to reconstruct life conditions in ancient Tuscany between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. This was done through the examination of stress markers, including adult stature, periosteal reaction, cranial porosities, linear enamel hypoplasia and paleodietary reconstruction.