EUROPE IN TRANSITION: MAPPING CHANGING FUNERARY RITES IN THE SIXTH EIGHTH CENTURIES
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 10/10/2020

The abandonment of furnished burial practices in the late seventh and early eighth centuries AD is something which has been the subject of much past research. However, this research tends to be constrained by modern national boundaries; this ignores one of the most interesting aspects of the change, that it spreads over much of western Europe in a very short space of time. In addition, study of the transition is made more difficult by the differing nature of evidence on either side; furnished burial has traditionally been the study of much more research than unfurnished burial, and so there is much more data available for pre-eighth century burials. This paper will examine the transition in burial practices at a continent-wide level, focusing specifically on burial practices in Anglo-Saxon England, Merovingian Gaul, and Alamannian and Bavarian regions. While it is impossible to completely eliminate regional and chronological biases in excavation and study, this paper will attempt to minimise their impact using GIS and statistical analysis. This will allow us to investigate how the concept of unfurnished burial spread over such a large geographical area, and how its adoption was influenced by local traditions. From there, this paper will then examine what this transition in practices can tell us about ‘European’ culture more broadly.


Author(s): Brownlee, Emma (University of Cambridge)