16 Comments

Thank you - that is fascinating, especially the conclusions, opening questions regarding academe's attitudes!

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One of your best pieces about a very interesting paper. Thank you.

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A very interesting read.

Cheers !

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Phenomenal

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Beowulf in Byzantium: outstanding! I can still recall the BBC coverage of Sutton Hoo going back to 'The Million Pound Grave' in 1965. Silly title but wonderful content. This eastern artefacts were always a puzzle to me and I never found the standard explanations particularly convincing. Due caution is always necessary, of course, but this explanation actually makes sense.

It is also gratifying to know that Oxford has not yet been entirely subsumed by neo-Marxist political knotweed.

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It does feel like everything has been captured, but there are a lot of scholars who just want to get on with their work and quietly publish all sorts of interesting stuff, do not despair!

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Indeed. And the counter currents from across the pond may even have some effect here.

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I've been listening to the audiobook of The Dark Ages by Charles oman as of late,

One of the most interesting things I've learnt while listening is how interconnected the early medieval period was. I always got this impression that it was a barbaric and dark place or any form of civilization or interconnection between countries broke down this could be farther from the case

Gothic Princess whose father rebelled against their grandfather and lost, and the Princess and other members of that branched royal family found their way to Byzantium, where they would stay in the court of the Emperor Maurice. Later in the 7th century, there was this Lombard king who was expelled from his nation and would travel around various places in Europe, including the Pannonian Basin inhabited by the Avars and eventually he'd find himself to Britain where he was when the usurper was overthrown, and his people asked him to return.

There was also regular contact between the merovingian franks and the byzantine empire.

And it wasn't just Europeans who stayed in contact. the Ostrogoths sought an alliance with the Sasanian Persians.

I think the reason this time period is depicted so poorly in pop culture as well as in most academic papers these days Is due to that old solzhenitsyn Quote “To destroy people, you must first sever their roots.”

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I couldn't agree more. It has been poorly served by every religious, political and academic revision of European history, and deserves a complete overhaul through a more cosmopolitan lens.

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Great read. A thought-provoking idea, with multiple indications. But unless further evidence is found, would it not be more reasonable to assume these objects arrived through trade? Makes me think about the solidi found in Scandinavia, probably through mercenary service.

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Quite interesting! I enjoy all such illuminations of the “dark” ages. Thank you!

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"Many believe that these aristocratic or royal tombs reflect local English or Anglo-Saxon concerns, whilst also keeping an eye on continental, Roman and Merovingian fashions and tastes. In a word - more provincial than other dynasties in Europe."

The thing I find interesting about this quote is how, from what I understand, there was a large degree of trade in the North Sea region around this time, with a gold bullion based economy (from what I remember, hack gold found in the North Sea area largely is found in association with 6th/7th century coins and in areas not associated with later Viking activity - see Nicolay, J., 2014. The Splendour of Power: Early Medieval Kingship and the use of Gold and Silver in the Southern North Sea Area (5th to 7th Century AD). Groningen: Barkhuis and University of Groningen. Given that the Norse in the 8th/9th centuries largely operated a trading network based upon silver bullion that stretched from Ireland in the west to Russia and Byzantium in the east, it seems odd to try and make out that the English were going to be much more provincial than their Nordic cousins. Now, I am not particularly well-read in Early Medieval archaeology, so I was hoping you could provide some links to some of the sources that have made these claims? It would be interesting to read more about the topic.

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Fascinating theory.

Although I wonder if this might more properly fit the period when Britain was in direct contact with the Empire: 475-535? Justinian certainly also needed troops to invade Italy and N. Africa.

The dynasty in East Anglia was ALSO relatively new, and ship burial was not a custom in most other areas of Britain. The alternative is that these objects may have been in Britain for some time, and only then used for the benefit of a new dynasty, haling from the Baltic.

So, are there any artifacts certainly later than 535 to put my quibble to rest?

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Could you give some context/references regarding Britain being “in direct contact with the Empire” from 475-535?

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That's the time we find east Med pottery in places like Tintagel. The "solar dimming event" of 535-7 appears to have halted contacts with Byzantium after that.

Justinian's Plague also seems to have had the same effect...

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Are there any written sources on this that you know of? Or is it solely archaeological?

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