Effros, Bonnie, 1965-
Uncovering the Germanic past : Merovingian archaeology in France, 1830-1914 Bonnie Effros. - 1st ed. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012. - xxiii, 427 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. - Oxford studies in the history of archaeology . - Oxford studies in the history of archaeology. .
Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-407) and index. Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-407) and index.
Introduction -- Pt. 1. Archaeological research in nineteenth-century France. Centralizing archaeological research in nineteenth-century France ; Learned societies and archaeological research in nineteenth-century France -- Pt. 2. The politics of Merovingian archaeology. Developing approaches to Merovingian archaeology ; The politics of Merovingian-period finds ; Institutionalizing the amateur's craft ; Archaeological museums, Merovingian antiquities, and their audiences ; Public reception of Merovingian-period finds ; Epilogue: Merovingian archaeology on the eve of World War I and afterwards.
"Uncovering the Germanic Past brings to light an unexpected side-effect of France's nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. While laying tracks for new rail lines, quarrying for stone, and expanding lands under cultivation, French labourers uncovered bones and artefacts from long-forgotten cemeteries. Although their original owners were unknown, research by a growing number of amateur archaeologists of the bourgeois class determined that these were the graves of Germanic 'warriors', and their work, presented in provincial learned societies across France, documented evidence for significant numbers of Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths in late Roman Gaul. They thus challenged prevailing views in France of the population's exclusively Gallic ancestry, contradicting the influential writings of Parisian historians like Augustin Thierry and Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Although some scholars drew on this material evidence to refine their understanding of the early ancestors of the French, most ignored, at their peril, inconvenient finds that challenged the centrality of the ancient Gauls as the forebears of France. Crossing the boundaries of the fields of medieval archaeology and history, nineteenth-century French history, and the history of science, Effros suggests how the slow progress and professionalization of Merovingian (or early medieval) archaeology, a sub-discipline in the larger field of national archaeology in France, was in part a consequence of the undesirable evidence it brought to light."--Publisher's website.
9780199696710 0199696713
2011945236
016053031 Uk
Archaeology--History--France--19th century.
Archaeology and history--France.
Historiography--History--France--19th century.
Nationalism--History--France--19th century.
Merovingians.
France--Foreign relations--History--Germany--19th century.
DC36.9 / .E38 2012
944.013 / Ef49
Uncovering the Germanic past : Merovingian archaeology in France, 1830-1914 Bonnie Effros. - 1st ed. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012. - xxiii, 427 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm. - Oxford studies in the history of archaeology . - Oxford studies in the history of archaeology. .
Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-407) and index. Includes bibliographical references (p. [367]-407) and index.
Introduction -- Pt. 1. Archaeological research in nineteenth-century France. Centralizing archaeological research in nineteenth-century France ; Learned societies and archaeological research in nineteenth-century France -- Pt. 2. The politics of Merovingian archaeology. Developing approaches to Merovingian archaeology ; The politics of Merovingian-period finds ; Institutionalizing the amateur's craft ; Archaeological museums, Merovingian antiquities, and their audiences ; Public reception of Merovingian-period finds ; Epilogue: Merovingian archaeology on the eve of World War I and afterwards.
"Uncovering the Germanic Past brings to light an unexpected side-effect of France's nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution. While laying tracks for new rail lines, quarrying for stone, and expanding lands under cultivation, French labourers uncovered bones and artefacts from long-forgotten cemeteries. Although their original owners were unknown, research by a growing number of amateur archaeologists of the bourgeois class determined that these were the graves of Germanic 'warriors', and their work, presented in provincial learned societies across France, documented evidence for significant numbers of Franks, Burgundians, and Visigoths in late Roman Gaul. They thus challenged prevailing views in France of the population's exclusively Gallic ancestry, contradicting the influential writings of Parisian historians like Augustin Thierry and Numa-Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Although some scholars drew on this material evidence to refine their understanding of the early ancestors of the French, most ignored, at their peril, inconvenient finds that challenged the centrality of the ancient Gauls as the forebears of France. Crossing the boundaries of the fields of medieval archaeology and history, nineteenth-century French history, and the history of science, Effros suggests how the slow progress and professionalization of Merovingian (or early medieval) archaeology, a sub-discipline in the larger field of national archaeology in France, was in part a consequence of the undesirable evidence it brought to light."--Publisher's website.
9780199696710 0199696713
2011945236
016053031 Uk
Archaeology--History--France--19th century.
Archaeology and history--France.
Historiography--History--France--19th century.
Nationalism--History--France--19th century.
Merovingians.
France--Foreign relations--History--Germany--19th century.
DC36.9 / .E38 2012
944.013 / Ef49