From Ancient to Medieval Societies, third to eleventh centuries

Tutors: Matthew Innes, Caroline Goodson

The period stretching from the late Roman empire to the early Norman empire is marked by dramatic transformations in social organization, language, economic exchange and political systems. People living in the former Roman world witnessed the rise of Byzantium, the Gothic invasions, the creation of Islam, the “revival of the Roman empire” under Charlemagne, and the change of the millennium. The degree of consistency achieved by the administration of the Roman empire gave way to smaller states, bound by kinship, defense and organised religions. New figures in these societies emerged as powerful: clerics, holy men and warriors were elegized in new kinds of literature like saints’ lives and miracle stories. The built environment and the material culture of these people was new, as well, reflecting their small-scale every day economy. This course will focus on the people of the British Isles, Europe and the Mediterranean in their transitions, looking comparatively across different parts of the region at key themes such as State Formation, Courts and Aristocracy, Religion in society, Intellectual life and Law and Government.

Preliminary Reading:

Brown, Peter. The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity (200-1000AD), 2nd rev. edition (2003) [do not use the first edition]

Cameron, Avril. The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395-600. (1993).

Campbell, James and Eric John & Patrick Wormald (eds.). The Anglo-Saxons.  (1991).

Garnsey, P. and Humfress, C. The Late Antique World. 2nd rev. edition (2007)

Innes, M. The Sword, the Book and the Plough: An Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900  (2006).

Jones, A. H. M. The Later Roman Empire 284 - 602. A social, economic, and administrative survey. (1973).

Kennedy, Hugh. Muslim Spain and Portugal: a political history of al-Andalus  (1996).

Kennedy, Hugh. The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates : the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century. 2nd rev. edition, (2004).

Krautheimer, Richard. Three Christian Capitals (1983).

Liebeschuetz, John. The decline and fall of the Roman city (2001).

McKitterick, Rosamond, ed. The Early Middle Ages (2001).

McKitterick, Rosamond. The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 (1983). 

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453 2nd edition (2000).

Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages, 800–1056 (1991)

Smith, Julia MH. Europe after Rome: a new cultural history 500-1000 (2006).

Tellenbach, Gerd. The Church in Western Europe from the Tenth to the Early Twelfth Century (1993)

Whittow, Mark. The Making of Orthodox Byzantium, 600–1025 (1996)

Wickham, Christopher. Framing the early Middle Ages : Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800 (2005).

Little, Lester and Barbara Rosenwein, eds. Debating the Middle Ages: issues and readings (1998).

Rosenwein, Barbara. A Short History of the Middle Ages (2001; 2nd ed., 2004); also Reading the Middle Ages: Sources from Europe, Byzantium, and the Islamic World. (2006)

Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilisation (2006).