Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-255) and index

The empire in east and west / Evangelos Chrysos -- Otium et negotium : the great estates, 4th-7th century / Javier Arce -- The barbarian successor states / Walter Pohl -- Wealth and treasure in the west, 4th-7th century / Max Martin -- Routes of change : production and distribution in the west (5th-8th century) / Stéphane Lebecq -- Death and burial in Gaul and Germania, 4th-8th century / Alain Dierkens and Patrick Périn -- Cult and worship in east and west / Averil Cameron -- The transmission of ideas / Ian Wood -- From the Elysian Fields to the Christian paradise / Eutychia Kourkoutidou-Nicolaidou -- Death on the Rhine : changing burial customs in Cologne, 3rd-7th century / Friederike Naumann-Steckner -- Elite lifestyle and the transformation of the Roman world in Northern Gaul / Monica Alkemade -- Catalogue of the exhibition 'The lifestyle of the Elite' / Arie Peddemors and Arent Pol -- The Firebed of the Serpent : myth and relation in the Migration period mirrored through some golden objects / Bente Magnus -- Heirs of Rome : the shaping of Britain AD 400-900 / Marion Archibald, Michelle Brown, Leslie Webster

The fall of the Roman Empire and the beginning of what we call the Middle Ages was a period of tremendous change and upheaval in Europe and Byzantium. Focusing on these pivotal five centuries in European history, this wide-ranging study features essays by an international team of distinguished scholars. Their essays survey the most significant aspects of the transition from late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages: the later Roman empire, the barbarian successor states, estates and property, wealth and treasure, production and distribution, death and burial rites, cult and worship, and the transmission of ideas. The essays are accompanied by six shorter chapters based on related exhibitions in museums throughout Europe during 1997, with themes ranging from Roman villas to Scandinavian gold brooches, Byzantine burial practices to medieval Dutch hoards. Handsomely illustrated in both color and black and white, the book also contains a helpful glossary and gazetteer of principal place names

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews (1)