Early medieval Europe is often regarded as a time of cultural stagnation, often misnamed as the ‘Dark Ages’. However, analysis has revealed that new ideas can spread rapidly as communities become interconnected, creating a surprisingly united culture in Europe.
Dr Emma Brownlee, Department of Archeology, University of Cambridge, investigated how a major change in Western European burial practices spread faster than previously believed – between the 6th – 8th centuries AD and to bury people with region-specific tombs. favor of a more standardized, unfurnished funeral.
“Almost everyone from the eighth century onwards is very simply buried in an ordinary tomb without any associated objects, and this is a change that has been observed all over Western Europe,” Dr Brownlee said.
To investigate this change, Emma examined more than 33,000 graves from this period in one of the largest studies of its kind. Statistical analyzes were used to create a ‘heat map’ of the practice to examine how it changed in frequency over time.
The results of this analysis, published in the journal Antiquity, shows that changes in the serious use of the English, France, Germany and the Low Countries began to decline from the middle of the sixth century, and by the early eighth century it was completely abandoned.
“The most important finding is that the change from burial with burial to burial without it in Western Europe was contemporary,” Dr Brownlee said. “Although we knew before that it was a widespread change, no one before could show how the change has been aligned in areas that are geographically very far apart.”
It is important that this contemporary transition provides strong evidence that early medieval Europe was a well-connected place, with regular contact and exchange of ideas on vast areas.
Evidence of increasing long-distance trading is seen around this period, which is possibly the way these connections were facilitated. As the idea spread among communities, social pressure drove more people to adopt it. As more people have done this, this pressure has increased – this explains why the distribution of unfurnished funerals seems to be accelerating over time.
As people share more similarities, it has probably also strengthened the commitments.
“The change in funeral practice will further strengthen those commitments; ‘with everyone burying their dead in the same way, a medieval traveler could go anywhere in Europe and see practices they were familiar with,’ Dr Brownlee said.
An interconnected Europe with long-distance trade and travel that facilitates the dissemination of new ideas to create a shared culture may sound modern, but in reality, Europe has been ‘worldwide’ for more than a millennium.
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