Origin Legends in Italy in the Early Middle Ages

Suicide and other suicidal behaviours are markedly (though differently) patterned by gender. The increase in young male suicide rates in many countries has heightened interest in whether suicidal behaviours and ideation (thoughts) are related to masculinity. Relatively little research has explored the relationship between gender role attitudes and orientation and suicidal behaviours and ideation. Most research in this area has been conducted with young people. We investigated whether gender role orientation (masculinity and femininity scores) and gender role attitudes were related to the reporting of serious suicidal thoughts in three generations (early adulthood, and early and late middle age) in a community sample. Subjects (653 men and women aged around 23 years, 754 aged around 43 years, 722 aged around 63 years) completed home interviews with nurses as part of an ongoing longitudinal community-based study of social factors and health. These included measures of suicidal ideation (thoughts), attitudes to traditional gender roles, and a validated measure of gender role orientation (masculinity and femininity scores). The prevalence of serious suicidal thoughts was higher in early adulthood (10% men, 15% women) than in early (4% men, 8% women) and late (6% men, 5% women) middle age. In early adulthood only sex was significantly related to suicidal thoughts, with women at higher risk (adjusted OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.01-3.00). In early middle age masculinity scores were negatively related to suicidal thoughts (adjusted OR for each unit increase in score 0.65: 95% CI 0.46-0.93), and more traditional views on gender roles were positively associated with suicidal thoughts (adjusted OR 1.48: 95% CI 1.07-2.04). In late middle age trends were in the same direction as in early middle age, but were not statistically significant. Femininity scores were unrelated to serious suicidal thoughts at any age. The high rates of suicidal thoughts amongst men and women in early adulthood point to the importance of understanding mental health problems at this age. The results raise a number of questions and suggest that suicide researchers should pay more attention to gender roles and attitudes in older adults.

Clerics in the Early Middle Ages Hierarchy and Image. By Roger E. Reynolds. [Variorum Collected Studies Series.] (Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum, Ashgate. 1999. Pp. x, 334. $110.95.) Clerical Orders in the Early Middle Ages- Duties and Ordination. By Roger E. Reynolds. [Variorum Collected Studies Series. I (Brookfield,Vermont: Variorum,Ashgate. 1999. PP. x, 334,$106.95.) The last thirty or so years have witnessed a growing fascination on the part of medievalists and social historians with lay and religious movements in the Middle Ages. Popes, cardinals, bishops, and monks, on the other hand, have all enjoyed a perennial appeal among scholars. Amazingly little research, however, has focused on priests and on the clerical grades preceding ordination to the priesthood. This is particularly ironic in view of the vast number of men and boys who were tonsured and admitted to various degrees of clerical status throughout the medieval period and beyond. These companion volumes bring together some twenty-three articles of varying length on clerics and clerical orders as reflected in patristic and medieval texts. Roger Reynolds draws upon a wide spectrum of sources, including letters, sermons, treatises, liturgical commentaries, ordination instructions, and canon law materials from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. Most of the articles have appeared elsewhere over the past three decades and hence Ashgate/Variorum has maintained their original pagination wherever possible, assigning to each a Roman numeral in order of appearance, as listed in the table of contents. Some articles have been so thoroughly revised or else now appear in much lengthier, unabridged form that any attempt to retain their original pagination would have proven impossible. Clerics in the Early Middle Ages: Hierarchy and Image contains four studies which appear for the first time; one of the articles in Clerical Orders in the Early Middle Ages: Duties and Ordination is likewise a first publication. Reynolds begins the first volume by mapping out as it were the clerical landscape of the early Middle Ages, describing the clerical grades and their functions in the various western European systems: Roman, Spanish, Irish, and Gallo-Frankish. Another study, entitled Christ as Cleric: The Ordinals of examines the widespread phenomenon of identifying Christ, through his words or actions, with each of the clerical grades. In an essay on the mathematics of sacred orders, the author shows that the 'traditional' seven ecclesiastical grades were by no means as fixed or as consistent in the patristic and early medieval periods as later scholastic theologians would have preferred. Several medieval systems of sacred orders in fact ran as low as six and as high as eight or nine clerical grades. A fourth article discusses the status of the subdiaconate as a sacred or `major' order. Patristic Presbyterianism explores the relationship of the priesthood to the episcopate in the writings of theologians from Jerome and Ambrosiaster to the Master of the Sentences, Peter Lombard. The highest of the ecclesiastical orders, Peter maintained, is the priesthood. Indeed, Lombard cited Isidore of Seville to the effect that, according to ancient authorities, bishops and presbyters were originally the same. This equation of the priesthood with the order of bishop naturally would give rise to 'presbyterian' consequences in the Reformation period. In discussing the origins, duties, conferral, and arrangement of sacred orders, Reynolds does a good job of linking text with image, as in the case of the Raganaldus Sacramentary, the Landulf Pontifical Roll, and the Drogo Sacramentary. These studies feature clear, attractive black and white reproductions of the manuscript sources. Again juxtaposing medieval accounts and a generous selection of artistic depictions of clerics arrayed in attendance at church councils, Reynolds analyzes rites and signs of conciliar decisions in the Middle Ages. …

TamdrupRoyal residence and memorial church in a new light
 Tamdrup has been shrouded in a degree of mystery in recent times. The solitary church located on a moraine hill west of Horsens is visible from afar and has attracted attention for centuries. On the face of it, it resembles an ordinary parish church, but on closer examination it is found to be unusually large, and on entering one discovers that hidden beneath one roof is a three-aisled construction, which originally was a Romanesque basilica. Why was such a large church built in this particular place? What were the prevailing circumstances in the Early Middle Ages when the foundation stone was laid?
 The mystery of Tamdrup has been addressed and discussed before. In the 1980s and 1990s, archaeological excavations were carried out which revealed traces of a magnate’s farm or a royal residence from the Late Viking Age or Early Middle Ages located on the field to the west of the church (fig. 4), and in 1991, the book Tamdrup – Kirke og gård was published.
 Now, by way of metal-detector finds, new information has been added. These new finds provide several answers, but also give rise to several new questions and problems. In recent years, a considerable number of metal finds recovered by metal detector at Tamdrup have been submitted to Horsens Museum. Since 2012, 207 artefacts have been recorded, primarily coins, brooches, weights and fittings from such as harness, dating from the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages. Further to these, a coin hoard dating from the time of Svein Estridson was excavated in 2013.
 The museum has processed the submitted finds, which have been recorded and passed on for treasure trove evaluation. As resources were not available for a more detailed assessment of the artefacts, in 2014 the museum formulated a research project that received funding from the Danish Agency for Culture, enabling the finds to be examined in greater depth.
 The aim of the research project was to study the metal-detector finds and the excavation findings, partly through an analysis of the total finds assemblage, partly by digitalisation of the earlier excavation plans so these could be compared with each other and with the new excavation data. This was intended to lead on to a new analysis, new interpretations and a new, overall evaluation of Tamdrup’s function, role and significance in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages.Old excavations – new interpretationsIn 1983, on the eastern part of the field, a trial excavation trench was laid out running north-south (d). This resulted in two trenches (a, b) and a further three trial trenches being opened up in 1984 (fig. 6). In the northern trench, a longhouse, a fence and a pit-house were discovered (fig. 8). The interpretation of the longhouse (fig. 4) still stands, in so far as we are dealing with a longhouse with curved walls. The western end of the house appears unequivocal, but there could be some doubt about its eastern end. An alternative interpretation is a 17.5 m long building (fig. 8), from which the easternmost set of roof-bearing posts are excluded. Instead, another posthole is included as the northernmost post in the gable to the east. This gives a house with regularly curved walls, though with the eastern gable (4.3 m) narrower than the western (5.3 m).
 North of the trench (a) containing the longhouse, a trial trench (c) was also laid out, revealing a number of features. Similarly, there were also several features in the northern part of the middle trial trench (e). A pit in trial trench c was found to contain both a fragment of a bit branch and a bronze key. There was neither time nor resources to permit the excavation of these areas in 1984, but it seems very likely that there are traces of one or more houses here (fig. 9). Here we have a potential site for a possible main dwelling house or hall.
 In August 1990, on the basis of an evaluation, an excavation trench (h) was opened up to the west of the 1984 excavation (fig. 7). Here, traces were found of two buildings, which lay parallel to each other, oriented east-west. These were interpreted as small auxiliary buildings associated with the same magnate’s farm as the longhouse found in the 1984 excavation. The northern building was 4 m wide and the southern building was 5.5 m. Both buildings were considered to be c. 7 m long and with an open eastern gable. The southern building had one set of internal roof-bearing posts.
 The excavation of the two buildings in 1990 represented the art of the possible, as no great resources were available. Aerial photos from the time show that the trial trench from the evaluation was back-filled when the excavation was completed. Today, we have a comprehensive understanding of the trial trenches and excavation trenches thanks to the digitalised plans. Here, it becomes apparent that some postholes recorded during the evaluation belong to the southernmost of the two buildings, but these were unfortunately not relocated during the actual excavation. As these postholes, accordingly, did not form part of the interpretation, it was assumed that the building was 7 m in length (fig. 10). When these postholes from the evaluation are included, a ground plan emerges that can be interpreted as the remains of a Trelleborg house (fig. 11). The original 7 m long building constitutes the western end of this characteristic house, while the remainder of the south wall was found in the trial trench. Part of the north wall is apparently missing, but the rest of the building appears so convincing that the missing postholes must be attributed to poor conditions for preservation and observation. The northeastern part of the house has not been uncovered, which means that it is not possible to say with certainty whether the house was 19 or 25 m in length, minus its buttress posts.
 On the basis of the excavations undertaken in 1984 and 1990, it was assumed that the site represented a magnate’s farm from the Late Viking Age. It was presumed that the excavated buildings stood furthest to the north on the toft and that the farm’s main dwelling – in the best-case scenario the royal residence – should be sought in the area to the south between the excavated buildings. Six north-south-oriented trial trenches were therefore laid out in this area (figs. 6, 7 and 13 – trial trenches o, p, q, r, s and t). The results were, according to the excavation report, disappointing: No trace was found of Harold Bluetooth’s hall. It was concluded that there were no structures and features that could be linked together to give a larger entity such as the presumed magnate’s farm.
 After digitalisation of the excavation plans from 1991, we now have an overview of the trial trenches to a degree that was not possible previously (fig. 13). It is clear that there is a remarkable concentration of structures in the central and northern parts of the two middle trial trenches (q, r) and in part also in the second (p) and fourth (s) trial trenches from the west, as well as in the northern parts of the two easternmost trial trenches (s, t). An actual archaeological excavation would definitely be recommended here if a corresponding intensity of structures were to be encountered in an evaluation today (anno 2016).
 Now that all the plans have been digitalised, it is obvious to look at the trial trenches from 1990 and 1991 together. Although some account has to be taken of uncertainties in the digitalisation, this nevertheless confirms the picture of a high density of structures, especially in the middle of the 1991 trial trenches. The collective interpretation from the 1990 and 1991 investigations is that there are strong indications of settlement in the area of the middle 1991 trial trenches. It is also definitely a possibility that these represent the remains of a longhouse, which could constitute the main dwelling house. It can therefore be concluded that it is apparently possible to confirm the interpretation of the site as a potential royal residence, even though this is still subject to some uncertainty in the absence of new excavations. The archaeologists were disappointed following the evaluation undertaken in 1991, but the overview which modern technology is able to provide means that the interpretation is now rather more encouraging. There are strong indications of the presence of a royal residence.
 FindsThe perception of the area by Tamdrup church gained a completely new dimension when the first metal finds recovered by metal detector arrived at Horsens Museum in the autumn of 2011. With time, as the finds were submitted, considerations of the significance and function of the locality in the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages were subjected to revision. The interpretation as a magnate’s farm was, of course, common knowledge, but at Horsens Museum there was an awareness that this interpretation was in some doubt following the results of the 1991 investigations. The many new finds removed any trace of this doubt while, at the same time, giving cause to attribute yet further functions to the site. Was it also a trading place or a central place in conjunction with the farm? And was it active earlier than previously assumed?
 The 207 metal finds comprise 52 coins (whole, hack and fragments), 34 fittings (harness, belt fittings etc.), 28 brooches (enamelled disc brooches, Urnes fibulas and bird brooches), 21 weights, 15 pieces of silver (bars, hack and casting dead heads), 12 figures (pendants, small horses), nine distaff whorls, eight bronze keys, four lead amulets, three bronze bars, two fragments of folding scales and a number of other artefacts, the most spectacular of which included a gold ring and a bronze seal ring. In dating terms, most of the finds can be assigned to the Late Viking Age and Early Middle Ages.
 The largest artefact group consists of the coins, of which

We aimed to investigate the association of self-reported leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) over a 45-years from adolescence to late middle age mediated by LTPA in early middle age. We also explored whether LTPA in adolescence and early middle age was associated with change in LTPA during the COVID-19 pandemic. We constructed a path model employing questionnaire data from three LTPA measurements (1976, 2001, 2021) including duplicated assessment for pre- and during COVID-19 in 2021. The direct and indirect associations between LTPA in adolescence, early middle and late middle age were investigated, as well as the impact of previous LTPA on change in late middle age LTPA due to the pandemic. The number of participants per assessment was: n = 2083; n = 1468 (71% of the original); n = 878 (42%) and n = 867 (42%), respectively. However, the number varied depending on the path examined. LTPA in adolescence was associated with LTPA in late middle age, although the association was not strong. LTPA decreased significantly during the pandemic. Earlier LTPA was associated with change in LTPA between before and during COVID-19 among males. This study is the first to demonstrate an association between adolescent and late middle age LTPA. However, the association across the 45-years was low.

Although research indicates that low fitness in youth is associated with a higher risk of chronic disability in men, the association of fitness in adolescence with work ability in working men and women remains unknown. To examine the associations of adolescent health-related physical fitness with future work ability. This 45-year observational cohort study, conducted in Finland, examined the direct and indirect longitudinal associations of objectively measured health-related fitness in adolescence (in 1976) with self-reported work ability and sickness absence in early middle age (in 2001) and the Work Ability Index in late middle age (in 2021). A countrywide stratified random baseline sample included fitness measurements for cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) (running 1.5 km for girls and 2 km for boys), musculoskeletal fitness (MF; standing broad jump and sit-ups for both sexes, pull-ups for boys, and flexed-arm hang for girls), and height and weight, from which body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Structural equation modeling-based path analysis, adjusted for age and sex at baseline and for educational level, work-related physical strain, and leisure-time physical activity in late middle age, was conducted. Data analysis was performed from January to July 2023. Self-reported work ability was measured with structured questions in early middle age and with the validated Work Ability Index in late middle age. The final sample from longitudinal analyses (1207 individuals; 579 [48%] male individuals) consisted of participants with fitness measurement from age 12 to 19 years, and work ability assessment from age 37 to 44 years and/or age 57 to 64 years. Higher adolescent CRF was associated with higher work ability (839 participants; β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.22; P = .03) and lower sickness absence (834 participants; β = -0.07; 95% CI, -0.12 to -0.02; P = .004) in early middle age and, indirectly, mediated by work ability in early middle age, with a higher work ability at the end of working age (603 participants; β = 0.04; 95% CI, 0.001 to 0.08; P = .04). The results remained consistent in both sexes and after adjustment for the confounders. Neither MF nor BMI was associated with work ability (MF, 1192 participants; β = -0.07; 95% CI, -0.17 to 0.03; BMI, 1207 participants, β = 0.09; 95% CI, -0.004 to 0.19) or sickness absence (MF, 1185 participants, β = 0.02; 95% CI, -0.03 to 0.06; BMI, 1202 participants, β = -0.03; 95% CI, -0.09 to 0.03) in early middle age or with late middle age work ability, mediated by work ability in early middle age (MF, 603 participants, β = -0.02; 95% CI, -0.06 to 0.01; BMI, 603 participants, β = 0.03; 95% CI, -0.004 to 0.07). These findings suggest that low CRF in youth is associated with poor work ability at the middle and end of working life, which highlights the informative and prognostic value of CRF assessment early in youth. Enhancing CRF in the first decades of life might contribute to better work capacity and productivity in the labor force, which would have implications for health, quality of life, society, and the economy.

In 1927, A.E. van Giffen excavated a largely levelled burial mound near the village of Drouwen in the Dutch province of Drenthe. A few years later, Van Giffen published a summary report on the excavation, in which he concentrated on the lavish inventory of the central Sögel warrior burial. In 1985-1989, J.N. Lanting carried out further research at the site of the mound and revealed a large number of soil features from the Bronze Age and early Middle Ages. This second excavation has never been published before. The present article discusses both excavations. After an evaluation of all the excavation data the author zooms in on the warrior: what was his cultural context, and how can we interpret his social status in the region? The article concludes with an analysis of the spatial pattern of which this burial mound is a part. To do so, the author looks at all the prehistoric and protohistoric burial monuments in the area between the villages of Drouwen and Borger.Van Giffen’s profile drawings of the mound section he investigated suggest two construction phases. The oldest structure, a central mound of grey sand (c. 8 m across by c. 0.80 m high), was raised over the remains of a pyre. This first mound probably dates to the Early or early Middle Bronze Age. In the 16th century BC the warrior grave was dug into this mound; posts around the grave suggest the presence of a mortuary house or fence. The mound that was associated with this grave was c. 1.60 m high, possibly elongated (26 by 15 m or less) and surrounded by an oval ditch up to 1.6 m wide, with to the north a c. 3.40-m-wide opening. Whether there were any secondary burials is unknown.In the early Middle Ages, when the surrounding ditch had long since been filled in, the mound and its immediate vicinity became the location of a cemetery with graves arranged in rows (rijengrafveld). Only a small section of this cemetery was excavated (61 graves) so that the full period it was used is uncertain. Most graves were oriented east-west. Of the investigated graves, the majority were fully excavated, and several contained traces of a coffin. The buried individuals were mostly adults. Many did not produce any grave goods, and those items that were found were - in Van Giffen’s words - ‘armelijk’, rather poor. They are mostly iron knives and ‘prikkels’ (‘goads’, iron points, of unknown function, originally attached to a rod), bronze needle cases, keys, and one brooch. Of particular interest are three strings of beads and one isolated bead. To the extent they can be dated, all grave goods are comparatively late and could well be 8th and 9th-century, indicating that the cemetery ended at some point in the 9th century. The only human remains come from a small sub-recent pit close to Grave 29 (GrM-28439: 1244 ± 21 BP, i.e. 680-876 cal AD (2σ)).It is highly unlikely that the ‘Drouwen Warrior’ was anything more than a ‘big man’ whose network extended into northern Germany and possibly even Scandinavia. Whether he actually was a warrior in life is still an open question. When he was buried, at some point in the 16th century BC, several (very) ancient burial monuments already existed nearby. The mound of the warrior may have been part of an old linear alignment of these features. Why this particular mound was chosen in the early medieval period to situate a cemetery will probably always remain a mystery, although it is tempting to think that stories about the dead man buried there 2200 years earlier were still being told in the 7th or 8th century AD. That would tie in with the current archaeological narrative of the Bronze Age warrior as a person who strove after a heroic status after death, a form of immortality, created by the stories, passed on in each generation, of his martial, cosmopolitan and adventurous life.

The phenomenon of female feticide in India is not new, where female embryos or fetuses are selectively eliminated after pre-natal sex determination, thus eliminating girl child even before they are born. In Indian society, female feticide has emerged as a burning social problem during the last few years. The present study aims to assess the attitude of both male and female adolescents towards girls’ feticide their early adulthood and middle age. For this from Jhansi city, 100 respondents, 50 of early adulthood stage (25 male, 25 female) and 50 of middle adulthood stage (25 male, 25 female) randomly selected. A structured interview schedule was prepared containing 30 questions to measure the awareness among male and female regarding the female feticide. Results revealed that equal per cent of respondents were in the age group 18-40 years and 40-60 years. Maximum per cent of respondents (97%) were Hindu followed by 3% respondents Muslim. In early adulthood and middle age group majority of male and female respondents (92 and 90%) strongly agreed to favorable comments on girl feticide, while for unfavorable comments lesat number of respondents of both sex were in strongly unfavorable category. Attitude of male and female respondents against favorable comments indicated association between sex and attitude in early adulthood i.e. χ 2 =2.2 but in middle age no association was found (χ 2 =36). On the other hand attitude against unfavorable comments indicated association between sex and attitude in both early adulthood (χ 2 =0.156) and middle age (χ 2 =0.581). Majority of the Hindu respondents both in early adulthood and middle age group strongly agreed to favourable comments on girl feticide. Regarding religion, attitude of Hindu and Muslim against favorable and unfavorable comments indicated association between religion and attitude in both early adulthood and middle age. Results revealed that both sex and religion have association with attitude regarding girl feticide.

Despite the generally accepted scholarly opinion that the three rhetorical manuals describing the method of loci and its accompanying origin legend were unknown in early medieval England (i.e. Rhetorica ad Herennium, Cicero’s De oratore, and Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria), I argue that the Old English poem, The Ruin, suggests otherwise. By examining the features that overlap between the method of loci as described in these rhetorical texts, Mary Carruthers’ argument for a uniquely “monastic memoria” that was ubiquitous in the early medieval period, and The Ruin, I suggest that the Rhetorica ad Herennium provides a good accounting for some of the oddly specific descriptive details the poem is best known for. Moreover, as the poem is fundamentally concerned with the power of remembering to bring order to chaos, The Ruin bears a striking resemblance to the origin legend of the method of loci. Evidence of the influence of the method of loci and its origin legend on Old English literature requires that we rethink how well the extant manuscript record represents both the state of learning in, and the transfer of knowledge throughout, early medieval Britain.

The early Middle Ages often defies easy categorization, positioned between empires and conceived of as between historical epochs, and is thus often at the margin of scholarship treating topics on antiquity or the Middle Ages. As a period of transitions, developments resist easy integration into larger interpretive models, and consequently, they tend to not be discussed in studies either of classical antiquity or of the Middle Ages. Many early medieval historians have argued that race is not a valid concept for the early Middle Ages, preferring instead to use the term ethnicity. Instead, this paper will argue that yes, racial concepts were important in the early Middle Ages, and this period provides a bridge between classical and medieval forms of racial categorization. It will therefore explore the idea of race as a useful category of analysis in the early Middle Ages, in particular in Italy, and suggest ways that it might be used to further understand hierarchical strategies of distinction in the early Middle Ages and the transformation of the Roman world.

The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages

In this chapter, the author looks closer at development in the Sami areas through the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages. The author captures some of the regional variation that characterized the hunter-­gatherer communities and their relations with surrounding ethnic groups. Before examining the different processes within the Sami area during the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages, the author also looks at the neighboring societies, mainly the Germanic chieftaincies in northern Scandinavia, and considers the nature of their contacts with the Sami. The Viking Age and the Early Middle Ages were periods during which the hunting culture became 'visible' once more in the archaeological material. The economic and political changes in the east and the west, along with the conversion of Norse society to Christianity, meant that the Sami found themselves in a far more economically and culturally stressed situation than had previously been the case.Keywords: Early Middle Ages; Germanic chieftaincies; hunter-­gatherer communities; Iron Age; Norse society; Sami

The concepts of “sin” and “crime”, “reward” and “punishment” are found in the ancient Indian religious and ethical treatises - dharmasastra Manu, Yajnavalkya and Vishnu, and canon law manuscripts of Western Europe of early and High Middle Ages. The issue of the relationship between Eastern and Western religious and legal views is examined in the paper. The authors defend the idea that religion is a key component having influenced the basic principles of morality and law, the construction of crime and punishment concepts. It is proved that officially already in the early Middle Ages, both in the East and in the West the sources of law differentiate between the sinful and criminal acts, which, however, at that time still was not clear and unambiguous. Based on the application of comparative analysis, hermeneutics, contextual analysis, historical, legal and other methods while studying the dharmasastra texts, the authors propose several classifications of sins against various reasons: according to the form of guilt, the degree of public danger, according to the order imposition and execution of the expiation. In turn, the methods mentioned above contributed to the detailed study of the medieval sources of canon law, which allowed us to formulate the thesis on the official differentiation between the concepts of “sin” and “crime” only after the adoption of the Decretum Gratiani to have been the main source of Western canon law in the Middle Ages. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p662

This article shows that there is an ascending consensus that the European Middle Ages were pervaded by a number of constitutionalist norms and institutions that facilitated the later development of democracy, the modern state, and the rule of law. However, the review of this literature also shows that there has been little attempt to systematically explain the origins of these norms and institutions. Against this background, the article discusses what so far seems to be the major “origins” hypothesis, namely, that these norms and institutions were a contingent product of the secular-religious conflicts in the High Middle Ages, reinforced by the rediscovery of Roman law and the political theory of Aristotle. This is contrasted with an alternative hypothesis, which traces these developments from latent tensions between church and rulers already present in the Early Middle Ages, and an attempt to bridge the two positions is made. The discussion draws in evidence from Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire in both the Early and High Middle Ages.

In this book-the first volume in his groundbreaking trilogy on the emergence of western political thought-Francis Oakley explores the roots of secular political thinking by examining the political ideology and institutions of Hellenistic and late Roman antiquity and of the early European middle ages. By challenging the popular belief that the ancient Greek and Roman worlds provided the origins of our inherently secular politics, Oakley revises our understanding of the history of political theory in a fundamental and far-reaching manner that will reverberate for decades. This book lays the foundations for Oakley's next two volumes, which will develop his argument that it is in the Latin middle ages that we must seek the ideological roots of modern political secularism.

The Frisian Clay area consists of a northern part, the Bouwhoek (‘arable corner’), and a southern and older part, the Greidhoek (‘grassland corner’). In both areas, the terpen are the original areas of residence, containing the farms. The terpen formed hamlets which during the Middle Ages expanded to villages. In the Greidhoek, the corresponding land stretched in all directions, whereas in the Bouwhoek, it stretched in elongated parcels on either side. The land in the Greidhoek was bordered by natural streams, slenken, whereas the Bouwhoek land was delimited by dug maren, dating from the early Middle Ages. The Greidhoek also has dug waters, the leien, mainly dating to the early and high Middle Ages. The land of a hamlet was called hemrik: some of it was the fixed property of the farms (the staten), whereas the land further afield was used commonly. Later, hemrik changed its meaning and came to indicate only the common land. The word then coincided with meenschar and fell into disuse. From 1200 the meenscharren became ever smaller in size due to their continuous assignment to farms, until they had nearly all been divided up in the sixteenth century.