Investigating the Europe-wide connections of early medieval commoners with an ERC Synergy Grant
A large research group involving Leiden University as corresponding Host Institution has been awarded a major European grant, the ERC Synergy Grant. This for research on how Europe developed after the fall of the Roman Empire with special attention to the yet underexplored but undoubtedly important contribution by the mass of the ‘common people’.
COCO: connected communities in Early Medieval Europe
One simple question stirs the imagination of scholars since the seventeenth century: What happened to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire? ‘In the well-known discourse on this formative period of Europe (450-900) it is kings, aristocrats, and their ethnic tribes as well as bishops and saints who play a primordial role in a Europe that re-invented itself,’ Principal Investigator Frans Theuws notes. ‘But is that a correct image? What about the role of the mass of the population, were they passive participants lacking creativity to contribute to this re-invention? In the written texts it seems to be so, however the data collected by archaeologists from the thousands of cemeteries and settlements excavated across Europe show a different image.’
Pandora’s box
The archaeological record provides indications of well-connected communities, sharing material culture, ideas and burial rites. ‘This immense volume of data has been given insufficient recognition resulting to the opinion of the consortium to an undervaluation of the major contribution of the mass of the population to the development of Europe in the post-Roman period,’ Theuws adds. ‘We will unlock pandora’s box of available data in the service of re-assessing the role of the mass of the population using the latest scientific methods to analyse material culture and make use of a Europe-wide recording of data, unseen before.’
Beads and iron
In the course of the project, several material categories widely available to the mass of the population will be analysed such as beads and iron objects. ‘To analyse the exchange of ideas among the population the shared burial rituals across Europe are subject of in-depth analyses. The project will analyse the moment people met to share material culture and ideas at places with a complicated infrastructure as well as ephemeral ones such as meadows that remind of modern pop festivals.’
A Europe-wide consortium
The project is a collaboration of eminent scholars of the archaeology of the Early Middle Ages in various parts of Europe which guarantees a best possible coverage of Europe.
The partners are Leiden University (Netherlands: Prof. Frans Theuws cPI), KU Leuven (Belgium: Prof. Patrick Degryse PI), Masaryk University (Brno, Cech Republic: Prof. Jiri Machacek PI), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan, Italy: Prof. Caterina Giostra PI), Uppsala University (Sweden: Dr. Alison Klevnäs), Freiburg University (Germany: Dr. Susanne Brather-Walter), the Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris, France: Dr. Alexandre Disser) and the National Museum Of Antiquities (Leiden, Netherlands: Dr. Lucas Petit).
Pushing frontiers of knowledge
The ERC Synergy Grants enable groups of outstanding researchers within the EU to work together. The generous funding allows them to pool their skills, knowledge and resources to push the frontiers of our knowledge.