This volume provides an overview of the present state of knowledge of the archaeology of the Early and High Middle Ages. A comprehensive account is given of the most recent reinterpretations - dendrochronology, interpretations from cultural history and historical modelling. The main focus is on the history of culture, settlement, society and economy of the Western Slavs between the Elbe/Saale and the Vistula. Brief summaries of the historical framework and the history of Slavic Archaeology contextualise these aspects. Access to many detailed questions is provided by a thematically arranged bibliography.

The 15 articles in this volume are dedicated to the analysis of fundamental cultural developments between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Archaeologists and historians offer new perspectives on Central and Western Europe which do not simply polarise between Romans and Germans. Central themes are the relationship between historical studies and archaeology, the beginnings of the Early Middle Ages, the archaeology of early medieval a oepeoplesa, the role of burials, as well as trade and exchange. The result is a complex picture of an epoch of decisive change.

This volume analyses previous attempts to delineate ethnic groupings with the help of archaeological finds. After a short review of the history of these interpretations, central concepts are examined (people, culture, race, language) and ethnological and sociological concepts of identity are adduced. Against this background, Brather undertakes a comparative description of the methodological problems of ethnic reconstructions for the period between the Iron Age and the Middle Ages, and contrasts them with interpretations from cultural, economic and social history as alternative approaches to an explanation which is closer to the sources. This structural historical analysis places the explanatory power of archaeological sources on a footing with those of literary texts.

The present volume provides an overview of the present state of knowledge of the archaeology of the Early and High Middle Ages. A comprehensive account is given of the most recent reinterpretations a ' dendrochronology, interpretations from cultural history and historical modelling. The main focus is on the history of culture, settlement, society and economy of the Western Slavs between the Elbe/Saale and the Vistula. Brief summaries of the historical framework and the history of 'Slavic Archaeology' contextualise these aspects. Access to many detailed questions is provided by a thematically arranged bibliography.

The 70th birthday of Heiko Steuer, Professor of Pre- and Protohistory at Freiburg University from 1984 to 2005, andfor many years one of the editors of the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, has been the occasion for the presentation of this collection of 35 papers. The six sections cover Steuer s research fields: 1. Prehistory, 2. Antiquity, 3. The Early Middle Ages in West and South Europe, 4. The Early Middle Ages in Northern Europe, 5. The High and Late Middle Ages, 6. The history of scholarship and matters of method."