Re: The Most Modern View on the Dark Ages :-)


"Renia" <renia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
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Uwe Müller wrote:

"Renia" <renia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
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Uwe Müller wrote:


"Renia" <renia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb im Newsbeitrag


snip >



Of course the Dark Ages is a misnomer, because so many non-historians
assume it was a dark and violent age, misunderstanding the reason for the
epithet, being the low number of sources and information available for
the period (in England). The fact of the matter is, that of course there
is Saxon archaeology in England, but precious little of it particularly
in comparison to the archaeology of other periods.


Seeing the history of villages, small towns or bigger population centres
as it is told by archaeology, I feel there is no need to quantify them as
'precious little'. I am not even sure if the sheer number of excavated
early medieval sites does not surpass the number of excavated Roman sites
in England by now.


I don't think that is the case at all. If you are sure that it is, then
what is your source for this?

I am not sure. And I would find it hard to substantiate that feeling from
here. But talking to English archaeologists led me to thinking, that
excavations inside villages, towns etc. were gaining fast, in numbers as
well as in importance, while Roman sites have seen little in the way of
excavations in recent years. But I may be wrong with that feeling.



The number of sources known, written in England, could be higher during
the early medieval than during the Roman occupation. Would that make the
Roman occupation a 'dark age'?

There was little known about the early medieval period in the late 19th
c., but this has changed a lot.

It has changed a bit, but not a lot. It may be different in continental
Europe, but England still knows comparatively very little about its Saxon
heritage.

AFAIR quite a number of early Saxon sites have been excavated, and for many
more a start of occupation in Saxon times has been shown to be highly
likely. And while roman coins dominated the small finds without context
statistics 50 years ago, as far as I have heard the medieval period has
surpassed roman finds.

Over here about 70% of the excavations conducted are on medieval sites,
because of town or village 'development'. Again it is not more than a
feeling, but I'd guess, a comparable ratio would be true for England as
well.

Archaeology has got a lot to do with politics and Zeitgeist, and while the
archaeology of an empire was very popular in victorian times, today economic
history, minorities, gender, and religion seem to attract more people.

have fun

Uwe Mueller


.

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