Zubin Mistry. Abortion in the Early Middle Ages, c.500–900.

Anthropos , Seite 451 - 472

This volume investigates the ways in which people in western Europe between the fall of Rome and the twelfth century used the past: to legitimate the present, to understand current events, and as a source of identity. Each essay examines the mechanisms by which ideas about the past were subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) reshaped for present purposes. As well as written histories, also discussed are saints' lives, law codes, buildings, Biblical commentary, monastic foundations, canon law and oral traditions. The book thus has important implications for how historians use these sources as evidence: they emerge as representations of the past made for very special reasons, often by interested parties. This was the first volume to be devoted fully to these themes, and as such it makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the role of the past within early medieval societies.

The purpose of this article is to compare E. Gudavičius' conception of feudalism with the Russian orientalist L. Vasilyev's attitude to this issue. Both historians treat themselves as Marxists (in the Western meaning of it, i.e. supporters of the Asian mode of production). Consequently, their views on the development of the history of mankind are similar but not equal. In this article, feudalism is treated as a historical and socioeconomic formation and some stage of human development during which the feudal mode of production was dominating. L. Vasilyev describes the stage of feudalism in Western Europe as the age of orientalisation of social structure, i.e. as a regress. Only the rebirth of Antiquity bore capitalism. E. Gudavičius stresses that feudalism created an individual producer (peasant) farm and consequently it was an essential progress in the social development of the societies of Western Europe. The character of the social structure of Germanic kingdoms in the early Middle Ages differed essentially from oriental societies in the stage of early politogenesis. The reason for that was the alodization of Germanic society. So the prefeudal stage (the term of E. Gudavičius) as well as the feudal stage was unique in both chronological and geographical senses (as for this aspect, Western Europe is comparable maybe only with medieval Japan). In the early Middle Ages, a necessary condition of the feudalisation of the periphery of Western Europe was the influence of the neighbouring (already feudal) countries. Otherwise, the social structure of peripheral societies would have been developing like in the Orient. L. Vasilyev affirms convincingly that market relations in Germanic society in the early Middle Ages were suppressed by vertical (subordinating) and corporative connections. In this sense, Western Europe became similar to the Orient. Nevertheless, the main difference was that private property remained in Western Europe. Private property enabled the development of market relations when civilization and technologies were restored. Medieval cities and burghers undermined feudalism and were the first sprouts of the capitalist structure. L. Vasilyev's statement that capitalism is the consequence of a structural rebirth of Antiquity is not very convincing. The structural heritage of Antiquity was a primary stimulus during the process of the genesis of feudalism. Later, feudalism developed spontaneously and the part of the heritage of Antiquity was only auxiliary. It is very doubtful that the historical experiment of the structural synthesis took place in medieval Western Europe (according to L. Vasilyev's conception it also took place in the Hellenistic Orient and in the Byzantine Empire). Already, during the stage of the genesis of feudalism, a social mutation (i.e. qualitative change) took place in Western Europe. So, in general, there was no more structural synthesis but spontaneous development. On the other hand, the mentioned L. Vasilyev's conception was not adapted to much more prospective cases like the Philippines and especially Latin America.

Historians of the early Middle Ages (c. 600–c. 1050) have long used material remains and archeological evidence to learn about that era. Over the last four decades, material culture studies have become a prominent area of historical research, particularly for cultural historians. Recent early medieval studies have followed this trend. In addition, religious and economic studies of the so‐called “Dark Ages” have drawn from material sources. Object‐driven social history has been less popular, but recent work, especially on Francia and Anglo‐Saxon England, demonstrates that such projects offer new findings on a period whose texts rarely address social relations and everyday life directly. Material culture therefore offers rich research possibilities for early medieval social history.

Notes on Contributors. PART I THE MIDDLE AGES. 1 The Idea of a Middle Ages (Edward D. English and Carol Lansing). PART II EARLY MEDIEVAL FOUNDATIONS. 2 Economies and Societies in Early Medieval Western Europe (Matthew Innes). 3 Politics and Power (Hans Hummer). 4 Religious Culture and the Power of Tradition in the Early Medieval West (Yitzhak Hen). PART III POPULATIONS AND THE ECONOMY. 5 Economic Takeoff and the Rise of Markets (James Paul Masschaele). 6 Rural Families in Medieval Europe (Phillipp R. Schofield). 7 Marriage in Medieval Latin Christendom (Martha Howell). 8 Gender and Sexuality (John Arnold). 9 Society, Elite Families, and Politics in Late Medieval Italian Cities (Edward D. English). PART IV RELIGIOUS CULTURE. 10 New Religious Movements and Reform (Maureen C. Miller). 11 Monastic and Mendicant Communities (Constance H. Berman). 12 Hospitals in the Middle Ages (James W. Brodman). 13 Popular Belief and Heresy (Carol Lansing). 14 Jews in the Middle Ages (Kenneth R. Stow). 15 Muslims in Medieval Europe (Olivia Remie Constable). PART V POLITICS AND POWER. 16 Confl ict Resolution and Legal Systems (Thomas Kuehn). 17 Medieval Rulers and Political Ideology (Robert W. Dyson). 18 Papal Monarchy (Andreas Meyer). 19 Urban Historical Geography and the Writing of Late Medieval Urban History (Teofi lo F. Ruiz). 20 Bureaucracy and Literacy (Richard Britnell). 21 The Practice of War (Clifford J. Rogers). 22 Expansion and the Crusades (Christopher Tyerman). PART VI TECHNOLOGIES AND CULTURE. 23 Romanesque and Gothic Church Architecture (Stephen Murray). 24 Aristocratic Culture: Kinship, Chivalry, and Court Culture (Richard E. Barton). 25 Philosophy and Humanism (Stephen Gersh). 26 Philosophy and Theology in the Universities (Philipp W. Rosemann). PART VII THE EUROPEAN MIDDLE AGES. 27 Medieval Europe in World History (R. I. Moore). Index.

Review| November 01 2022 Archaeology and History: A Late Antiquity for Britain Robin Fleming, The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300–525 CE. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. 333 pp. + 22 b/w figs. ISBN: 9780812252446. $45, £36.Mateusz Fafinski, Roman Infrastructure in Early Medieval Britain: The Adaptations of the Past in Text and Stone. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2021. 239 pp. + 2 b/w figs. ISBN 9789463727532. €106. Helena Hamerow Helena Hamerow University of Oxford Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Studies in Late Antiquity (2022) 6 (4): 734–739. https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2022.6.4.734 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Helena Hamerow; Archaeology and History: A Late Antiquity for Britain. Studies in Late Antiquity 1 November 2022; 6 (4): 734–739. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2022.6.4.734 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentStudies in Late Antiquity Search Archaeology was, once upon a time, referred to as “the handmaiden of history.” Images of artifacts served primarily to adorn the pages of historical accounts regarded by publishers as needing enlivening. How times have changed. Material culture—uncovered for the most part by archaeological excavation—is increasingly playing a central role in the writings of early medieval historians. Notable examples include Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages (2005) and, more recently, John Blair’s Building Anglo-Saxon England (2018).1 The two volumes under review here—both written by historians—bear witness to this growing engagement with material culture and how it is changing the way we view early medieval Britain. The Material Fall of Roman Britain has the archaeological record at its core and uses it to challenge conventional understandings of the notoriously elusive late Roman to post-Roman transition. Refusing to be constrained by traditional disciplinary and chronological divides, the book spans the period... You do not currently have access to this content.

Why did commercial cities begin to emerge in Western Europe as they did after 1100 CE? In this chapter, I review and synthesize important thinking about the evolution of commercial cities as a market economy took hold. After discussing ideas about the state in prehistory, I trace thinking about the economic functioning of communities in the ancient world, Roman World, early medieval Western Europe, and into the rise of commercial cities. I integrate the work of Abu-Lughod, Bairoch, Braudel, Cooley, Heaton, Hurd, Mann, Marshall, Power, Smith, Tawney, Tilly, and Weber. I am not so much interested in the historical accuracy of their thinking as I am in how these writers each conceptualized a process based on purposeful behavior. Of particular interest to me is the how the notion and practice of the state changed and how this affected the formation of cities. I build this review around seven themes. Continuing from Chap. 1, I see these as follows: the importance of the governance of a nation to the urban economy; occupational division of labor, command and control, and power; decentralization and entitlement within governance; the functioning of a community as settlement, trading city, or commercial city; the significance of transportation costs, the spatial division of labor, and trade; importance of networks, routes, and nodes in circuits of trade ; and the conflicted role of the city.

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

Reviewed by: The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies Gregory Halfond The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies. Edited by Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick. (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2008. Pp. xx, 345. $99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-66254-9.) In 2007, the History Channel, perhaps the most influential outlet for popular history in the United States, aired The Dark Ages, a documentary on early-medieval Europe. The program's title served as a depressing reminder to professional medievalists of the wide gulf between popular and scholarly impressions of this period. Jennifer R. Davis and Michael McCormick have now published the proceedings of a 2004 conference held at Harvard University in 2004 as The Long Morning of Medieval Europein an attempt to demonstrate the sophistication of both early-medieval society and the diverse methodologies employed by scholars of the period. As Davis and McCormick declare in their introduction and as the individual contributions attest, the early Middle Ages was no Dark Age, even in the less objectionable sense of a period poorly represented in the historical record. Moreover, its glories were not simply the moldy remnants of a superior Roman past but also were true innovations. This thesis is ably and convincingly demonstrated by the individual essays, which are grouped under five topical rubrics: economy, religion, literature, politics, and art. Synergy between the contributions is provided by McCormick's introductory essays to each section, which lucidly place the individual essays within a common historiographical framework and provide linkage between the sections. Concluding essays for each section authored by other conference participants offer critical perspective on the papers. The quality of the individual essays is uniformly strong. Those that focus on historical methodology, for example, reveal medievalists' impressive new avenues of research. McCormick's essay surveys the information provided by biomolecular archaeology, including previously inaccessible data about human diet, the migration of peoples, and the spread of infectious diseases. Of particular interest to historians of religion, Guy Philappart and Michel Trigalet's contribution is a fascinating description of their ongoing database project that eventually will consist of 10,000 hagiographical works and 3320 saints, which aims to provide quantitative evidence about Christian sanctity between the third and fifteenth centuries. Other essays challenge conventional wisdom on a variety of disciplinary fronts. Joachim Henning, for example, argues that that a dynamic farmstead model of peasant society emerged in Western Europe following the disappearance of Roman authority, but was brought to a premature end by the emergent estate system of the Carolingian Empire, a change, he argues, that instigated economic stagnation. Similarly controversial, Riccardo Francovich challenges the traditional narrative of incastellamentoin Italy, employing archaeological evidence to argue that seventh- and eighth-century Tuscan peasant settlements were already nucleated and focused on hilltops, and that the appearance of aristocrats in [End Page 789]these communities occurred later. Still other contributors investigate previously neglected corners of early-medieval culture, such as Paul Dutton's examination of blood rain as a "cultural and historical experience," Joaquín Martínez Pizarro's reading of the Historia Wambaas an exercise in political damage control, and Mayke de Jong's search for political symbolism in Charlemagne's solarium. Although the majority of contributions ably promote the editors' stated goal of demonstrating the dynamism of early-medievalist scholarship, as well as the blatant unsuitability of the epithet "Dark Age," it is doubtful that they will hold much appeal or meaning to a nonspecialist audience, despite the inclusion of McCormick's introductions. This is a shame, not only because of the impressive quality of this anthology and its individual components but also because of the desperate need for a scholarly work of popular appeal that can change public perceptions of this deeply misunderstood period. For such a work we must continue to wait. Gregory Halfond Framingham State College Copyright © 2009 The Catholic University of America Press

Reviews 163 Parergon 21.1 (2004) The inclusion of footnotes in the Introduction would have been helpful (along the lines of, for example, the TEAMS book on peasants). While some parts of the Introduction are simply general background on the features and definitions of medieval monasticism, there are other sections where the argument is more specific and pointed. Given that this is a book explicitly for students, it is a shame that the opportunity was missed to model the use of footnoting for explicit argument. Some more precise referencing might also give students a better sense of where different scholars sit on different debates, particularly given that the list of suggested further readings at the end of the book is unannotated. The book has a helpful glossary at the end, where economic, agricultural, and religious terms are defined. The suggestions for further reading points out a fairly small but nonetheless good selection of books and articles. Students who were new to the study of female monasticism would find these suggestions enough to set them on their way in research although, again, some annotations would make the list easier for beginners to use. Interestingly, the reading list focuses on nuns in general, rather than on the Cistercian order specifically, thus reflecting the view that when it comes to medieval women’s religious lives there were just as many similarities between monastic orders as there were differences. Elizabeth Freeman School of History and Classics University of Tasmania Brown, Warren, Unjust Seizure: Conflict, Interest, and Authority in an Early Medieval Society, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2001; cloth; pp. xvi, 224; RRP £25.95; ISBN 0-8014-3790-3. This book’s virtue is that it sets out to investigate aspects of what it meant to be conquered in the early Middle Ages. Brown examines the reactions of the land-holding nobility of Bavaria to their incorporation into the Carolingian empire, following Charlemagne’s take-over of the region in 787. To do this he exploits some hundred-odd charters preserved as part of a chartulary seven times that size by the cathedral of Freising. The majority of the ‘unjust seizures’ invoked in the title involve the church of Freising protecting its claims to property, and documenting successes in the charters. Well-known to German and Austrian scholars, this impressive source is little used in Anglophone scholarship; Brown provides a service in drawing attention to its contents. 164 Reviews Parergon 21.1 (2004) Nominally a duchy under the Merovingian monarchs of Gaul, Bavaria was one of the peripheral regions of Francia which had long since become effectively autonomous, ruled by the Agilolfing dynasty of dukes. Their failure to acknowledge Carolingian overlordship precipitated Charlemagne’s characteristically effective military reaction. ‘Direct’ royal rule was imposed in the form of royal appointments of secular and ecclesiastic office holders, and visitations of the Carolingian missi, roving royal agents who acted something like ombudsmen to ensure that regional governors acted in accordance with Charlemagne’s centrist ideals. Brown frames his study of Bavarian reactions to this take-over in terms of anthropological models of dispute settlement and of conqueror-conquered interaction. His work is thus a continuation of recent scholarship in medieval conflict resolution (e.g. Wendy Davies and Paul Fouracre [ed.], The Settlement of Disputes in Early Medieval Europe [Cambridge, 1986]). Carolingian rule is viewed not with regard to its administrative structure, but in the light of its incorporation , in turn, into the social dynamics of Bavarian noble society (inevitably the only class which has a voice in the historical record of this period). The lengthy first chapter seeks to establish ‘norms’ of dispute settlement within the region in the eighth century, prior to Carolingian annexation. The subsequent, slimmer chapters then compare dispute settlement procedures during the eight decades of effective Carolingian rule of Bavaria to 854. To Brown, pre-Carolingian patterns of conflict resolution – through feud and violence, ducal intervention, and especially episcopal negotiation – were potentially cut across by Charlemagne’s centrist ambitions and intent to impose royally-constituted judicial assemblies and ‘officeholding authority figures’ as agents of mediation and judgement. But it will surprise no one familiar with current anthropological models to learn that...

When considering status within early medieval societies, it is necessary to set aside juridical classifications in favor of concepts derived from political sociology—the notion of an “elite” can thus encompass any individual occupying an elevated social position within his or her community, be it through wealth, power, or culture. Using textual and archaeological sources, historians can seek out the processes of distinction and social recognition that were characteristic of elites throughout the early Middle Ages (from the sixth to the eleventh century). The Carolingian period shows signs of increasing hierarchization, which led both individuals and groups to devise strategies for bolstering their position and forestalling the loss of social status. Within the framework of these processes of social mobility, it becomes possible to examine elites at various levels and from different chronological and regional perspectives while avoiding an overly structural analysis.

When a Spanish monk struggled to find the right words to convey his unjust expulsion from a monastery in a desperate petition to a sixth-century king, he likened himself to an aborted fetus. Centuries later, a ninth-century queen found herself accused of abortion in an altogether more fleshly sense. Abortion haunts the written record across the early middle ages. Yet, the centuries after the fall of Rome remain very much the dark ages in the broader history of abortion. This book, the first to treat the subject in this period, tells the story of how individuals and communities, ecclesiastical and secular authorities, construed abortion as a social and moral problem across a number of post-Roman societies, including Visigothic Spain, Merovingian Gaul, early Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England and the Carolingian empire. It argues early medieval authors and readers actively deliberated on abortion and a cluster of related questions, and that church tradition on abortion was an evolving practice. It sheds light on the neglected variety of responses to abortion generated by different social and intellectual practices, including church discipline, dispute settlement and strategies of political legitimation, and brings the history of abortion into conversation with key questions about gender, sexuality, Christianization, penance and law. Ranging across abortion miracles in hagiography, polemical letters in which churchmen likened rivals to fetuses flung from the womb of the church and uncomfortable imaginings of resurrected fetuses in theological speculation, this volume also illuminates the complex cultural significance of abortion in early medieval societies. Zubin Mistry is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.

There is surprisingly little early medieval social history being written. In recent years, more specifically economic history has had a remarkable rebirth, thanks to the (largely unconnected) efforts of archaeologists on the one side and Belgian and German historians on the other; but the study of society in general, outside the restricted spheres of the aristocracy and the church, has been neglected. I speak schematically; obviously, there are notable exceptions. But it is significant that noone, in any country, has thought it worthwhile to attempt a synthesis of early medieval European socio-economic history as a whole that could replace those of Alfons Dopsch or, maybe, André Déléage. It would be hard; but people have tried it for the centuries after 900, with interesting (even if inevitably controversial) results. Why not earlier? Richard Sullivan recently lamented the conservatism of most Carolingian scholarship; in the arena of social history, he could easily have extended his complaints back to 500.

Reviewed by: The origin legends of early medieval Britain and Ireland by Lindy Brady Donato Sitaro (bio) Lindy Brady, The origin legends of early medieval Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. ISBN 9781009225618 (hardback), 9781009225670 (ebook). x + 272 pages. $99.00. Origin myths and legends are prominent features of early medieval writings and mentalities. They became a popular genre, an ever-growing corpus of traditions and pseudo-histories, and eventually a late-antique/early medieval 'scholarly preoccupation', as underlined by Brady & Wadden in the foreword to their edited volume Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe (2022: 4). Despite not being the first recorded origines gentium, the Insular origin myths stand out as precious hermeneutic objects for scholars of early medieval culture, as part of a genre 'that has shaped national identity and collective history from the early medieval period to the present day', as we read in the synopsis. The variety of their approach and their richness in contents and traditions make the British, Irish, Pictish, and Anglo-Saxon origin narratives a perfect subject for a dedicated volume. Discussing these apparently divergent narratives in comparative terms was not an easy task, but Brady bravely attempts it in a relatively compact and easily readable book. Divided into five main chapters, the book is prefaced by a 27-page introductory section, eloquently titled 'The anachronism of nationalism', where modern scholarly debate around the contested concepts of ethnicity, post-Roman identities, and early medieval writers' agendas is summarized and discussed. Brady's approach consciously differs from the two major historiographical standpoints on ethnic identities, as it neither gives excessive weight to the influence of Classical ethnography (as Goffart did), [End Page 156] nor does it look too far forward by extending the effects of enduring ethnic identities from the Migration Period deep into the Middle Ages (as in certain readings by Wolfram and Pohl). Brady decides to look 'sideways' (21) to explore the textual and conceptual interrelations between the origin legends of the British Isles without attempting to construct from the texts a straightforward idea of the development of ethnic identities. She looks at the development of origin stories within and among the texts surveyed, more than outside and beyond them. For this reason, the interpretative keywords for Brady's analysis of the sources are 'discourse' and 'development' (3). Her assessment that the concepts enshrined in early medieval origin narratives were communicating and were part of a shared intellectual milieu is repeated throughout the introduction and beyond (1, 4, 16, 21, 63, 227, 229). This assumption finds support in the first chapter through a survey of the textual history of the Insular works containing origin stories: Gildas's De excidio, Bede's Historia ecclesiastica, the ninth-century Historia Brittonum, and the later Irish Lebor Bretnach and Lebor gabála Érenn. While the first two works are referred to in cursory fashion as embryonic nuclei of traditions that would develop later, the latter three pseudo-histories are discussed in depth throughout the book. The Historia Brittonum is given a justified pre-eminence as 'a valuable microcosm of the intellectual connections which form the focus of the study' (16). After the presentation of the sources, the proper narratological analysis begins: chapters 2, 3, and 4 focus on exile, kin-slaying, and intermarriage and incest, respectively. Having established the interrelated nature of the Insular writings in chapter 1, Brady is able to conduct a comparative survey of shared concepts and their development within three concentric levels of investigation corresponding to the three-part structure of these chapters: (i) first she explores the wider conceptual resonance of the motif in literature, usually through comparison with biblical and classical archetypes; (ii) then she outlines the recurrence of historical episodes involving the motif (cases of exiles or kin-slayers in the early medieval Insular context); and finally (iii) she considers the meaning of the motif within the Insular origin narratives. The second part of these themed chapters, the attempt to show 'resonances of these topics in [historical] early insular society' (138), could have been the trickiest. However, Brady addresses the eventual collision between literary motifs and the 'hard facts' drawn from legal and historical records through...

Origin legends in early medieval Western Europe. Edited by Lindy Brady and Patrick Wadden. (Reading Medieval Sources, 6.) Pp. xii + 474 incl. 19 colour and black- and-white ills. Leiden–Boston: Brill, 2023. €198. 978 90 04 40036 8; 2589 2509 - Volume 76 Issue 2