Wednesday, 22 May 2013
Late registration
Our pre-registration page has closed. Fortunately, we still have a few spaces available. If you are interested in attending, please send an email to: edinburgh7th@gmail.com
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Only 24 hours left to register!
There are only twenty four hours left to register for the Seventh Century Colloquium!
We've had an incredible response; we only have space for 15 more people.
If you want to be one of them, register NOW!
http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=1059&deptid=69&catid=6
We've had an incredible response; we only have space for 15 more people.
If you want to be one of them, register NOW!
http://www.epay.ed.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=2&prodid=1059&deptid=69&catid=6
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Session 1 – Maintaining and changing identities
Session
1 – Maintaining and changing identities
Moderator:
Bethan Morris, University of Edinburgh
A:
Richard Broome
Approaches to the Frankish Community in the Chronicle
of Fredegar and Liber Historiae Francorum
This
paper will attempt to assess attitudes towards and understanding of the
early-medieval Frankish community during the seventh century by providing a
direct comparison between two important but often under-appreciated historical
texts; the so-called ‘Chronicle of Fredegar’ (c.660) and the anonymous Liber
Historiae Francorum (727). Building on the work of scholars such as Paul
Fouracre, Richard Gerberding and Ian Wood, the present paper will examine
several key aspects of how the two authors portrayed the community of which they
thought themselves a part. Who or what did they understand by the term
‘Franks’? For the author of LHF, this seems to have referred specifically the
Neustrians, whereas Fredegar presents a more ‘pan-Frankish’ history. What were
the origins of the community and its rulers? Both traced these origins back to
the Trojan War – unlike their historian-predecessor Gregory of Tours – but each
told a slightly different version of the story, while Fredegar also narrated
the mysterious story about Merovech’s alleged descent from the monstrous
Quinotaur. How important were kings to their respective visions of community,
and what role did they have? Both saw kings as central, but the author of LHF
portrayed a world where consensus depended on dynastic stability, while
Fredegar explored the idea of Merovingian decline and fallibility more
explicitly despite having written earlier. In order to properly contextualise
these comparisons and understand their significance it
will also be necessary to refer to the authors’ contemporary texts,
particularly seventh-century works of hagiography, but also to earlier and
later authors – Gregory of Tours in the former case, and, for example, the
early Carolingian annalists in the latter. By doing this we will be able to
provide a greater understanding of how seventh-century visions of community
compared to earlier and later visions, and whether we can talk about a ‘long
eighth century’ when examining this issue.
Response:
Roger Collins
B:
Soléna Cheny
The question of the seventh century is really relevant
for the Maghreb. In Europe, the Barbarian invasions opened a new era while
North of Africa was in a transition period. The Berber world had experienced
the appetite of the powers of the Mediterranean, from the Phoenicians to the
Byzantines. Cultures, languages, political tutelage shaped the land and its
people. The Vandal invasion, although very short (430 to 533) allowed the
Berber tribes to take control of the territory of the provinces and build
autonomous political entities comprising tribal, Romanized and Christianized
Africans and descendants of Roman colonists. The Byzantine reconquest found it
difficult to establish the mythologized Roman model when Muslim troops entered
from the east, destroying the structures in place before moving quickly to
cross the Strait of Gibraltar and enter the Iberian Peninsula. A new tutelage
was then installed with its codes, its laws and its civilization. Thereafter,
African identity would never be the same, Islam leaving a profound mark. This
long seventh century, which could stretch from 533 (the Byzantine invasion) to
711 (when the Muslims invaded Spain), more than tipping in the medieval era, is
for the Maghreb, the basis of its current identity.
See the full schedule for more!
Session 2 – Landscapes and settlements in transition
Session
2 – Landscapes and settlements in transition
Moderator:
Alessandro Gnasso, University of Edinburgh
Irrigation
in Khuzistan after the Sasanians: Continuity, Decline, or Transformation?
Historians
and archaeologists have long sought to understand how the Muslim Conquest over
the territories ruled by the Sasanian Empire affected the socio-economic
foundations of these regions. Several scholars, building upon various sources
and proxies, have argued for decline in the agricultural heartlands of the
Sasanian Empire, including the region of Shushtar, known for its extensive
system of canals in the Sasanian period. Yet, Islamic sources inform us that
the hinterland of Shushtar was the major centre for sugar production during the
9th and 10th centuries. Since cultivation and production of sugar is highly
water demanding, it is unclear what kind of irrigation system sustained the mass
production of sugar and how such a system related to the Sasanian system of
canals and hydraulic structures. Did a new irrigation system replace the
collapsed Sasanian system or did the Sasanian system sustain and evolve,
despite the post-Sasanian political developments? This question opens a new
window into the socio-political dynamics of Khuzistan in the 7th century. This
research aims to map the relict irrigation system of Shushtar by utilizing
satellite imagery to understand the hydraulic function and dynamics of the
system through time. The paper is a report on the current work in progress that
analyses the potentials and constraints of relying on the hydraulic analysis of
archaeological remains of canals as a proxy to understand the developments of the
agricultural economy of Khuzistan in the wake of socio-political dynamics of
7th century.
Respondent:
Eberhard Sauer, University of Edinburgh
B:
Paolo Forlin
The
periphery during the seventh century: the rise of a new landscape within the
core of the Alps (Valsugana, Trentino, Italy).
The
Valsugana valley lies in the eastern part of Trentino region, within the core
of the Italian Alps, close to the Roman municipium of Tridentum (Trento).
Characterised by a significant number of settlements during the Roman period
and crossed by the imperial road Via Claudia Augusta, this area seems to be
involved in a radical reshaping of the cultural and natural landscape from the
end of the Late Antiquity onward.
Despite
a lack of the archaeological excavations, an approach based on the integrated
study of remote sensing data, palaeoenvironmental evidence, old archaeological
datasets and patterns of field systems, has shown how the 7th century
represented a turning point with the breakdown of the old landscape and the
beginning of a new cultural landscape. This new landscape resulted in the
abandonment of the Roman territorial organisation and a shift of the new
settlements from the valley bottom towards the uplands. This study has analysed
the relationship between climate and environmental change, the abandonment of
the ancient landscape and the appearance of a new pattern of land use, widely
focused on the integration of agriculture, pasture and woodland exploitation.
Available radiometric dating evidences indicate the 7th century as the period
during which these transformations became evident, and lead to the question as
to whether this process could be connected with the settlement of the Longobard
Groups within the valley, documented by three significant cemeteries that date
back to the beginning of the same century.
The
methodological approach presented in this paper could provide an innovative way
to undertake analysis of peripheral areas, where in contrast to other Italian
regions (such as the Po valley, Tuscany, Lazio, Emilia, Apulia) open area
excavations and extensive surveys are absent.
Respondent:
Helena Carr
C:
Giuseppe Cacciaguerra, Antonino Facella, Luca Zambito
Aspects
of Settlement in Seventh Century Sicily
Despite
the serious gaps and lags in archaeological research and the difficulties long
experienced by archaeologists in finding reliable chronological markers for
Sicilian Early Middle Ages (especially 8th-9th century), it now appears
possible that a first attempt can be made at outlining some aspects of settlement
dynamics in seventh century Sicily, thanks predominantly to the results of
field work (both excavations and surveys) in the last decade.
The
present paper is mainly based on the analysis of some archaeological contexts
in eastern, central-southern and western Sicily, which the authors have been
investigating in recent years. Significant aspects of settlement systems,
primarily the rural settlement patterns (which can be essential also for a
better understanding of the relationships between city and country), will be
highlighted. Part of the study will be devoted to the examination of some
features of material culture, like building types and artefacts, principally
ceramics. Archaeological markers of Sicilian seventh century will be
identified, as well as pottery classes which might be useful as ‘index fossil’
to mark the passage form Byzantine to Islamic age. Furthermore, we intend to
discuss the contribution of ceramic finds to the definition of trade
relationships between Sicily and other Mediterranean regions (Italy, Africa,
Eastern Mediterranean), before the eight century fall-off in the volume of
exchanges.
For
each discussed topic we will try to outline aspects of continuity or
discontinuity with the situation in both previous and following centuries.
Furthermore, a distinction between phenomena that seem to occur across the
whole of Sicily and those that can reveal sub-regional differences will be
attempted. Finally we will consider the possible significance, in historical
terms, of the detected trends.
Respondent:
Denis Sami
See the full schedule for more!
Session 3 – Conceptualizing rulers, real and imagined
Session
3 – Conceptualizing rulers, real and imagined
Moderator:
Thomas J. MacMaster
A:
Heidi Stoner
Kings
Without Faces: an examination of the visual evidence for kingship in the
seventh century.
The
long seventh century is a period that cannot be discussed without the
discussion of kingship. The period is often characterized by the formation of
kingdoms and the transformation of the insular world from that of a ‘pagan’ or
‘tribal’ society into medieval Christian kingdoms. This paper will address what
kingship looked like and how the visual evidence of kings can be studied
alongside the textual evidence creating a visual culture of kingship prior to
the depiction of kings. While no portrait of a king exist from this time the
material record is rich in objects that directly relate to kingship such as
royal or princely burials, coins, and other extent archeologically finds. These
objects have the potential to be examined alongside historic documents, such as
Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, in order to stitch together a more
subtle picture of what kingship might hove looked like in this period of
change, and it is perhaps in this we might find that amidst the discontinuity
of political structures and religious lives that there is a continuous visual
record. The images and visual language of this period has long been acknowledge
to borrow from the iconographies of the late antique and Roman world in order
to shift how the new leaders are signified, but it is possible that by
maintaining visual indicators of power that the visual impact of a king would
not have been so discontinuous.
Response:
Bethan Morris
Sons
of the Muhājirūn: Some comments on ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Zubayr and Legitimizing Power
in the Second Fitna
The
second Islamic civil war, or fitna, divided the early Islamic community from
the years 680-692CE/60-73AH and had as one of its central figures the character
of ‘Abd Allāh b. al-Zubayr. He has long been treated in western scholarship
as a usurper or “counter-Caliph” to the rightful leadership of the Umayyad
Caliph ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwān. The extant Islamic sources, however, are
divided in their depiction of him: some treat him as a pious and saintly
combatant against Umayyad depravity, while others characterize him as
self-indulgent, ruthless, and a pretender to the lineage of the Prophet
Muḥammad.
Ibn
al-Zubayr was the son of an established Companion of the Prophet, and had
himself borne witness to the Prophet Muḥammad and his revelation as a young
member of the new Islamic community. More importantly, he came from a family
line that included not only other prestigious early Caliphs and converts, but
also the wives of Muḥammad, Khadīja and
‘Ā’isha,
and the grandfather of Muḥammad,
‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib.
Scholarship
has largely ignored the questions surrounding his connection with the Prophet
as well as this status as a legitimizing force in his establishment of power
during the fitna, choosing often to focus on issues of geography instead. This
paper will concern itself with the rise to power of Ibn al-Zubayr and his
Caliphate, and how he may have legitimized his right to rule over other rivals
through his connection to Muḥammad.
Response:
Nicola Clarke
See the full schedule for more!
Session 4 – Remembering the past in a time of transformation
Session
4 – Remembering the past in a time of transformation
Moderator:
Emanuele Intagliata
A: N.
Kıvılcım Yavuz
‘Before
and After the Chronicle of Fredegar: The Trojan Narrative and the Franks’
For
three millennia the fall of Troy has been a popular topic in European culture.
Besides several historical accounts of the Trojan War and literary works that
include characters from Troy, there is a long tradition of European peoples and
dynasties claiming Trojan ancestry. Whether through chronicles, genealogies,
annals, or universal histories, medieval legends of Trojan origins connect most
of the European peoples to Troy. The first surviving written claim of the
medieval legend of Trojan origins comes from the seventh-century Chronicle
of Fredegar that provides an account of peoples who are descended from
the Trojan stock: the Franks, the Macedonians and the Turks. By the ninth
century the British and, early in the eleventh century, the Normans were also
traced back to the band of Trojans. From the twelfth century onwards legends of
Trojan origin multiply even faster; they are not only found in historical
accounts but also in vernacular poems and romances.
Among
the peoples who claim descent from Troy, the case of Franks is especially
significant due to the fact that the legend was appropriated and tailored to
their needs in such a manner that it continued to find passionate advocates
well into the eighteenth-century France. Discussing how and why the story of
Troy was adapted to provide genealogical origins for peoples, the paper will
focus on the claim of the Trojan origins of the Franks in the Chronicle
of Fredegar. It will first investigate the relationship of the Chronicle
of Fredegar with the narratives on the Trojan War that were in
circulation at the time such as the De excidio Troiae historia attributed
to Dares of Phrygia, the Ephemeridos Belli Troiani attributed
to Dictys of Crete and the Ilias Latina. Based on both textual and
manuscript evidence, it will further look at the impact of the Chronicle
of Fredegar on the later early medieval historiographical sources that
contain the origin legend of the Franks including the anonymous Liber
historiae Francorum. The paper will be concerned with such questions like What
prompted the account of Trojan ancestry to be written down in the seventh
century? Could the Trojan legend of the Franks be just one person’s imagination
and invention? If it indeed was one person’s creation, how should we interpret
its existence in various accounts for over a millennium? Can we easily dismiss
the Trojan ancestry of the Franks as being ‘fiction’ and thus treat it
differently than the other accounts that are told in the Chronicle?
How much of historical writing is shaped by narrative conventions? Can the
historian construct an imagined past and call it history? and finally, What is
the significance of the seventh century, and therefore the Chronicle of
Fredegar, in terms of the development of the Trojan narrative?
Response:
Alessandro Gnasso
B: Jane
Freeborn
Power,
Pride and the Environment in Later Merovingian Gaul
The
topic of my paper concerns the perceptions and usages of the natural world by
the later Merovingian dynasty. It considers whether the royal family was forced
from urban centres as they ceded control of the kingdom to the franci
aristocracy and Pippinid mayors, or if their relocation to rural
Roman villae was a display of cultural pride and power, akin
to the symbolic retention of their long hair and ox-carts. Nicholas Howe's
concept of the “landscape as nationalism” provides the main ideological tenant
of the paper, and a survey of contemporary Gallic Christians and Celtic
concepts of the environment, as well as those of the proceeding Romans and the
Carolingian legacy are used to examine the Merovingian movement and private
occupation around the key royal seat of Soissons from the mid seventh century
to the end of the dynasty. Because the countryside in Merovingian Gaul was
synonymous with danger, paganism, barbarism and uncertainty, those who
controlled it had not only great physical but spiritual power. The late
Merovingians capitalized on the mythos and tradition that had grown up around
rural Roman structures, as well as the association between their fearful pagan
heritage and the Christian wariness towards the untamable power of nature, and
purposefully left urban centres as a final (ultimately unsuccessful) display of
dynastic strength. The paper's conclusion agrees with recent scholars such as
Ian Wood who argue that the later kings exerted more control and were far more
involved in court politics than previously posited, and sees logical continuity
from the Classical period to the end of Late Antiquity in concepts of the
environment.
Respondent:
Yaniv Fox
C:
Majied Robinson
Quantitative
approaches to the rise of Islam
The
rise of Islam took place in what is historiographically a ‘dark’ century of
Near Eastern history; most of what are purported to be direct accounts were
actually written 200 years after the events they describe. But some of these
late sources seem to be much more reliable than others. It has frequently been
held that one category of sources that should be considered as more trustworthy
than others is the Arab genealogical genre of the early 9th century. Despite
this recognition, the volume and structure of the information preserved in
these sources is such that they have not been given the attention they deserve.
This
paper will demonstrate a novel means of tackling the problems associated with
the genealogical sources. After encoding the marital behaviour they record in a
database and structuring the information generationally, statistical analysis
will be used to illustrate trends in social behaviour from the time of
Muhammad’s birth to the fall of the Umayyad caliphate. Quantitative approaches
will also be used to compare changes of behaviour in tribal and generational
terms. These findings can then be correlated with events and circumstances as
described in the traditional historical record in order to help us better
understand the how conversion and conquest affected a person’s choice of
spouse.
The
results will be of interest to all those concerned with early Islamic history
as well as social historians of the pre-modern period. These findings and
methodologies will also be relevant to historians interested in using modern
tools to handle old sources.
Respondent:
Sarah Bowen Savant
See the full schedule for more!
Session 5 – Urban settlement in an age of change
Session
5 – Urban settlement in an age of change
Moderator:
Emanuele Intagliata
A: Eisa
Esfanjary
Geomorphology
of Persian Cities in the early Islamic period
Persian
cities are the palimpsest of urban history. From generation to generation the
process of civilisation has been archived in the urban landscape. This paper
engages with the most enduring feature of the urban tissue, the town plan,
through reading an on-going process of morphological development of ancient Persian
urbanisation.
An
analysis of the town plan of the historic city of Meybod reveals different
morphological patterns: the twisting alleys, the orthogonal and the geometric
systems, as well as modern streets. Each is linked to a period of history. The oldest
pattern (pre-Islamic) was based on a particular topography with no surfaced
qanat but only to an underground source. It is characterised by a superimposing
layers of buildings with a twisting and organic street network.
The
second pattern, however, an orthogonal network with a more linear street
system. It can be seen on gentler slopes with surfaced qanat, comprising a
lower density and greener landscape. Qanat system, agricultural practice and
easy gradients were the underlying factors for such orthogonal pattern.
It is
suggested that the overlapping zone of these two different morphological
patterns representative of the two important periods of growth of the
city. This is where the Friday Mosque and early Islamic hub were
erected and itself suggests a zone of transition between the pre-Islamic and
Islamic period. The placement of the first Friday Mosque at the fringe of the
ancient core is hypothesized and supported as a feature of the early Islamic
development of the region.
The
third pattern, a pre-planned geometric system, was developed on the 19th
century plain periphery of Meybod. Wide streets with stream and trees at the
middle were a new and impressive setting in urban landscape.
Combining
Meybod with other examples, these geomorphological patterns and the issue of
early Islamic transition zone are identified and believed to be an extended and
dynamic character of Persian urbanisation.
Response:
Hugh Kennedy
B: Ine
Jacobs
From
Early Byzantium to the Dark Ages at Sagalassos
The recent
excavations at Sagalassos, a medium-sized town in the south-west of Turkey,
have uncovered a considerable amount of evidence related to the time span
between 525/550 and 650. The drastic changes occurring during this period left
permanent imprints in the archaeological record, providing us today with a
privileged detailed insight into this last century of large-scale occupation.
This paper intends to discuss the fast changing priorities of this fairly
standard inland town of Asia Minor.
At the
beginning of the period under review, the city first lived its final heyday; up
until the third quarter of the sixth century, major interventions to the civic
landscape indicate that the local community was both wealthy and energetic. The
town at that time was also still strongly indebted to its Roman past. This
phase is, however, followed by a rapid decline, during which primary needs
suppressed all others and all recorded actions were purely pragmatic in nature.
By the late sixth century, the Roman town had been reduced to a ruralized
settlement with a habitation dispersed amidst the ruins of the past. Then,
probably slightly after the year 610, the site was hit by a major earthquake.
Although the ensuing 7th-century occupation phase was completely different in character
from all previous–a renewed tendency towards nucleation led the occupants of
the area to construct a fortified refuge on a previously undefended promontory
outside the old town centre, thereby completely blocking the old main street–,
the quality of the construction work indicates that also this medieval
community was well organized.
Respondent:
James Crow
See the full schedule for more!
Session 6 – Crossing boundaries, bridging cultures
Session
6 – Crossing boundaries, bridging cultures
Moderator:
Bethan Morris
A: Alex
Woolf
Sutton
Hoo and Sweden
In this
paper I shall endeavour to revisit the relationships between the boat burial in
mound one and Sutton Hoo and the analogues high status burials of Vendel period
Sweden. The analysis will focus on the social context of deposition rather than
on the direct relationship of the material culture deposited. It will be argued
that both East Anglia and northern Uppland were frontier territories of
Germanic-speaking Europe where new social hierarchies were struggling to
establish themselves in the decades around 600.
Response:
Brian Wallace
B: Jörg
Drauschke
The
development of contacts and trade between the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish
Kingdom until the early 8th century
The
paper focuses the question, how contacts and exchange between the eastern Mediterranean
and northwest continental Europe developed during the 7th century AD. The
research is based on the archaeological sources from the Frankish Kingdom but
takes also into account important written source material. Following the
traditional view, international trade and transport in the Mediterranean
reached its bottom from the middle of the 7th century onwards, mainly
influenced by the research of Henri Pirenne, but after his famous study this
subject was discussed even more intensely until today with different opinions
about the date concerning the closing of the Mediterranean Sea.
At
first sight archaeological material from the Frankish Kingdom does not seem to
can add a significant contribution to this problem. But with the help of a
careful analysis of the inventories of Merovingian row graves a large group of
objects could be identified that due to their provenance must have been
transported from the eastern Mediterranean resp. the Byzantine Empire and even
from regions far more east over the Mediterranean and Italy and southern France
to the regions in northern Gaul and north of the Alps. Among these finds are
precious stones from India/Sri Lanka (red garnet, amethyst), cowrie shells from
the Red Sea, elephant ivory from northeast Africa, jewellery, bronze vessels,
and buckles from the Byzantine Empire. Not only the quantity of these objects
is surprising that reaches its height at the end of the 6th and the beginning
of the 7th century, but also the fact that – in spite of a constant decrease of
their total number during the 7th century – they still appear in the graves at
the time around 700 AD. This is explained as an indication of a continuity of
exchange between the regions in question, but with clear signs of decline and
change of general circumstances.
Response:
Tom Brown
When
the East came to the West: the seventh century in south-east Spain: living amongst Visigoths, Byzantines and Muslims
The
seventh century in Iberia brought about a number of transformations in a
society that had kept a remarkable continuity of the cultural and political
structure of Rome during the “long sixth century”. In this century, the
Visigoths achieved the unification of their society under the Catholic creed
and consolidated their dominion of Iberia by expelling the Byzantines from
their last peninsular strongholds. And yet the classical tradition was visible
in many aspects of this society until the Islamic invasion of the eighth
century, which meant the downfall of the Visigothic Kingdom and a fast
Islamicisation of the Peninsula. This event produced a very different sort of
“long eighth century” in Iberia as compared to the rest of Europe and is marked
by deep changes at all levels. It meant a much more evident break with the
Roman past.
The
phenomena described in the paragraph above can be clearly identified in a space
the was a border area between the Visigothic kingdom and the Byzantine
occupation in Iberia: the Vega of Granada. After an early occupation by the
Muslim invaders, this was also the space in which Islam lasted longer in the
peninsula, until the conquest of Granada in the fifteenth century. Therefore,
it is a space of special interest for the identification of the patterns of
continuity and break that took place in the seventh and eighth centuries. In
this paper we will offer information about settlement patterns, cemeteries and
ceramic production of these two centuries. The combined analysis of these
archaeological features will allow to venture the meaning of the
transformations of the end of the Roman world in an essentially rural area
placed in a very strategic location.
Respondent:
Javier Martinez
See the full schedule for more details!
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