AEA_34 Europe in the Early Middle Age

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2014
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Zdeněk Měřínský, CSc.
Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Jitka Šibíčková
Supplier department: Department of Archaeology and Museology – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
each even Tuesday 15:50–19:05 C42
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Course description: The lecture provides an overview of developments on the continent during the early Middle Ages, from the end of the 5th through the 12th centuries, of individual ethnic groups, their ethnogenesis and material culture, with special attention given to the ethnogenesis of Slavonic groups.
Syllabus
  • 1. Early medieval Europe – space and time – specification of the study of the Early Middle Ages archaeology. Historical processes at the period of destruction of old (Roman) structures and laying of the foundations for the new structures; the Migration and the period to follow (6th to early 9th cent.). The period of Early Middle Ages proper (9th -11th cent.; in the Czech speaking countries till the 1st half of the 13th cent.). 2. Europe; its political and ethnical picture towards the end of the Migration period. Western Roman Empire (+476) and its heritage; Eastern Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire in the 6th century. Eastern Germans (Visigoths, Ostrogoths); Western Germans (Suebi, Vandals, Langobards, Gepids); development in the Central European area and Western Europe (Burgunds, Alemani, Bavarians, Thuringii, Saxons, Franks, Jutes, Frisians); colonization of the British Isles (Jutes, Angles, Saxons, the genesis of Anglo-Saxons, the domestic Celtic inhabitants, the Irish). Non-Germanic ethnics (Alans, Slavs, Avars, Arabs). 3. Germanic Empires, 5th -7th cent.; the beginnings of the Frankish Realm (Merovingians); Alemani and Bavarians; Thuringii. Material culture; burial grounds; settlement structure; political organization. 4. Issues of Slavonic ethnogenesis. The genesis and original homeland of the Slavic peoples; the oldest written accounts; linguistics – the Proto-Slavic language and other Indo-European languages; the outcomes of archaeological research. The time of Slavic expansion. 5. Slavic expansion; Early Slavonic period; Prague-type pottery culture. Characteristic of the oldest Slavonic monuments, settlements, cremated burial grounds. 6. Avars, Slavs and the Byzantine Empire in 6th -7th cent. The progress of the Slavs to the Balkan Peninsula, ethnical situation and material culture. 7. Samo's tribal union and its issues. Written sources; Slavic-Avarian symbiosis; archaeological sources and the culture of the Avar Khaganate. The area and location of the Samo's realm; the issues of the Battle of Wogastisburg and its localization. 8. Avar Khaganate in the 7th - 8th cent. and the influences exerted by the Carpathian basin on our territory. Area of discovery of burial grounds with cast belt fittings and their material culture. Ethnical processes in the Carpathian basin in the 7th - 8th cent. The end of the Avar Khaganate and expansion of Charlemagne to the east. 9. Material culture of the Avars, its classification and chronology (pottery, cast belt fittings, personal ornament, militaria). Belief concepts, spiritual life and social differentiation. 10. Material culture of the Czech and Moravian Slavs in the 7th – 8th cent. Early fortified settlement and pre-Great Moravian horizon; classification and chronology of the finds; sites of discovery. Beginnings of fortified settlements and etatization process. Issues of tribal differentiation. 11. Slavic world, an overview. West, East and South Slavic peoples, their historical development and differentiation; material culture and its chronology. 12. The development of continental Western Europe in the 7th – 8th cent. South of Europe – Italy and Spain; Byzantine Empire; Normans, Arabs and Moors. 13. Anglo-Saxon England, Scotland and Ireland in the 7th – 8th cent. Local kingdoms in England in the 8th cent., Viking raids in the 9th cent. and colonization, William the Conqueror and the Battle of Hastings (1066). 14. North of Europe in the 9th -11th cent. - Vikings, material culture, means of transport, settlement development, strengthening of the centre, militarism, trade, coins, weights and measures. Spiritual culture, religion and cult, art and runic inscriptions. 15. Bulgarians. Historical development; Proto-Bulgarians, their advancing to Balkan and the etatization process. The first Bulgarian Empire and its material culture. 1. Carolingian Europe. Political and cultural development in the 8th and 9th cent.; expansion to the east and the emergence of border marches. Christianization and mission activity; Irish-Scottish and Anglo-Saxon missions and their coverage. 2. Material culture of the Carolingian period; settlements, fortified settlements, monasteries and necropoli. 3. Western Slavs, their division and material culture. Tribal period; emergence of feudal society and etatization processes; social development, economy and manufacturing centres; agricultural and craft production. 4. Settlement development, open habitats and hillforts of the Western Slavs; settlement buildings and arrangements of habitats. 5. Burial grounds, sacral buildings, their ground plan schemes and origin; paganism and Christianity. The process of Christianization. Spiritual culture and belief concepts. 6. Great Moravia, genesis of the first Western Slavic state; political development, territorial extent and issues of the Old Moravian ethnic. 7. Material culture of the Great Moravian Slavs; pottery, metal items and personal ornament, bone items and other industries – typology and chronology. 8. Elbe and Pomeranian Slavs; Vislans; political development; tribal differentiation and material culture, social developments and spiritual culture. 9. Alpine Slavs. Expansion of the Carolingians, Christianization process; material relics – Carantanian culture. 10. South Slavs and the development on the Balkan peninsula; Sklavini and Antes; Bulgarian Empire. Village settlement; fortifications and necropoli; trade and crafts. Cultural development and the heritage of Great Moravia. 11. East Slavs, division, historical development. Tribal areas, settlements, fortifications and necropoli. 12. East Slavs; material culture and its differentiation; issues of economic and trade relations within the Eurasian continent. 13. Kievan Rus; history, political, economic and social development; Christianization; culture, material relics. 14. Hungarians. Finno-Ugric tribes, the move from their original homeland to the Carpathian basin; the oldest historical accounts and the period of raids up to 955; etatization process by the beginning of the 11th cent.; Hungarian state in 11th -12th cent. Old Hungarian culture, Belobrdska culture, art and pre-Christian cults. Economy, seats and burial rite. 15. Development in the Eastern Bavarian March in the 9th to 12th cent. Emergence of the March, political development and territory after the establishment of the duchy in 1156; development of settlements; settlement centres, ethnic issues and material culture of the Bavarians, the Slavs and the Franks.
Literature
  • BERANOVÁ, Magdalena. Slované. 2. přeprac. vyd. Praha: Libri, 2000, 341 s. ISBN 8072770225. info
Teaching methods
lectures
Assessment methods
Completion Requirements for the examination: - Basic orientation within the branch - Knowledge of its structuring - Knowledge of the basic literature and periodicals based on the lectures and literature for study - Presentation of the set papers.
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
Information on completion of the course: Informace ke způsobu ukončení viz sylabus.
The course is taught once in two years.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2000, Autumn 2002, Autumn 2004, Autumn 2006, Autumn 2008, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2012, Spring 2017, Spring 2019, Spring 2025.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Autumn 2014, recent)
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