The Connected Communities project aims to re-evaluate the traditional image that, after the collapse of the Roman state in the West, a united and interconnected Europe disintegrated into a fragmented continent divided into a series of ethnic kingdoms. The image created by the writers of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages still determines much of what is thought about the post-Roman ‘migration period’. Yet these writers belonged to the political and intellectual elite of the population, writing with an agenda on their mind in the interests of this group. This project is vital because there is another early medieval Europe too: that of the major part of the population. It is present but undervalued, although clearly visible in the archaeological record. These early medieval Europeans are seen in their burials, of which huge numbers have been excavated across the continent. The staggering number of objects recovered from the graves as well as shared ways of caring for the dead shows a highly connected world. Ancient DNA research corroborates this at a fast pace now. This project will go 'beyond DNA and genetic relations by making visible how these connections were created and maintained, to present a new image of early medieval Europe. It analyses what was shared in early medieval Europe rather than what separated. We boldly suggest that these connections of the 'common people' were as crucial to the post-Roman development of Europe as the heroic deeds of kings, aristocrats, bishops and saints recounted in the written sources. We will analyse the connections by using specific material categories and their distribution over Europe, intensively using scientific analyses to establish their origins and modes of circulation. We will investigate how and why ideas, such as modes of care for the dead, came to be shared across Europe, and the ways that different kinds of ‘meeting places’ facilitated the negotiation and transfer of ideas, knowledge and artefacts.

Working Group:

• Caterina Giostra - UCSC Responsabile Scientifico

Partner:

• Universiteit Leiden 
• Masarykova Univerzita 
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven 
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
• Uppsala Universitet 
• Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg 
• Stichting Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden