The archaeology of the period A.D. 500-1000 has taken off in the
Mediterranean (where prehistoric and classical studies formerly
enjoyed a virtual monopoly in most areas) and in the Islamic world.
Here, as in northern Europe, field survey, careful excavation and
improved methods of dating are beginning to supply information
which now is not only more abundant but also of much higher quality
than ever before. The 'New Archaeology', pioneered in the United
States in the 1960s, has taught the archaeologist the value of
anthropological models in the study of the past. The new data and
models positively compel us to take a new look at the written
sources and reconsider the 'making of the Middle Ages'.
Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe attempts to
prove the point. Henri Pirenne's classic history of Europe between
the fifth and ninth centuries, Mohammed and Charlemagne, although
published on the eve of the Second World War, remains an important
work. Many parts of its bold framework have been attacked, but
seldom decisively, for until now the evidence has been
insufficient. In their concise book, Richard Hodges and David
Whitehouse review the 'Pirenne thesis' in the light of
archaeological information from northern Europe, the Mediterranean
and western Asia.
In doing so, they have two objectives: to tackle the major issue
of the origins of the Carolingian Empire and to indicate the almost
staggering potential of the archaeological data. This book, then,
is an attempt to rekindle interest in an important set of questions
and to draw attention to new sets of data and to persuade readers
to look across traditional boundaries between classical and
medieval, east and west, history and archaeology."
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