Not the Dark Ages!

This course is available as both an in person and a recording only event. The recording will be made available to ALL attendees on the Monday following each weekly lecture and will be available for 4 weeks.

Petrarch, the Italian scholar, used the term “Dark Age” (saeculum obscurum), as early as the 1330s, to contrast the dark centuries after the collapse of the Roman Empire with the light of Antiquity. By the 19th century the phrase “Dark Ages” had been adopted by historians and art historians eager to downplay the achievements of the period after the demise of the Roman Empire in Western Europe between 500 and 800. Today this negative, disdainful term has been banished from academic circles, but it persists in general conversation, erroneously suggesting an era characterised by ignorance and incompetence. Each week of this five-week course will be devoted to the craftsmanship of a different group of the non-Roman peoples who settled Western Europe in the 6th-8th centuries, with a particular emphasis on metalwork, to showcase their technical flair, sophistication and cosmopolitan connections. We know less than we would like about the Goths, Merovingian Franks, Lombards and Anglo-Saxons, but there is no doubting their exacting aesthetic standards and superb technical expertise.

Lectures

Week 1 The Merovingian Franks
Week 2 The Ostrogoths
Week 3 The Lombards
Week 4 The Visigoths
Week 5 The Anglo-Saxons