Theme:
4. People of the Present – Peopling the Past
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Multi-scalar Lives in the Early Medieval North Atlantic
Content:
Often the North Atlantic world is seen as the periphery – with the Mediterranean and Continental Europe at the centre during the first millennium AD. This session seeks to re-centre the Early Medieval North Atlantic, and the everyday lives of people around the North and Irish Seas using an interdisciplinary and multi-scalar framework. We ask how did the major socio-environmental shifts of c. 400-1100 (e.g. the decline of the Western Roman Empire, migrations and mobility, Medieval Climate Anomaly etc.) impact communities living in the region? For instance, how does evidence for migration in this region bear out in terms of localized lived experiences? Are there signs of resilience to climatic shifts? How did the development of long-distance trade and cross-cultural contact shape North Atlantic communities? How did people cope with raiding activity and diasporic settlements?
These questions (amongst others) require a truly multi-scalar and multi-disciplinary approach to weave together narratives strands of lived experiences in the Early Medieval North Atlantic. Therefore we welcome papers utilizing (but not limited to) biomolecular archaeology, computational approaches, landscape studies, and funerary archaeology on both local and large-scales to (re-)people the past of these seemingly liminal zones and networks and stimulate important discussions on future research directions for the region.
Keywords:
Early Medieval, North Atlantic, Multi-scalar, Lived experiences, Interdisciplinary approaches
Session associated with MERC:
yes
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Rachel Cartwright (United States) 1
Co-organisers:
Sam Leggett (United Kingdom) 2
Affiliations:
1. University of Minnesota
2. University of Edinburgh
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