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Scandinavian immigration onto the continent in the 10th century: archaeology of the invisible?
Conference
Published on
28 May 2015
Updated on
13 June 2017
Colloquia
The archaeology of Migrations
International colloquium organized by Inrap, in partnership with the National Museum of Immigration History.
November 12 and 13, 2015 at the National Museum of Immigration History.
Archaeology of Migrations
by Vincent Carpentier, Inrap
Whilst relatively well-documented in island regions, Scandinavian migrations have only left rare and often indirect material evidence on the continent, resulting in a relatively impoverished archaeology in comparison to the textual and linguistic history. Since the 19th century, a colonialist reading of the phenomenon prevailed, supported by the medieval scholar Michel de Bouärd, founder of the CRAM at the Université de Caen. These past two decades, the increased excavation of dwellings as well as numismatic discoveries are bringing about a revision of this concept. Breaking away from the obsolete presumptions of normanism, these new representations are founded in a cross-disciplinary study of exchange networks, cultural transfers and social transformations; they are studied on an international and not merely regional scale.
Vincent Carpentier is an archaeologist at Inrap, with a PhD in Medieval History and Archaeology from the Université de Basse-Normandie. He has led numerous excavations of Ancient and Medieval rural structures in Normandy and in the North-West of France, and has been particularly interested throughout his research in the history of coastal societies and environments. He has published numerous books and articles on the Middle Ages and Normandy. In relation to Scandinavian migrations, his work has specifically dealt with the settlement context in which the Vikings established themselves, their technical and cultural heritage, and the historiography of archaeological studies and interpretations relating to the County of Rouen and the First Normandy.
Bibliography
Bibliography
- CARPENTIER V. (2011), « Les Vikings en Normandie : archéologie d'un paradoxe identitaire », Les Dossiers d'Archéologie, 344, mars-avril 2011, p. 72-77.
- CARPENTIER V. (2014), « Dans quel contexte les Scandinaves se sont-ils implantés en Normandie ? Ce que nous dit l'archéologie de l'habitat rural en Neustrie, du VIIIe au Xe siècle », in BAUDUIN P., MUSIN A. E. (dir.), Vers l'Orient et vers l'Occident ; regards croisés sur les dynamiques et les transferts culturels des Vikings à la Rous ancienne, actes des colloques internationaux de Saint-Pétersbourg-Novgorod-Staraja Russa et Caen (2009), Presses universitaires de Caen, Publications du Crahm, p. 189-198.
- CARPENTIER V. (2014), « Du mythe colonisateur à l'histoire environnementale des côtes de la Normandie à l'époque viking : l'exemple de l'estuaire de la Dives (France, Calvados), IXe-XIe siècles », in BAUDUIN P., MUSIN A. E. (dir.), Vers l'Orient et vers l'Occident ; regards croisés sur les dynamiques et les transferts culturels des Vikings à la Rous ancienne, actes des colloques internationaux de Saint-Pétersbourg-Novgorod-Staraja Russa et Caen (2009), Presses universitaires de Caen, Publications du Crahm, p. 199-213.
- CARPENTIER V., MARCIGNY C. (2015), « Traces et absence de traces. L'archéologie moderne face au paradoxe de l'implantation des Vikings en Normandie », Nordiques, 29, printemps 2015, p. 25-43.
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