"Bonnie Effros has written a succinct cultural history of early medieval archaeology from medieval relic translations to contemporary scientific archaeology. She shows how in every period the ideological and cultural assumptions of those exhuming the dead have determined how they proceeded and how they interpreted their finds. . . . It will be indispensable reading for anyone who hopes to enter the complexities of interpreting the material culture of late antiquity and the early middle ages."--Patrick J. Geary, author of ...
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"Bonnie Effros has written a succinct cultural history of early medieval archaeology from medieval relic translations to contemporary scientific archaeology. She shows how in every period the ideological and cultural assumptions of those exhuming the dead have determined how they proceeded and how they interpreted their finds. . . . It will be indispensable reading for anyone who hopes to enter the complexities of interpreting the material culture of late antiquity and the early middle ages."--Patrick J. Geary, author of "The Myth of Nations: The Medieval Origins of Europe" "This is a long overdue fundamental discussion of what archaeology can tell us about the history of the Frankish kingdoms. . . . Bonnie Effros also includes a very interesting history of Merovingian archaeology from the middle ages to this day. The book can thus also be read as a study of artifacts and their changing meanings throughout the course of European history. This is a highly original and successful point of view that makes the study an extraordinary contribution in its field and beyond."--Walter Pohl, Director, Institute for Medieval History, osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna ""Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages" is an original contribution to the long history of the archaeological engagement with the Early Middle Ages. Bonnie Effros confronts us with the most comprehensive intellectual assessment of this engagement, reaching from the early activities of ecclesiastics in the Middle Ages to the most recent interpretations of modern scholarship. The book is indispensable for any student on Early Medieval burial rites and will certainly find its way into the classrooms of universities."--Frans Theuws, Director, Amsterdam Archaeological Centre
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