Frisian is a name that came to be identified with one of the territorially expansive, Germanic-speaking peoples of the Early Middle Ages, occupying coastal lands south and south-east of the North Sea. Highly varied manifestations of Frisian-ness can be traced in and around the north-western corner of the European continent in cultural, linguistic, ethnic and political forms across two thousand years to the present day.

The thematic studies in this volume foreground how diverse « Frisians » in different places and contexts could be. They draw on a range of multi-disciplinary sources and methodologies to explore a comprehensive range of social, economic and ideological aspects of early Frisian culture, from the Dutch province of Zeeland in the south-west to the North Frisian region in the north-east. Chronologically, there is an emphasis on the crucial developments of the seventh and eighth centuries AD, alongside demonstrations of how later evidence can retrospectively clarify long-term processes of group formation.The essays here thus add substantial new evidence to our understanding of a crucial stage in the evolution of an identity which had to develop and adapt to changing influences and pressures.

JOHN HINES is Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University.

NELLEKE IJSSENNAGGER-VAN DER PLUIJM is Director of the Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden.

Table des matières :

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

1. Frisians of the Early Middle Ages: An Archaeoethnological Perspective
Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, John Hines and Ian Wood
2. For Daily Use and Special Moments: Material Culture in Frisia, AD 400-1000
Egge Knol
3. The Frisians and their Pottery: Social Relations before and after the Fourth Century AD
Annet Nieuwhof
4. Landscape, Trade and Power in Early-medieval Frisia
Gilles de Langen and J. A. Mol
5. Law and Political Organisation of the Early Medieval Frisians (c. AD 600-800)
Han Nijdam
6. Recent Developments in Early-medieval Settlement Archaeology: The North Frisian Point of View
Bente Sven Majchczack
7. Franks and Frisians
Ian Wood
8. Mirror Histories: Frisians and Saxons from the First to the Ninth Century AD
Robert Flierman
9. Structured by the Sea: Rethinking Maritime Connectivity of the Early-medieval Frisians
Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm
10. Art, Symbolism and the Expression of Group Identities in Early-medieval Frisia
J. A. W. Nicolay
11. Religion and Conversion amongst the Frisians
John Hines
12. Traces of a North Sea Germanic Idiom in the Fifth-Seventh Centuries AD
Arjen P. Versloot
13. Runic Literacy in North-West Europe, with a Focus on Frisia
Tineke Looijenga

Final Discussion
List of Contributors

Informations pratiques :

Frisians of the Early Middle Ages, éd. John Hines et Nelleke IJssennagger-van der Pluijm, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2023 ; 1 vol., 438 p. (Studies in Historical Archaeoethnology, 10). ISBN : 9781783275618. Prix : GBP 90,00.

Source : Boydell and Brewer