page_title: Reihengräber culture
section_title: Property rights
hierarchical_section_title: Reihengräber culture / Interpretation / Property rights
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Clovis baptisé par saint Rémi - Sculpture d'Etienne-Hippolyte Maindron de 1865, dans l'église Notre-Dame de Cholet. English: Clovis baptised by Saint Remi - Scuplture by Etienne-Hippolyte Maindron (1865), exhibited in Notre-Dame church, Cholet, France
context_page_description: The Reihengräber culture is an archaeological culture that refers to the burial practice of regularly arranged, identically orientated inhumation graves between the mid-fifth and early-eight century in central and western Europe. Existing within the Merovingian sphere of influence, the Reihengräber culture was dominant in modern Belgium, northern France and the Rhineland, and developed from a blending of Gallic and Scandinavian cultures in the late-Roman to early-medieval period. Though the relevance of the Reihengräber culture in outlining the complex ethnic, political and cultural context of 5ᵗʰ-7ᵗʰ century Europe has been questioned, similarities in material culture development within the Reihengräber region outline the existence of Kerngebiet, or core areas of cultural unity and development, within Germanic territories during Merovingian rule.
context_section_description: During the 1920s, archaeological investigation of the Reihengräber culture led to the understanding the deposited funerary objects were seen as distinctly inalienable property that could not be inherited of sold. The Reihengräber culture identified inalienable property as artefacts that could not be sold or exchanged due to their symbolic role as 'companion' objects to their original creators. These concepts are integral to the Reihengräber culture’s unique burial customs, and were instrumental in establishing the Merovingian concept of male property rights  over weaponry in a custom known as hergewaete. Female property rights over household and jewellery, known as gerade, have also been identified. Many of these inalienable property objects were found to have been removed from the graves as matching the Reihengräber style. These concepts of inalienable property rights developed in the Reihengräber region, contains similarities with the tenth century Germanic legal code of Sachsenspiegel, and influenced its creation.
  Following the Christianisation of Merovingian Gaul, and hence the Reihengräber region, in the early 6ᵗʰ century, these property rights were transferred as Church property upon the owner’s death. Gold foil crosses also begin to appear in the archaeological record of the Reihengräber culture from the late sixth to seventh century, appearing mostly around the French Alps and providing evidence for the Christianisation of the Reihengräber region during this period.
caption: Baptism of Clovis I. Clovis unified and Christianized the Reihengräber culture
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