Nimes | The Eighth Century and All That

Muslim funerals – in France

March 14, 2016March 6, 2016 by bentonian

We have spent some time looking at the Muslim presence in western Europe during the early medieval era, including a survey of the age, a review of Martel’s campaign in 727, as well as the ever-popular Battle of Poitiers. There are plenty of primary and secondary sources available for anyone who wants to know more. One point worth noting is that our information is almost exclusively textual, as the archaeological evidence is practically non-existent. Until now.

Excavations carried out in 2006 by the French rescue archaeology company INRAP^1.Last seen excavating a well packed with bodies. in the city of Nimes revealed three Muslim burials. Recently eight of the investigators released a multi-disciplinary study in the journal PlosOne that opens a fresh chapter on the study of eighth century Muslims in France.

Footnotes[+]

Footnotes
↑1	Last seen excavating a well packed with bodies.

Archaeology in Europe Regularly updated. Some early medieval stuff.
Carolingian Canon Law I'm not quite sure how useful this site is, as almost everything in it is in Latin, but I don't want to lose sight of it. The site "is a searchable, electronic rendition of works of canon law used by Carolingian readers." Sounds good to me.
Early Medieval Europe Subscription only scholarly journal, for good or ill. Occasionally they will have some free articles, and you can review the abstracts.
Early Medieval Inscriptions If you're into medieval inscriptions (epigraphy, as opposed to paleography, the study of handwriting), this is your place.
Europeana Searchable portal to the collections of many museums and repositories in Europe.
Medieval History Geek "An amateur's blog about medieval history, books, etc." An amateur, writing about history??? This guy does it, with good humor and a lot of reading. His focus is the early medieval era, and he has many thoughtful posts on various aspects of history and historiography.
Medieval Wall Medieval blog site that hasn't been active since late 2013, but there are some good entries.
Medievalists An excellent site with entries that cover a wide variety of topics. Some 550 citations using the keyword "carolingian."
Networks and Neighbors Open source scholarly journal, "[T]o advance early medieval scholarship in radical directions and towards truly alternative ways of thinking and emerging the early medieval past." For anyone who likes using "emerging" as a verb. Published twice a year, although the home page hasn't been updated since late 2016.
OmnesViae An overlay of Roman and medieval roads on a Google map. Includes a route-finder functionality.
ORBIS Fascinating site that allows you to recreate journeys across the Roman transportation network. Of use for us since early medieval transport was primarily over Roman roads.
Past Horizons This site used to have some archaeological articles, but now they function exclusively as a clearinghouse for fieldwork that are available for public participation. I like that sort of thing, so I'm keeping the link up.
The Appendix "A reader-supported quarterly journal of experimental and narrative history." They stopped publishing in 2015, but the site offers a complete archive. Look for the Index link at the bottom of the home page.
The Heroic Age Semi-scholarly journal about our time period. They have had problems getting issues out, but there is a 2018 issue available. There is a translation of Alcuin's Virtues and Vices in the 2015 issue.
The History Blog A new well-written entry EVERY DAY, covering a wide variety of topics. My go-to site.
The Making of Charlemagne's Europe This site brings together hundreds of charters from the 8th and 9th centuries, in a completely searchable and cross-referenced database. This is a huge resource, both because there are hardly any translated charters, and because the database allows for real research.