Settlement and Social Organization: The Merovingian Region of Metz

This book examines one region of north-eastern Gaul (that around Metz, in northeastern France and southern Germany) in the period between the end of the Roman Empire and the accession of Charlemagne. It is the first detailed regional study of a part of the Merovingian kingdoms to appear in English for almost twenty years. Using all available evidence, both documentary and archaeological, a new and multidisciplinary approach is adopted. The study deals with a broad range of historical themes. In particular, by looking at the reasons behind the creation of different forms of evidence, it examines how the different facets of social organization (ethnicity, gender, age and social hierarchy) were related intimately to each other and to contemporary settlement patterns of the region. As a result, it is argued that the Merovingian period was not one of slow 'transformation' from cRoman' to 'medieval' but was one of constant, dynamic social change and diversity, even between the recognized periods of dramatic upheaval.

Settlement and social organization

Settlement and social organization The Merovingian region of Metz

GUY HALSALL Birkbeck College, University of London

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK 40 West 20th Street, New York NY 10011-4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org © Cambridge University Press 1995 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1995 First paperback edition 2002 A catalogue recordfor this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Halsall, Guy, Settlement and social organization: the Merovingian region of Metz/GuyHalsall. p. cm. ISBN 0 521 44256 7 1. Metz Region (France) - History. 2. Merovingians - France - Metz Region. 3. Metz Region (France) - Antiquities. 4. Excavations (Archaeology) - France - Metz Region. 5. Metz Region (France) - Social conditions. I. Title. DC801.M65H36 1995 936.4-dc20 94-31106 CIP ISBN 0 52144256 7 hardback ISBN 0 521521890 paperback

To Mum, Dad, Jon and Liz

Contents

List of illustrations Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Notes on the citation of sources 1

Introduction

Part I

Social organization

page xi xv xvii xx 1

Introduction 2 3 4

21

Social organization: descriptive analysis of the documentary evidence Creating a model: cemeteries of the Merovingian civitas of Metz

26 75

Testing the model: cemeteries outside the civitas of Metz

110

Part II Settlement Introduction

167

5

Rural settlement

175

6

Intermediate settlement: castra, vici, palaces and monasteries

7

Urbanism in Metz

199 214

Part III Conclusions 8

Town and country, c. 350 - c. 600

245

9

The later Merovingian period

262

Bibliography Index

283 301

IX

Illustrations

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23

The civitas of Metz page 4 The 'region' of Metz 5 Physical geography of the region of Metz 6 Distribution of place-name suffixes, by commune, in the part of the civitas of Metz now in France 11 Places mentioned in chapter 3 75 Merovingian cemeteries in the civitas of Metz (including all possible sites) 76 78 Ennery cLes Trois Arbres': site-plan Numerical coding of artefact-types used in analyses described in chapters 3-4 80 Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': artefact associations 81 Ennery cLes Trois Arbres': grave seriation, and sex predictions 82 Ennery cLes Trois Arbres': association between artefact-type and age group 84 Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': predicting age and sex of disturbed graves 86 Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': arrangement of the grave 87 89 Ennery cLes Trois Arbres': distribution of grave-types Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': distribution of sexes 90 Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': average number of grave-goods in male graves, by age group 92 Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': numbers of artefact-types and grave-goods in adult male graves, by age group 93 95 Altheim cam Knopp': site-plan Berthelming 'Alt Schloss': site-plan - state of excavations in 1948 96 97 Bettborn cBienenzaun': site-plan Hayange Toret de Hamevillers': site-plan - state of excavations in 1910 101 Hayange Toret de Hamevillers': artefact associations 101 Hayange Toret de Hamevillers': grave seriation 102 Moyeuvre-Grande 'Kleiner Vogesenberg': site-plan 103 Walsheim 'am DorP: artefact associations 104 Wittersheim 'vor dem langen Zaun': site-plan 105 Lavish burials (1): graves with shield-boss, spur or item of horse-harness 107 XI

ILLUSTRATIONS

3.24 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 4.20 4.21 4.22 4.23 4.24 4.25 4.26 4.27

Lavish burials (2): graves with shield-boss, spur, item of horse-harness, bronze bowl, bucket, ango or balances and horse-burials Places mentioned in chapter 4 Classification of grave-types and number code for the ageing of skeletons Chaouilley caux Ecailles': site-plan Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles': artefact associations Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles': grave seriation Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles': average numbers of artefact-types, by age group Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles': cemetery organization - schematic plans Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches': site-plan Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 1: late fifth and early sixth centuries Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 1: artefact associations Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 1: grave seriation Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: mid- to late sixth century Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: artefact associations Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 2: grave types, and age and sex predictions Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 2: 'points systems' for age predictions Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 2: young adult and adolescent female burials Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 2: cemetery organization, and distribution of adult males and females Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: distribution of grave-types Lavoye £Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: numbers of artefacttypes and grave-goods in masculine graves Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: distribution of male 'prestige graves' Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: numbers of artefacttypes and grave-goods in feminine graves Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: distribution of female 'prestige graves' Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: seventh century Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: artefact associations Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: grave-types, and age and sex predictions Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: cemetery organization, and distribution of sexes Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: distribution of grave-types Xll

108 110 111 112 113 114 116 117 118 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 133 134 135 136 137 138 139

ILLUSTRATIONS

4.28 4.29 4.30 4.31 4.32 4.33 4.34 4.35 4.36 4.37 4.38 4.39 4.40 4.41 4.42 4.43 4.44 4.45 4.46 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: numbers of artefacttypes and grave-goods in masculine graves Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: numbers of artefacttypes and grave-goods in feminine graves Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: distribution of 'prestige graves' Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence': site-plan Dieue-sur-Meuse £La Potence', phase 1: sixth century Dieue-sur-Meuse cLa Potence', phase 1: artefact associations Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 1: grave seriation, and age and sex predictions Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 1: distribution of grave-types Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 1: comparison of gravesize and gender-specific grave-goods Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 1: comparison of gravesize and number of artefact-types Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 2: seventh century Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': site-plan Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': artefact associations Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': grave seriation Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': distribution of grave-types Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': comparison of grave-size and gender-specific grave-goods Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': comparison of grave-size, grave-goods and artefact-types Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': cemetery organization, and prestige graves Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': distribution of nails, potsherds, animal bones, shells and ashes Places mentioned in chapter 5 Roman settlement in the civitas of Metz The Seille valley survey Sixth-century and seventh-century cemeteries Eply-Raucourt, 'Haut de Villers' Places mentioned in chapter 6 Castra: Le Heraple Castra: Saarbriicken Castra: Sarrebourg Castra: Scarponne Castra: Tarquimpol Metz: sites mentioned in chapter 7 Metz: early Roman The Roman walls of Metz A seventeenth-century engraving of the small amphitheatre Archaeomagnetic intensity dating of tiles from St-Pierre-auxNonnains: results Xlll

140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 153 154 155 157 158 159 161 176 178 179 185 187 199 203 204 204 206 207 215 216 220 221 223

ILLUSTRATIONS

7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 7.11 7.12 8.1 9.1

Metz: c. 270 - c. 350 Metz: c. 350 - c. 400 Metz: c. 400 - c. 500 Metz: c. 500 - c. 550 Metz: c. 550 - c. 600 Metz: c. 600 - c. 700 Metz: c. 700 - c 800, and later Places mentioned in chapter 8 Places mentioned in chapter 9

xiv

225 226 229 232 234 235 237 245 262

Acknowledgements

This book is the barely recognizable descendant of an exceptionally erratic doctoral thesis (Halsall 1990). During the seven years, on and off, spent working on that thesis and this book, I have accumulated a number of intellectual and other debts which it is my pleasure to record here. Starting at home, I must express my thanks to my family and friends, who have always been ready with love and support when I needed them. Intellectually, my greatest debt is to Dr Edward James. I hope he will find in the ideas expressed here some reward for the personal and academic support he has given me, and for all his time, effort and, above all, patience during seven years as my undergraduate and post-graduate supervisor. I must also thank the examiners of my thesis, Bryan Ward-Perkins (Trinity College, Oxford) and Steve Roskams, for showing faith in a very crude preliminary sketch. I should, in particular, like to thank Steve, who has been a source of inspiration and encouragement since my first undergraduate days. I am pleased to record my thanks to the other medievalists of the University of York who have taught, helped and encouraged me over the years, in particular, Emeritus Professor Phillip Rahtz, Professor Barrie Dobson (now of Christ's College, Cambridge), Peter Biller, Tania Dickinson, Julian Richards and Peter Rycraft. In France my research benefited from the assistance of Mme M. ClermontJoly (Musee de l'Histoire du Fer, Jarville); M. J.-L. Coudrot and Mme M. Sary (Musees de Metz); Mme C. Aptel (Musee Historique Lorrain, Nancy); Mme D. Heckenbenner (Musee du Pays de Sarrebourg); Mme N. Dautremont, M. P. Thion, M. C. Lefebvre and M. P. Brunella (DAHL); Mile L. Roux (Archives departementales de la Moselle); and the staff of the Bibliotheque, Universite de Nancy II, and of the Mediatheque du Pontiffroy, Metz. In Germany I owe a huge debt of thanks to Professor Dr Frauke Stein (Universitat des Saarlandes), who gave me hospitality in Saarbriicken, as well as invaluable help with the area's cemetery archaeology, allowing me access to her excellent archive of notes on the subject. Back in the United Kingdom, Patrick Wormald (Christ Church, Oxford) and Paul Fouracre (Goldsmiths' College, London) have saved me from a number of errors. From the many, of omission and commission, which doubtless remain, it is more than usually necessary to dissociate all of the above.

XV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Finally, I should like to thank Dr Barry Coward and Dr Emma Dench, my colleagues in the Department of History at Birkbeck, for helping to keep me sane in the increasingly mad world of British higher education. Guy Halsall

XVI

Abbreviations

Primary sources Dipl Karol. + No. Ep. Aust. GC GDRF GM Gorze + No. Lex Ribv. LH LHF Lib.Ep.Mett. Pardessus + No. Pertz, Mayoral + No. Pertz, Royal + No. Pertz, Spuria + No. PLS Reg. Can. St-M. + No.

Charter in Miihlbacher (ed.) 1906, with its number in that collection. Epistulae Austrasiacae: Gundlach (ed.) 1957:403-70. Gregory of Tours, Liber in Gloria Confessorum: Krusch & Levison (eds.) 1969:294-370; Van Dam (trans.) 1988b. Gesta Dagoberti Regis Francorum: Krusch (ed.) 1888:396-425. Gregory of Tours, Liber in Gloria Martyrum: Krusch & Levison (eds.) 1969:34-111; Van Dam (trans.) 1988a. Charter of the Gorze cartulary with its number in d'Herbomez (ed.) 1898. Lex Ribvaria: Beyerle &c Buchner (eds.) 1951; Rivers (trans.) 1986:167-214. Gregory of Tours, Libri Historiarum: Krusch & Levison (eds.) 1951; Thorpe (trans.) 1974. Liber Historiae Francorum: Krusch (ed.) 1888:215328; Bachrach (trans.) 1973; Gerberding 1987:173ff (less complete but more accurate). Paul the Deacon, Liber de Episcopis Mettensibus: Waitz (ed.) 1878:260-70. Charter in Pardessus (ed.) 1843-9, with its number in that collection. Mayoral charter in Pertz (ed.) 1872. Royal charter in Pertz (ed.) 1872. Charter included in Pertz (ed.) 1872, Mayoral spuria section (pp.209-15). Pactus Legis Salicae: Eckhardt (ed.) 1962:1-267; Rivers (trans.) 1986:39-144; Drew (trans.) 1991:59156. Chrodegang, Regula Canonicorum: Pelt (ed.) 1937. Charter in the cartulary of St-Mihiel, with its number in Lesort (ed.) 1909-12. xvii

ABBREVIATIONS

TBLM VA VG VP VRAH VSM Wiss. + No.

Testament of Berthechramn of Le Mans: Busson & Ledru (eds.) 1901:101-41. Vita Arnulfi: Krusch (ed.) 1888:426-46. Vita Gaugerici: Krusch (ed.) 1896:852-8; Rouche (trans.) 1986. The page numbers used are those in Rouche's translation. Gregory, Vita Patrum: Krusch & Levison (eds.) 1969:211-94; James (trans.) 1991. Vita Romarici Abbatis Habandensis: Krusch (ed.) 1902:221-5. Gregory of Tours, Liber de Virtutibus Sancti Martini: Krusch & Levison (eds.) 1969:134-211; Van Dam 1993:199-303. Charter in the Wissembourg cartulary with its number in Glockner & Doll (ed.) 1979.

Archaeological Association Franfaise d'Archeologie Merovingienne. Direction des Antiquites Historiques de la Lorraine. Staatliches Konservatoramt Saarbriicken.

AFAM DAHL SKS

Periodicals, etc. Actes . . . Arch. Med. ASHAL VAustrasie BAR(B) BAR(S) Ber.RGZM Ber.SDS

XVlll

Actes des Xe Journees Internationales d'Archeologie Merovingienne. Metz 20-23 Octobre 1988 (Sarreguemines 1989). Archeologie Medievale. Annuaire de la Societe d'Histoire et d'Archeologie Lorraine. VAustrasie. Revue de Metz et de Lorraine. British Archaeological Reports (British Series). British Archaeological Reports (Supplementary Series). Bericht der romisch-germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz (a) Bericht des Konservators der geschichtliche Denkmdler im Saargebiet (vols.1-5, 1923-34). (b) Bericht der staatlichen Denkmalpflege im Saarland. Beitrdge zur Archdologie und Kunstgeschichte (vols.6- , 1953- ).

ABBREVIATIONS

BLAFAM BSAHM BSAL BSCMHA BSL CAHA JGLGA JSAL JVEM KWZGK LB LFS LS LT MAM MGH MHVP MSAHM MSAL RAE REL TRHS WG

Bulletin de Liaison de I'Association Francaise d'Archeologie Merovingienne. Bulletin de la Societe d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de la Moselle. Bulletin de la Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine. Bulletin de la Societe pour la Conservation des Monuments Historiques d'Alsace. Bilan Scientifique Lorraine. Direction Regionale des Affaires Culturelles. Service Regional d'Archeologie. Cahiers d'Archeologie et d'Histoire d'Alsace. Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft fur Lothringische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (became ASHAL after 1918) Journal de la Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine (BSAL after 1900). Jahrbuch des Vereins fur Erdkunde zu Metz. Korrespondenzblatt der Westdeutschen Zeitschrift fur Geschichte und Kunst. Linckenheld 1933. Linckenheld 1932a. Linckenheld 1931. Linckenheld 1934. Memoires de I'Acadamie Nationale de Metz. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Mitteilung des historische Vereins der Pfalz. Memoires de la Societe d'Archeologie et d'Histoire de la Moselle. Memoires de la Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine Revue Archeologique de I'Est et de Centre Est. REL 1901-3, vol. Ill (Ortsbeschreibung). Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Wolfram & Gley 1931.

xix

Notes on the citation of sources

Primary sources Where the abbreviation of a primary source's title is separated from the reference by a colon, the reference is to page numbers in the edition used (in other words, the source is not divided into books, chapters or verses). Elsewhere, references to book (using upper case Roman numerals), chapter (using arabic numerals) and verse (using lower case Roman numerals) are used where appropriate.

Archaeological discoveries References to yearly reports of acquisitions of local museums (e.g. 'Dons faits au musee' in JSAL), annual summaries of discoveries in the region, to proces verbaux of society meetings, the annual 'chroniques' in Archeologie Medievale or 'informations archeologiques' in Gallia (and to reports in the separate journal Gallia Informations) are given simply as the year of the appropriate volume, and the page number in question. References to the BSCMHA in which the page number is preceded by (SC) refer to the proces verbaux of the seances du comite, where these have a separate pagination within the volume. Only separate articles on individual sites, or groups of sites, are given as a separate Harvard-system reference.

xx

1 Introduction

A farewell to the 'longue dureey Three hundred years is a long time; in important respects it was even longer in the middle ages. With average adult life expectancy in the forties a man might expect to die before he had seen his grandchildren. From a twentiethcentury standpoint, however, we are accustomed to see the three hundred years of the Merovingian period as a single entity. Writers jump back and forth between the sixth and eighth centuries, and from the seventh to the fifth, and in doing so often make similarly huge spatial as well as chronological leaps from one anecdote to the next, crossing hundreds of miles in a single bound.1 The flaws of such methodology can be highlighted by the simple expedient of adding 1,000 years to the dates in question. An early modern historian would be ridiculed who claimed that the evidence from fifteenth-century Provence, eighteenth-century Prussia and sixteenthcentury Spain could be thrown together to make a single point about the nature of lordship, the status of women or patterns of family life. Yet the early medieval historian has come to accept such aggregation of evidence as valid, and the particular testimony of individual documents more generally applicable, in this period. This 'melting pot' approach denies significant regional diversity or dynamic social change. As a result, we have grown used to thinking of the period c. 450 - c. 750 as one of 'transition', from the cRoman' world to the 'medieval'; of the 'passage' from antiquity to feudalism. The image is of slow, barely perceptible change down a single path. Certain debates have focused upon the point on this unilinear 'path' at which slavery 'gave way' to feudalism, or where the ancient world 'yielded place' to the medieval (Anderson 1974; Wickham 1984; Bois 1992; Murray 1983:221 for explicit 'pathway' imagery). From this perspective, our participants in this transition will not have seen much change in their own lifetimes, even though their experiences were very different from those of their remote ancestors or descendants. The image of 'passage' or 'transition' also assumes that the situation on either 1

This approach is so common as to defy any fair or meaningful selection. It is, for example, rife in Doehaerdt 1978 (see, for example, pp.85-127). Even as prominent an early medievalist as Janet Nelson has not always escaped its temptations (cp. Nelson 1990:72-4). Similar, or worse, cases of diachronicity could be drawn from many other pieces, such as Halsall 1989. Morris (1992:10-11) makes a similar criticism of classical social history, and Van Dam (1993:13) of the study of saints' cults.

INTRODUCTION

side of the period of transition was, in some way at least, uniform or constant. This is, for example, a major flaw in Bois' (1992) analysis. This book attempts to confront such imagery. It is true that mid-eighthcentury society was very different from that of the mid-fifth. The 'passage' from one social organization to the other was not, however, pre-ordained. It is no mere truism to say that the 'passengers' themselves, the people of the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, did not know where they were going. They experienced many changes in their lifetimes. Those who lived through the stress of the early eighth century must have been aware of changes. But so too were those who lived in the turbulent days of the end of the Roman Empire and the break-up of its social order, and those alive in the decades around 600 when the aristocracy was consolidating its power. There were, in short, many changes in social organization between 450 and 750.2 Each change was brought about by social struggle, but each did not in itself mark a 'step' on the 'road' to feudalism. There was no reason why at each juncture a different outcome could not have been produced, why our passengers could not have carried on in a completely different direction, or even set off back to a social structure similar to that of the late Roman period (as far as kings were concerned, this was usually what they thought they were doing). The path from antiquity to feudalism in north-eastern Gaul was a difficult, winding and tortuous one, cut by the people of the time with few or no sign-posts to help them. Society changed dramatically between 450 and 750, but no more so than it had done between 150 and 450 or than it was to do between 750 and 1050. Single processes of transformation are only discernible with considerable hindsight. When we define them, from our modern viewpoint, we mask many histories, especially when we study predetermined transformations on a broad geographical as well as chronological scale. Studies which concentrate upon describing specific changes in the patterns of landholding suffer when they attempt to explain them in terms purely of lordship and dependence; should we not also examine the effects of such processes on family structures, gender relations, the social roles of age, fictive kinship and so on, and vice versa? The compartmentalized areas of social history, such as women's history or the history of the family, suffer similarly in their analyses by exclusion of the wider patterns of socio-economic interaction. The brilliance of Bloch's (1962) study of feudal society derives in part from its breadth of scope. The approach adopted here has been at once to narrow and to broaden: on the one hand to narrow the geographical basis of the study, but, on the other, to broaden its thematic coverage, though it is still by no means comprehensive. In these general terms, the agenda is not dissimilar to Guy Bois' in his examination of Lournand (1992) or that of Wendy Davies' (1988) excellent study of Carolingian Brittany. Though focusing on important social changes around 600 AD, I have retained the long, 300-year time-span, in order both to put these changes in perspective and to show how society did not remain static before or after these interesting decades. Although they 2

Goetz 1993:50 makes a similar point; he too, nevertheless (ibid.:34-5), treats all 'Germanic' law between c. 500 and c. 750 together to make a single point about post-Roman slavery.

INTRODUCTION

exist3, regional studies of the immediately post-Roman centuries have not yet been used to stress regional variation in the chronology of social developments or local diversity of experience. The reasons for this are, I suggest, twofold. The first is a belief in a kind of cultural uniformity of the postRoman West, be it founded in a homogenous Germanic culture,4 the common instincts of 'heroic' society, or both (Hedeager 1992), or in a common Roman heritage (Fouracre 1992). The second is a belief in the primacy of written evidence, which is sparse by later standards. Just as, as mentioned, it has frequently been drawn from very different times in order to make up a 'complete5 picture, so it has also been trawled from widely differing places. This aggregation of evidence, of course, produces a picture of monolithic early medieval society, and so we return to where we started: the view of the Merovingian period as one when it took 300 years to move from one social organization to another. Unidisciplinary analyses have exaggerated the problems just outlined, but so have studies of particular forms of evidence (settlement archaeology, burial archaeology, saints' lives, legal material, etc). The restriction to a single evidential form has produced mutually exclusive explanations of social change. For example, some settlement studies (Percival 1976:ch.8) hypothesize about the nucleation of society around powerful people, whilst studies of burial evidence (e.g. Samson 1987a) stress social instability, and competition. It is easy enough to criticize previous attempts at analysis; what are we to put in their place? To begin with, a 'multi-disciplinary' approach has been adopted. Rather than skipping back and forth from documentary data to archaeological, each body of evidence has been analysed on its own merits. Where possible, even different sub-types of data have been examined separately (this is particularly true of cemetery, rural settlement and urban archaeological evidence). Data have been contextualized as rigidly as possible in time and space, and conclusions reached from each category of information are merged at a higher, more critical level. The premise behind this approach is that cultural practices are deliberate, meaningfully constituted and historically contingent. This is true whether we are talking of the naming of children, the design of a belt-set, the lay-out and furnishing of a grave, the plan of a house or settlement, the contents and structure of a law-code, charter or saint's vita, or the specific words chosen to express a writer's thoughts. The use of particular grave-goods in individual burials, or of different shapes, sizes and colours of ceramics in varying contexts is thus deemed to be significant and studied as such. Internal semantic analysis of texts is also held to be valid; as has long been argued (cp. Campbell 1979), writers did not use words at random. 3

4

For example James 1977; Kaiser 1973; Rouche 1979. There are very many more artefactually based archaeological regional surveys. For the region in question, see the invaluable Clermont-Joly 1978; Simmer 1987, which contains a bizarre attempt at synthesis; and Stein 1989b. This is an incredibly pervasive idea, although founded ultimately upon Germanist philosophies of the last century. As another unfair example pulled from a veritable sea of possible instances, see the 'unity of culture and ethos in Germanic society' (Burnell 1988:402). Archaeologically it is manifested in the idea of the Reihengrdberzivilisation, the 'row-grave-civilization', spreading from northern Italy to northern England. This term reduces widespread regions to (blatantly false) cultural uniformity simply on the grounds that their inhabitants buried their dead with grave-goods, hardly a historically or geographically restricted phenomenon.

INTRODUCTION

Transformations in the nature of society will thus be represented in a broad spectrum of cultural traces. This study attempts to show how different areas of human activity reflected the same processes of social change. Its theoretical starting point has been influenced by the post-processual archaeology (e.g. Hodder 1986; Miller 1985; Shanks & Tilley 1987; Tilley (ed.) 1991), but some early medieval historians have recently been advocating a more rigidly contextualized approach to documentary evidence, studying individual texts separately and seeing them similarly as actively, meaningfully constructed and historically contingent (Fouracre 1990; Wood 1992a). Ultimately, we should see all our evidence as 'textual', whether the text be formed by the marking of recognized signs on parchment, or the arrangement and display of understood material symbols in burials.

The study area and its geography The study focuses upon the Roman civitas of Metz (fig. 1.1), whose bounds, it seems, later crystallized as the diocese of Metz (see below). The evidence from the civitas was often, however, found to be insufficient to test ideas

civitas of Toul

Fig. 1.1

The civitas of Metz

INTRODUCTION

about social organization, so evidence was selected from a slightly wider area, the region of Metz of the title (fig. 1.2), extending south and west of the civitas. Evidence from north and east of the diocese was not discussed, partly because the Triererland has been thoroughly, and splendidly, studied (Bohner 1958; Ewig 1954), and partly because of physical geography. The region of Metz forms the north-eastern corner of the Paris basin, bordered to the north and east by the Hunsriick, Pfalzerwald and the Vosges (fig. 1.3). The Vosges, sandstone mountain ranges reaching up to 1,420m above sea level at their highest, drop gradually to the Plateau Lorrain, the foothills reaching down to the Sarre valley. In this region the highest peak is Le Donon (1,009m), traditionally seen as the boundary between the civitates of the Leuci, Tribocci and Mediomatrici. The Plateau Lorrain, gently rolling country, generally between 200 and 300m above sea level, is formed of Jurassic limestone. It descends gradually to the Moselle valley to the west and the Seille valley to the south. Around the Seille valley is the Saulnois, roughly corresponding to the Merovingian Pagus Salinensis (see below), an area involved in salt production since prehistory. The border between the civitates of Metz and Toul appears to have run along a series of low hills, but this division is not strongly marked geographically. The Seille valley is broad and shallow and, to the north of Metz, the Moselle valley appears to be a continuation of this feature. South of Metz, the Moselle valley is narrow and, particularly to the west, quite steep sided, the slopes being heavily wooded. Whereas the ascent from Metz eastwards to the Plateau Lorrain is relatively gradual, moving west from the city one

(PfalzerwalcP) Saarbriicken rreguemines

'= Limit of region from which evidence was taken.

Fig. 1.2

The 'region3 of Metz

• N 0

10 20 Km

INTRODUCTION

] Land 300-600m Q L a n d 600-900m J above sea l _ J above sea level. leveL

I

| Land 9 0 0 - 1 , 2 0 0 m • Land 1,200m • 3 above sea H above sea

lleveL

•

Fig. 1.3 Physical geography of the region of Metz

Km

INTRODUCTION

is immediately confronted with a steep climb up the Cote de Moselle, wooded and difficult to cross. To the west of the Cote de Moselle is the plateau of the Woevre, the Merovingian Pagus Wabrensis, broken up by meandering water-courses and etangs of varying sizes. Further west, the boundary between the civitas of Metz and those of Toul and Verdun is not particularly well marked geographically. South of the Woevre the border between the civitates of Metz and Toul is clearly marked by the valley of the Rupt de Mad. The boundaries of the civitas of Metz are thus geographically much less pronounced to the south and west than to the north and east. The Merovingian diocese forms more of a unity with the remainder of modern Lorraine than with the regions of Trier, Worms, Speyer or Strasbourg, and this is visible in the material culture of the Merovingian period. The cemeteries of Alsace and especially those of the hilly Triererland are rather different from those of the much lower-lying civitates of Metz, Toul and Verdun.

Historical background5 The end of empire Exactly when the effective power of the Western Empire ceased to be felt in Gallia Belgica is a matter of debate. There may be a case for seeing the beginning of the end as early as 388, with the suppression of the usurper Magnus Maximus. It is difficult to see much imperial activity in the region after that date, though that may result from a gap in our sources, which might have been filled by the lost Histories of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus and Sulpicius Alexander (LH II.9). The extracts from Sulpicius quoted by Gregory of Tours hint that much of the government of the region had passed to the control of 'over-mighty' barbarian mercenaries, such as Arbogast, and that campaigns on the frontier could take on the form of licensed intertribal feuding. After the invasion of 406-7, during which, Fredegar (Chron. 11.60) claims, Metz was sacked, these suggested trends were exaggerated; barbarians and local 'tyrants' took the centre of the political stage. The extent to which Honorius' generals had restored stability by 420 should not be overestimated. Campaigns against the Franks were still necessary (as in 428) and the Burgundian kingdom, established by treaty in the north-east in 413, had to be destroyed in 436. By the 440s our fragmentary sources paint a picture of the dissolution of northern Gaul into a myriad of small local units, be they led by local Gallo-Romans (either the problematic Bacaudae or apparently legitimate local counts), officially sanctioned barbarian settlers (such as the 5

This account of the Merovingian history of the region need only be brief. For general histories see James 1982 and 1988a; Geary 1988; and, most recently and thoroughly, Wood 1994, which arrived just as the final touches were being put to this book. The essays in Wallace-Hadrill 1962 and 1975 retain their great value. For Austrasia itself, see Ewig 1952 and 1953; Cardot 1987; Picard 1988. Hermann (1963) summarized the state of research in many aspects of the history of the diocese of Metz in the early 1960s.

INTRODUCTION

Alans), or 'invading' barbarians such as Franks, Alamans and Saxons, to whom, though not technically barbarians, we might add Britons. By about 418 the administrative centre of Gaul had moved to Aries. The Trier mint ceased to strike for the emperors before 420. If any coins were minted there between 420 and 450 they were impoverished bronze cAe4' coins (Brenot 1991:172), and possibly a small series of silver imitation solidi which have sometimes been associated with Aetius (Lafaurie 1964), though King (1992) rejects this idea. In Gaul north of the Loire, the period between 420 and 451 can be characterized as political decentralization moderated by armed force. The military and diplomatic skill of the patrician Aetius gave a semblance of unity to the disintegrating edifice. Apart from Salvian's gloomy descriptions of the devastation of Trier and other cities, and of the hardships endured by the rural population, contemporary sources are almost silent about Belgica Prima. This phase was ended by Attila's invasion of Gaul in 451, which led to the famous sack of Metz on Easter Eve that year. The political events leading to the Hunnish defeat at the Catalaunian Fields, and those which followed the battle, culminating in the murders of Aetius and Valentinian III (4545), were decisive for Roman Gaul. Even more than those of Aetius, Aegidius' valiant attempts to maintain an effective imperial presence in Gaul between 454 and 464 can be described, borrowing Kapelle's (1979) excellent phrase, as 'government by punitive expedition'. It is, however, worth remembering that Aegidius was himself an 'illegitimate' leader for the last three years of his life. He was murdered in 464 and the Roman Empire north of the Loire came to an end.

The Frankish settlement In 443 the Franks sacked Trier. Perhaps in the late 450s they were campaigning in the Rhineland, driving Aegidius' troops, or more probably allies, from Cologne and Trier (LHF 8); in 463 they fought alongside Aegidius on the Loire, against the Visigoths (LH 11.18). James (1988a:64-77; 1988b) has argued that the extension of Frankish power into the Paris basin took place as early as the period between c. 460 and c. 481, under Childeric I. James' scenario, making the alleged Rex Romanorum Syagrius into a count of Soissons (1988a:71), accords well with the outline given above. Certainly the Moselle valley had come under Frankish influence by the later fifth century, whether through the medium of Frankish counts such as Arbogast of Trier (Sidonius Apollinaris Ep. IV. 17; Ep. Aust. 23), or of the petty kings of the Rhineland Franks (perhaps Arbogast himself was such a regalis). By 511 the Merovingian kings of the Salian Franks had acquired control of the region, which became part of the Teilreich of Clovis' eldest son Theuderic I. The idea that the Teilreiche resulted from the Merovingians treating their kingdom as partible family inheritance was challenged by Ian Wood (1977), who argued persuasively that the division was brought about by the political circumstances pertaining at Clovis' death. Theuderic had possibly been given a kingdom to rule during his father's lifetime. He was certainly old enough,

INTRODUCTION

as Gregory {LH III.l) makes clear. If the original promulgation of Salic Law is associated with Clovis, and there is no decisive reason to reject this traditional view, it may be that it was first issued in association with the Council of Orleans (511), just as the promulgation of Ripuarian Law is possibly to be associated with the Council of Clichy (626).6 The specification {PLS 47) that Salic Law applied between the Loire and the cCarbonarian Forest' has often (most recently Wood 1994:112) been used to date the code before 507, the battle of Vouille and Clovis' subsequent conquest of the rival Frankish kingdoms in the north-east. However, if we associate the earliest version of Salic Law with the Council of Orleans, the geographical provisions of clause 47 are less surprising. The bishops of what was to be Austrasia are not to be found among its signatories (Pontal 1989:47-58 and map 1); on the other hand, twenty out of thirty-two signatories are bishops of sees between the Loire and the Ardennes. With the former Gothic kingdom south of the Loire covered by the Breviary of Alaric, Clovis was perhaps promulgating a code for the remainder of his kingdom (southern Belgica II, Lugdunensis II and III, and Lugdunensis Senonia: the later Neustria). The lack of religious provisions in the Pactus would be explained by the promulgation, on the same occasion, of a series of canons from the council. If correct, this reading might suggest that the north-east (including the former rival Frankish kingdoms) was already ruled by Theuderic (this would be suggested by the signatories of the Council of Orleans in any case). If Theuderic did become sub-king in Austrasia by 511, Chlotild's political achievements on behalf of her sons, suggested by Wood (1977), were all the more remarkable. Whatever the case, by 511 the settlement of north-eastern Gaul by the Franks was long under way. Tracking the progress of Frankish colonization is extremely difficult (James 1979 remains essential). In the absence of written sources, archaeological cemetery evidence and toponymic data have been used. The archaeology of burials has given rise to two means of distinguishing Germanic settlers from indigenous Gallo-Romans. The first, physical anthropology, need not detain us long. Although, alarmingly, still recommended by the Director of the DAHL in 1988 (Burnouf 1988:114), and still popular in Merovingian archaeology, the scientific foundations of the approach are utterly invalid. The measurement of skulls, with longskulled, dolichocephalic individuals being Germans and round-skulled, brachycephalic persons being Gallo-Romans, still features in Merovingian cemetery reports (Simmer 1988) but has long been shown to be unjustifiable. The use of palaeopathological traits within cemetery-using populations to identify migrants and natives is similarly flawed, even in the rare instances where the results are statistically significant. Like many other aspects of Merovingian archaeology, it suffers from an inability to consider its premises. It is unlikely that there were two separate and physically distinct ethnic (let alone racial) groups within Merovingian north-eastern Gaul. Clearly 6

The most recent opinions of the date of Lex Ribvaria have rejected the early belief in a Carolingian, ninth-century date in favour of one in the reign of Dagobert (Rivers (trans.) 1986:7-11 and refs.). This could be placed in 622, when Dagobert was established as king in Austrasia, or in 631, when he placed his son, Sigibert III, on the throne at Metz. However, the events at Clichy, which established formal frontiers between Austrasia and Neustria and averted the threat of war, would seem to be a more plausible context.

INTRODUCTION

there were 'Roman' and 'German' elements but the two must have been inextricably mixed by the sixth century. In Lorraine, native Gallo-Romans were already adopting Germanic names and language (below, pp. 28-31). Similarly flawed, though even more widespread, is the use of burial customs to sketch out areas of Frankish settlement. Burial with lavish gravegoods has been assumed to be a 'Germanic' custom, whilst burial in a sarcophagus or with few or no grave-goods has been interpreted as Roman (Stein 1974). James (1979) rejected this interpretation, arguing instead that the spread of the custom represented the growth of Frankish lordship rather than the movement of Frankish people. Eight years later this article finally made an impression on archaeology in Lorraine, but was used to argue that there had been no Frankish settlement around Metz (Simmer 1987:392ff; 1988:155). Simmer agreed that Trankish' customs cannot be assumed to indicate Trankish' people but assumed that 'Roman' practices did reveal 'Roman' inhabitants; therefore there was no evidence of Franks in northern Lorraine! Even leaving aside the point that distribution maps of 'Frankish' and 'Roman' cemeteries, as has long been pointed out, reveal sixth- and seventh-century cemeteries respectively rather than different ethnic groups, the whole premise of the argument can be challenged. It can be shown that the introduction, around 400, of lavishly furnished burial into northern Gaul was not the result of the introduction of an incoming people's native funeral rites, but rather the product of social and political instability (Halsall 1992a; forthcoming:chs.5-6). The second general approach to the study of Frankish settlement has been through linguistic evidence, above all toponymic but also via the use of German words in documents. Place-names have been used in Lorraine, as elsewhere, to indicate the ethnicity of the local inhabitants. The suffixes -y, -ey, -ic(h) or -ac(h) are used to map the areas where Romans remained the dominant population element; -ing (or its derivative -ange), -ham and its derivatives, and other Germanic geographical names (-bach or -berg for example) have been used to plot areas of Frankish settlement. Places with the suffixes -ville or -court have usually been assumed to be hybrids or transitional names, resulting from the fusion of the two ethnic groups. James (1979:55-6) sounded warning notes about this approach, and the results of the study of early medieval place-names in England, where linguistic change was more significant, would rarely suggest that so straightforward an interpretation was justified. In Lorraine the conclusions drawn from toponymic evidence have often been simplistic. Records of place-names are uncommon before the eighth century. Even then, it is difficult to draw any direct conclusions. We do not know how long it took to change the dominant language of a region or to alter the usually accepted place-name. As examples we need look no further than Koln and Trier, cities which have lain in the heart of Germanic-speaking regions since the Merovingian period but which, twelve to fifteen centuries on, retain names clearly deriving from their Roman names, Colonia Agrippina and Augusta Treverorum. Even in the early modern period, place-names were still changing back and forth between German and Romance forms. Whether or not a settlement was given an -y or an -ing suffix may well have depended more upon the language 10

INTRODUCTION

spoken by the scribe than upon that of its inhabitants. Though the precise meanings of these suffixes were different, the extent to which they were interchangeable suggests that in practice they meant the same thing. The two languages coexisted happily, so that in 713 Weroald, an influential landowner in the middle Sarre valley (see ch.2) could grant to Wissembourg Abbey 'our villa at Chagambah [modern Waldhambach, Bas Rhin - a German place-name] which is called Distiagus [a Roman place-name, also recorded as Disciacus; Wiss. 192 and 256]'. Place-name construction may be more complex than is often supposed. Roman forms could be 'Germanized5 and vice versa. If the name BELLACUM recorded on some seventh-century coins is to be identified with Bellange (Heidrich 1974:84), we can see an example of this. The process of toponymic change was a long one, as has been noted. By the eighth century, in the western foothills of the Vosges, Germanic words for topographical features, such as bach or berg, and for settlements (e.g. hoba (farm)) or small areas (e.g. marca) were in use, but settlements retained Latin -acum and -villa suffixes (cp. Cilbociaga marca in 714 and Rimenuillare in 798; Wiss. 244 and 211 respectively). Place-names may, as James suggested for burial rites, result more from the ethnicity of the landowner than from that of local inhabitants. The location of place-names ending in -ing, -ange, -y, -ville or -court begs questions about the distinct groupings of these names (fig. 1.4). The

S>

a: -y and derivatives. b: -court. c: -ville and -viller &c. d: -ing. e: -ange.

Fig. 1.4

Distribution of place-name suffixes, by commune, in the part of the civitas of Metz now in France

11

INTRODUCTION

distribution of 'Germanic5 place-names may give an idea of the general area within which Germanic languages came (by whatever date) to predominate, but little more. The idea that -ville and -court names are hybrid is questioned by the fact that these do not lie between zones of 'Roman' and 'German' names but are rather separated from the latter by the former. Figure 1.4 reveals micro-regional place-name 'dialects', local preferences for one of this array of suffixes meaning 'settlement'. The region's place-names reveal only the long-term end results of Frankish settlement. Documentary studies do, however, show that Simmer's idea (1987:395) that 'Mosellan' dialect is pre-Roman and unrelated to Frankish settlement is simply untenable. The transition from Latin to German forms can, as mentioned, be revealed as still under way in the eighth century and later. The exact routes and chronology of Frankish settlement cannot then be examined, but the premise upon which such an image of migration is based may be mistaken. As will be argued (ch.2), early medieval ethnicity was more than a simple matter of the geographical origins of one's ancestors. Ethnicities could be adopted and abandoned in the social confusion surrounding the western Empire's collapse, and important light can be shed upon the means by which the inhabitants of the region of Metz 'became' Frankish. What is certain is that the Frankish and Alamannic migrations contributed significantly to this social confusion.

Metz becomes a 'capital' In the sixth century the Merovingian kings of Austrasia transferred their principal seat from Reims to Metz. The date of this needs fuller consideration. Fredegar (Chron. 111.29) tells us that Metz was a 'capital' from the death of Clovis I (511), but could well have based his statement upon the fact that Metz was the chief Austrasian royal residence in his own day (the seventh century). Gregory states that in the 561 division of the kingdom, Sigibert of Austrasia had his seat at Reims (LH IV.22). By 566, however, he had moved to Metz, where he married Brunechildis (Venantius, Carm. VI. 1). The Vita Goaris Confessoris Rhenani (c. 9) refers to Sigibert's court at Metz. Theudebald I had had some connection with Metz, having called a synod there for the election of the bishop of Clermont in 551 (L//IV.7). Sigibert may have wanted to identify himself with the first Austrasian royal dynasty by choosing as his principal urban residence a royal seat of the last representative of that line. When Bishop Cautinus of Clermont (the successful claimant at the synod of 551) died in 571, Sigibert had his successor, Avitus, brought to Metz and consecrated in the royal presence (LH IV.35), by then well established in the city. In 566 Venantius (Carm. III. 13) referred to Metz as patriae ducis, indicating its supremacy within the realm, and the establishment of the royal seat at Metz must be placed in that decade. From then on, the civitas remained in the Teilreich of Austrasia and the town's importance grew rapidly. A church council was held there in 590 (L//X.19), to try Bishop Egidius of Reims, and we can snatch glimpses of life in the area from Gregory of Tours. An outbreak of dysentery swept the 12

INTRODUCTION

area in 587 (LH IX.13) and Frankish troops from Champagne, on their way to join an invasion of Italy, sacked the city in 590. McNamara, Halborg and Whatley (McNamara et al. (trans.) 1992:138-9) propose an ingenious explanation for this attack, but their introduction to the Vita Glodessindis is factually unreliable. The survival of three comparatively unimportant letters to bishops of Metz in the Epistulae Austrasiacae, otherwise generally a diplomatic collection of letters between the Austrasian and east Roman courts, suggests that the collection originated in royal archives at Metz. In 596, when Childebert II died, his elder son Theudebert II received Austrasia c with his seat at Metz' (Fredegar, Chron. IV. 16). On Theuderic IFs death at Metz (Vita Columbani 1.29; Fredegar, Chron. IV.39), of dysentery according to Fredegar, Brunechildis was also at the 'capital' with his sons (ibid. IV.40). In 631 Dagobert collected his army for a Thuringian campaign at Metz (ibid. IV.74) and in the following year the importance of the city was underlined when Dagobert placed his young son Sigibert on the throne of Austrasia, with 'Metz as his headquarters' (ibid. IV.75). On Dagobert's death, Sigibert's share of the royal treasure was presented to him and inventoried at Metz (ibid. IV.85). Wettinus' Vita Galli (c. 22) states that Sigibert was married there, and built a nunnery in Metz. Later tradition (Sigibert of Gembloux's mid-eleventh-century Vita S. Sigiberti Regis) claims that he was buried near Metz at the church of St Martin, the modern St-Martin-les-Metz. Sigibert of Gembloux would have us believe that the king built this church but, as Gauthier (1986:52) points out, the Vita Romarici also refers to a church of St Martin beyond the walls in 612. The church must have been situated outside the town since, after praying there, Romaric returned to the city (regressus ad civitatem; VRAH 3).

The later Merovingian period The period between c. 566 and c. 651 seems to have been the cgolden age' of Metz's political importance. This impression may, however, result from the unevenness of our evidence. We have hardly any evidence for the narrative history of the town between the death of Sigibert III and the end of the Merovingian dynasty. In 651, after Sigibert Ill's death (Gerberding 1987: 50ff for the date), Grimoald, the Austrasian mayor of the palace, put his son, Childebert 'the Adopted' on the throne. As Gerberding (1987:ch.4 and refs.) shows, Grimoald held his position for perhaps as long as six years before being ousted by his opponents and the Neustrian Clovis II (Gauthier 1980:265 reached a similar conclusion). In 675, after a disastrous attempt to rule with 'absolute powers' in the style of his sixth-century predecessors, the Austrasian king, Childeric II, was assassinated. Whether or not messengers were dispatched to Dagobert II in Ireland immediately after the murder, the Austrasians managed without a king for about six months between autumn 675 and April 676, 'government' passing (probably briefly) to the mayor, Wulfoald, and then to the Arnulfings Pippin 'IF and Martin. The region and its magnate families certainly played an important part in seventh-century history. The Arnulfings held estates in the region 13

INTRODUCTION

(Hlawitschka 1962). One of Grimoald's supporters, the deacon AdalgiselGrimo, held estates which clustered between Metz and Verdun (Levison 1948b). Possible opponents of Grimoald, and his affinal relatives the Arnulfings, may also have held estates in the civitas of Metz. Fredegar (Chron. IV.86; IV.88) tells how one of Grimoald's chief rivals for mayoral power between 638 and 641 was 'Otto the son of Uro the domesticus'; Grimoald had him killed by Leuthar the duke of the Alamans (who in turn may have been related to the family which founded and endowed St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in Metz; Gauthier 1980:295-7; below ch.7). A charter of 669-70 (Pertz, Royal 29) shows Childeric II reorganizing the forests of the Pippinid monastery of StavelotMalmedy. The men detailed to mark out new boundaries were the domesticus Hodo and Duke Gundoin (Gerberding 1987:123-4). Hodo may well have been related to the Otto killed on Grimoald's orders; the Annales Mettenses Priores (s.a.688) allege that a Gundoin killed the Arnulfing Ansegisel. The families of a Gundoin and of a Count Audoin (in some charters called Otto) are shown by the Wissembourg cartulary to have held extensive lands in the Seille and Sarre valleys (below ch.2; ch.5). It does not seem at all unreasonable to identify the two royal officials of 669-70 with the fathers (both deceased by 699-700) of the families who gave land to Wissembourg (Ewig 1953:137 n. 152; Ebling 1974:64-6, 167-8). As we shall see (ch.2), these two families seem to have been, if not related, then closely associated. Probably allied, and related by marriage, to these families was that of Count Wulfoald, a probable descendant of the Mayor Wulfoald who died shortly after Childeric II. This family possessed a significant base in the south-west and southern edge of the region of Metz, and in 707/8 Wulfoald constructed a castrum at St-Mihiel against the Arnulfings. This was later confiscated and made into a monastery (Gauthier 1980:397). That these families still controlled an important territorial base in the early eighth century is, if it were needed, further evidence that the rise of the Arnulfings was by no means assured before Charles MartePs supremacy. This idea is further supported in a local context by Gerberding's (1987:139 n. 39) argument that the region of Metz was one of the last areas of Austrasia to fall into line behind Charles Martel, not doing so until after the battle of Vinchy. The stress of the second decade of the eighth century and the Arnulfings5 eventual victory, are perhaps attested by the rash of charters of Charles MartePs opponents to Wissembourg Abbey. The sons of Gundoin and Weroald son of Audoin donated almost all of their estates to the abbey, whilst their associate, Chrodoin, entered into a possibly protective relation of dependence upon it (cp. Wiss. 195). The connection with Metz, so important to Carolingian propaganda (Oexle 1967), probably stems from the town's continuing political importance, rather than any genuine claim to be the Arnulfings' ancestral and political heartland. The Arnulfings' questionable standing in the region can be further examined through a study of Messin episcopal politics.

Ecclesiastical history The region's ecclesiastical history is thoroughly covered by the work of Nancy Gauthier (1980). Werner (1979:155 n. 22) draws attention to one 14

INTRODUCTION

bishop apparently omitted from the episcopal lists, an Abbot Gundulf, whom Venantius (Vita Radegundis 13) says became bishop of Metz. Using the problematic methodology of basing hypothetical relationships upon the supposed existence of 'leading names' within families, some tenuous possibilities emerge. Bishop Gundulf may have been connected to Gregory of Tours' maternal great-uncle, Duke Gundulf (almost certainly Gundulf the subregulus, to whom St Arnulf was entrusted for his education; VA 3). He would then be associated with a family which prospered in the service of the Austrasian royal house. The next two prelates were possibly members of the royal family. Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:264) alleges that Bishop Agiulf was descended from one of Clovis I's daughters. Elziere (1993: n. 45), drawing on dubious Carolingian sources, creates a link with Theudebert I's wife, Deuteria. Agiulf's successor was his nephew (or grandson), Arnoald. After him, Papolus could (though the name is common) have been the Count Papolus whom Venantius (Carm. VI.8) mentions in the royal entourage on the Moselle, or at least one of his relatives. It is possible that the see based upon the royal capital was reserved for faithful servants of the king or members of their families. In 616, Berthechramn of Le Mans bequeathed certain unidentifiable estates to Arnulf of Metz. These are said to have been held and ravaged 'with iniquity' by cEgulf and Arnoald' and given to Berthechramn by Chlothar II (TBLM:129; Gauthier 1980:376-8). These two are without doubt Agiulf and Arnoald, the bishops of Metz. The bishop of Le Mans was being ordered by Chlothar II to return confiscated lands to the see of Metz. The reigns of Bishops Arnoald and Papolus have to be compressed into a short period between 601, when Agiulf is attested in a letter of Gregory the Great to Brunechildis, and Arnulf's appointment in 614 (Gauthier 1980:377 for the date). But this was a time of great political turmoil. Gauthier (ibid.) suggests that the see of Metz was vacant from the time of Chlothar II's invasion of Austrasia (613) until after the Council of Paris (614). Agiulf and Arnoald's 'iniquitous' seizure of land demonstrates their active partisanship of Brunichildis during the civil wars, and, as outlined, Papolus may also have supported Brunechildis. Perhaps he was driven out, and possibly killed, when Chlothar II invaded Austrasia and wiped out Theuderic II's family in 613. We can then see Arnulf, one of the ringleaders of the faction which invited Chlothar into Austrasia, eventually being rewarded with the diocese of Metz. In expelling Brunechildis' party, Chlothar returned certain 'ravaged' estates to Berthechramn of Le Mans, another distant relative. Arnulf's appointment continued the tradition of having a trusted supporter as bishop of Metz, and he was soon appointed to be one of the young Dagobert I's nutritores. Arnulf may not have been popular in Metz. His departure from the city for a hermitage in the Vosges may not quite be straightforward evidence of his sanctity (Prinz 1965:141, 144 suggests political disgrace; Cracco Ruggini 1992:131 disagrees). His vita stresses repeated strife with local secular magnates and indeed with the kings, and even records that one local magnate actively opposed the translation of Arnulf's remains back to Metz.7 Parisse 7

It has recently been suggested that the Vita Arnulfi, rather than being written by a contemporary of the saint, as the text claims, was instead written in the early eighth century and associated with the Carolingians (Wood 1988:371). Given that Pippin 'IF and his family began their association with the

15

INTRODUCTION

(1987:41) suggests that Arnulf's burial at the church of the Holy Apostles, away from previous, and subsequent, bishops (at St-Simphorian) could be taken as evidence of some friction. We might interpret the Vita Arnulfi in line with Fouracre's (1990) model, as a Life composed, from a safe chronological distance, to smooth over local difficulties by rewriting local history and an unpopular bishop's place therein. Hence the stress laid by the vita's author on the king's and the citizens' wailings and remonstrations on Arnulf's departure from his see. The cult of Arnulf developed only slowly (Parisse 1987:41). The church where he was buried was not usually known as St Arnulf's until the Carolingian period. Arnulf's son Chlodulf was buried there in the late seventh century, probably at about the same time as the earliest Arnulfing privilege for the church (Pertz, Mayoral 2). The family's first major use of the shrine came in the crisis period of the first decades of the eighth century when Drogo son of Pippin CIF was buried there. The tradition of political appointments to the see continued. Arnulf's successor, Goeric-Abbo, was one of the mid-seventh-century churchmen who served their apprenticeship at the court of Dagobert I, of whom Eligius of Noyon and Desiderius of Cahors are perhaps the most famous. Abbo was one of the three recipients of the testament of Dagobert I (GDRF 39). The next bishop, Godo, may have been an advisor of Sigibert III (cp. Gauthier 1980:390). Gauthier doubts the identification, seeing the Godo in question rather as the contemporary bishop of Verdun. However, it is plausible that a bishop of Metz advised a king with such strong connections with the city as Sigibert III. Chlodulf, Arnulf's son, later became bishop of Metz, despite a reputation for impiety in his youth (Lib.Ep.Mett.:264-5), something else suggesting that the stories circulating in Metz about the Arnulfings were not uniformly favourable. He too was of the circle of Desiderius of Cahors and Goeric-Abbo (Gauthier 1980:391) and was appointed some time during the 650s,8 thus, again following Gerberding (1987:ch.4), probably during the period when his cousin, Grimoald, had taken power in Austrasia. If his appointment was associated with Grimoald, he nevertheless seems to have survived his cousin's downfall. Chlodulf's successor Abbo II may have been in attendance on Clovis III, witnessing three of his charters (Pardessus 355, 431, 451), but the Bishop Abbo in question is more likely to have been the contemporary bishop of Troyes (Gauthier 1980:394). Nevertheless, the next bishop, Aptatus, may well have been one of Clovis Ill's referendaries ( b i d )

At the very end of the period, Bishop Chrodegang, later to play a prominent part in the usurpation of Pippin the Short, had earlier been referendary to Pippin's father, Charles Martel (Lib.Ep.Mett.:267). Chrodegang's predecessor Sigibald had been involved in the land transaction in 707/8 (Gauthier 1980:397) which allowed the anti-Arnulfing Count Wulfoald to create a fortified outpost at St-Mihiel. Metz's position in the heartland of Austrasian

8

cult of Arnulf in the late seventh century (see below), it is odd that the vita makes no mention of the names or descendants of Arnulf's two sons. This lacuna makes more sense if the text was indeed written in the 660s to 680s5 when Arnulf's family was in the political wilderness, and its association with the mayor Grimoald not something to be stressed. See also ch.9 n. 1, below. According to the Liber de virtutibus sanctae Geretrudis (c. 2) he was bishop by 17 March 659.

16

INTRODUCTION

opposition to the Arnulfings, and its tardiness in joining Charles Martel, have already been noted. Sigibald lived long, and Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:267) cannot conceal that he was much venerated in the area. All this must have been somewhat inconvenient for Charles Martel, who narrowly predeceased Sigibald. It may have been with some relief that Carloman placed his father's trusted follower, Chrodegang, on the episcopal throne. Chrodegang's subsequent refounding of Sigibald's cell of St-Paul, as St-Nabor (now St-Avoid; ibid.:268), takes on added meaning.

Administration It has been suggested that the civitas framework did not survive in northeastern Gaul (James (trans.) 1991:106 n. 4). Though cited as such, Gregory of Tours' description of Nicetius as bishop of the Treveri rather than as bishop of Trier does not seem to be particularly conclusive evidence; the use of the tribal name rather than that of its city-capital might indeed prove that, on the contrary, the old administrative system founded on pre-Roman tribal units was still very much in force. The problem is perhaps best examined chronologically. In the late sixth and early seventh centuries, both Metz (Fredegar, Chron. IV.38) and Trier (L//VIII.15) are recorded as having dependent territorial which surely equate at least vaguely to the old civitates. More problematic is the question of whether or not a single count of the civitas existed in Metz. It has been assumed that one did, but it must be conceded that the assumption is founded upon no explicit testimony. Documentary data from Metz, most notably and surprisingly the Vita Arnulfi, make no mention of a count of Metz. It might be supposed that the institution did not survive in the north-east. Instead, Gregory of Tours' reference to a duke at Metz (LH VIII.21) could lead us to suppose that the old civitas was incorporated in a wider area, possibly equating to modern Lorraine, governed by a duke. However, Gogo's letter to Petrus (Ep.Aust. 22) refers to a 'leader of the citizens'. This must be some kind of secular official, if not the count then perhaps a defensor civitatis. If the latter office had survived at Metz, it seems odd that that of comes had not. A count existed at Trier in the 470s (Sidonius, Carm. IV. 17; Ep.Aust. 23) but his precise role is obscure (Barnwell 1992:35-6). There were, nevertheless, counts north of the Loire at Rouen, Meaux and Cambrai in the 580s (L//VI.31, VIII.18; VG:283). Venantius Fortunatus mentions two counts in Austrasia (Carm. VI.8, VII. 16). Frankish law refers on several occasions to counts or grafiones. There were certainly counts, evidently broadly equivalent to southern comites civitatum in the heart of the Austrasian kingdom (Murray 1986). Nevertheless, counts of civitates in the north-east are rarely mentioned as such in our sources, dukes certainly being more prominent. If there was a weakening of the civitas unit, this would support the hypothesis of social and administrative confusion and discontinuity between the late Roman and Merovingian periods in north-eastern Gaul. In the seventh century, we find that the civitas of Metz had divided into pagi and that, by this period, these were more important than the old civitas 17

INTRODUCTION

unit. From written sources, we know of the Pagus Salinensis (the Seille valley), the Pagus Sarroensis (the Sarre valley), the Pagus Mosellensis (the Moselle valley, north of Metz) and the Pagus Scarponensis (the area north and west of Scarponne). In later sources, a Pagus Mettensis around Metz itself is mentioned, but in at least one case this seems to be an error for Pagus Mosellensis. The Pagus Aquilensis around the river Eichel in the far east of the region does not seem to have become established as a formal administrative unit during the Merovingian period. Similarly the Bliesgau (the Blies valley in the modern Saarland) is not attested in Merovingian documents. A Count Willibert is mentioned in the Pagus Sarroensis in the early eighth century (Wiss. 192). The pagi were further divided into hundreds, administered by centenarii; Chardoin the centenarius, apparently one of Willibert's officials, is a frequent witness to early eighth-century Wissembourg charters. Some of these pagi can be shown to spread across later diocesan boundaries, perhaps supporting the notion that the civitas structure had broken down in the north, at least by the seventh century. It seems that the old civitas, by this date, survived only as an ecclesiastical unit.

18

Parti Social organization

Introduction

Part I concerns the 'ordering5 of communities, its basis and the mutual human relationships which go to make it up. This introduction aims to present a way of seeing early medieval society, and a provisional vocabulary for use in this study. This does not claim to be a general, fully formulated theory in the manner of Runciman's (1983; 1989) of social evolution, or Mann's (1986) of power. It simply represents the stage which my heuristic system, my 'mental map3 of the workings of society (which, like anyone else's, is constantly developing), had reached when this study was conducted; it is a statement of the framework within which the latter was carried out. Making this framework explicit should nevertheless make it easier to engage critically with the ideas expressed here. Social relations are governed by the interplay of identities. An individual may adopt one or more of a number of different identities in relationships with any other individual, choosing, where appropriate, to accentuate similar or different identities depending upon the situation, selectively emphasizing or playing down that which either unites or divides (cp. Bourdieu 1977:41). Identities may relate to one's position in a social hierarchy of ranks or classes (see below), one's family, one's age, or one's gender, religion or ethnicity. The nature of any of these identities may be ascribed by other people, or created or chosen by those sharing that identity. When differentiation is stressed, identities raise and play upon barriers between people. For ease of description, I have divided such barriers into vertical, horizontal and diagonal. Horizontal barriers are those between people of different ranks or classes (see below); vertical barriers are those based upon gender differences cutting down through the social hierarchy; age difference can be perceived as a diagonal barrier; kinship identities form another kind of diagonal barrier, between different families. Ethnicity and religion might be seen as similarly 'diagonal' but I have chosen to treat ethnic identities as a separate category. The barriers created by the adoption of an identity should not be viewed as constant. At any one place or time, the nature of certain barriers may be affected by the others. Gender or kin-group identity might differ greatly on one side or other of specified horizontal barriers. The barriers between particular identities may be negated by stressing another common identity. Thus, for example, gender difference may be played down in favour of common rank or class (see below), age or kin-group; difference in rank or class may be modified by stressing common age, gender, kin-group or ethnic identity. Some social groupings are created to modify the effect of certain 21

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

barriers, usually by raising others, thus creating unity amongst one group by excluding others. The creation of lordship, patronage, dependence or protection networks is one such example. Fictive kinship (see below, ch.2) helps to create other groupings. The nature and strength of the barriers define the space within which an individual can act to further his or her aims, and indeed to alter the barriers' strength and nature. This relationship between the possibilities of action and the nature and knowledge of the barriers limiting it equates to some extent to Bourdieu's (1977) notion of the habitus. Social action is then a question of playing within (but also with) the rules which define these barriers. A person's identity is thus formed by his or her position on the 'map' of society, formed by the network of barriers. This is, however, in a state of constant renegotiation. Especially when the nature of a barrier is not institutionalized, it is formed by the accumulation of all known previous interactions between particular different identities; in other words, where there is no institutionalization it is governed purely by the habitus. It can never be exactly reproduced and all social interaction affects the nature of the barriers between individuals; births, marriages, deaths cause major redefinitions of the 'social map'. Hence we cannot accept the imagery discussed in chapter 1, wherein a single change takes effect over three centuries. As Shanks and Tilley say (1987:212), 'it is stability rather than social change that needs explaining'.

Vocabulary The barriers between individuals, raised by stressing a particular identity, and the extent to which they can be overcome in social strategies, are based upon many factors. Social actors can play with any number of these. A vocabulary must now be proposed, defining certain of these factors, and other concepts of use in discussing early medieval social history. Status: the standing, based upon mutually-accepted norms, of any individual in any sphere, with relationship to any other individual. Status can only correctly be used in this broad sense; the frequent use, by some archaeologists and historians (cp. Filmer-Sankey 1992:49; Amory 1993:14), of status to mean rank is erroneous and misleading. Value and worth: certain types of people were buried with lavish gravegoods, or were accorded high legal standing, but the reasons for this made it misleading simply to talk of them as having high status or prestige (q.v.) within the community (below, chs. 2-4 and 8-9). It was important to distinguish between 'passive' and 'active' forms of high status, for which, respectively, the terms value and worth were used. By the former is meant status ascribed by others according to external, 'institutionalized' definitions of an individual's social role, and its value to other community members. Value is often ascribed to those whose actions can be profitably controlled

22

INTRODUCTION

by others. 'Active' status, worth, means status acquired by an individual from his or her actions or acquisition of skills. Those with worth control their own actions and are free to make decisions. Both forms of status may bring prestige (q.v.) but it is important to note the differing foundations of this high status. In particular, once someone ceases to occupy a role defined as of value, they lose the high status it brought, unless they used it actively to create worth for themselves. Power: the ability to achieve aims, vis-a-vis other individuals. Prestige: positive status, giving possible power to the individual. Privilege: the right to power over certain, often defined, individuals. Prestige may lead people to expect others to conform to their wishes; those with privilege have an accepted right to expect this. Mention of people with defined power over other people leads to discussion of forms of status based upon membership of certain kinds of social grouping. Rank: status based upon a position in a legally-recognized hierarchy. Slave, semi-free and free are examples of ranks. Class: class will be used here to describe groups of people who occupy a recognized position in society but not one which is necessarily legally recognized. This position may be one within a loose hierarchy; the de facto powerful, the rich and influential, may constitute a class. On the other hand a class may relate to other dimensions of social organization; various kinds of craftsmen, or religious groups, may form classes. It is important here to distinguish 'hierarchical class', that is informal ranking, from other forms of class. Weber's (1982:69) definition of class is useful (the italics are my own): 'Class situation' means the typical probability of 1. procuring goods 2. gaining a position in life and 3. finding inner satisfaction, a probability which derives from the relative control of goods and skills and from their income-producing uses within a given economic order. 'Class' means all persons in the same class situation.

The Weberian concept of 'status group3 has been ignored. Such groups are discussed as particular forms of class. It is also important to distinguish between cclass in itself and 'class for itself, that is to say between cases where groups of people simply find themselves, de facto, in a similar position on the 'social map', within a similar 'class situation', and those wherein people have a clear consciousness of a class identity and of a common strategy in maintaining or improving their class situation. Here, when considering social hierarchies, there will frequently be several 'classes' within each 'rank'.

23

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

A working distinction in the terminology for ruling classes must also be proposed: Aristocracy: 'rule by the best', that is to say the most powerful, people. Such power has no necessary legal or constitutional base and may be acquired and lost from one generation to another, or even within one lifetime. Nobility: rule by, in our terms, a rank, acquired by birth, and thus transmitted from one generation to another. The privilege of being a noble can only be lost in exceptional circumstances. The aim of most aristocracies is to turn themselves into a nobility. Though the two are not, it must be stressed, mutually exclusive, these types of ruling group can be distinguished by a number of oppositions: Aristocracy : Nobility Class : Rank Prestige : Privilege Status may also be defined by one's position, gender or age. Such status may be formally institutionalized or left informal. At the other end of the social hierarchy, the following definition is adopted: Peasant: my definition of peasant is based upon that of Shanin (1987:25): peasants are 'small agricultural producers, who, with the help of simple equipment and the labour of their families produce mostly for their own consumption, direct or indirect, and for the fulfilment of obligations to the holders of political and economic power [my italics]' (Shanin 1987:3). Whether or not the above terms and their usage find general acceptance, it is to be hoped that the use of more explicitly defined terms will result in greater clarity and precision. They are, in Hodder's (1986:18) phrase, 'provisional but precise'.

Methodology The foregoing discussion of the barriers within society and provisional vocabulary represents, it must be stressed again, an analytical tool, a 'way of seeing', and not an end in itself. Our concerns must be: 1. To examine the relative strengths of the barriers raised by the adoption of identities, and the weight placed upon them by contemporaries. 2. To consider if, how and why these relative strengths and weights changed through time. 3. To consider the ways in which they changed in different sections of society. Were, for example, gender identities stronger or weaker, or built upon different bases, among the aristocracy? If so, why? 4. To look at the ways in which barriers were crossed. 5. The implication of (4) is that if we can identify different groups 24

INTRODUCTION

within society and place them within the schema outlined above, we must examine the relationships between them and both describe and explain any temporal changes in these. 6. In particular we must look at how powerful groups established and maintained their position. This, as outlined above, means examining their relationships with those whom they dominated, as well as with those who, theoretically, dominated them: the state, the king. This agenda incorporates an essentially two-stage analysis. In the first (parts 1 and 2), the results of the study of different, separate forms of data are described (this stage, it must be made clear, is analytical in itself); in the second (part 3), a composite description of Merovingian society and the ways in which it worked and changed (in so far as changes are perceived by us) is given, and this is then explained. The problems of early medieval data rarely if ever allow straightforward value-neutral 'reportage5 (cp. Runciman 1983:ch.2) at any but the most banal level. What I have used as 'reports' to build a descriptive picture (whence, in turn, explanation proceeds) will not be accepted as such, in every respect, by every other observer of Merovingian society. I have often had to allow the existence of equally plausible alternative descriptive conclusions, and have tried to keep these alternatives open for as long as possible before deciding on one over another, usually as a result of the higher-level comparison of data from different disciplines mentioned in chapter 1. In the second phase, explanation has sometimes preceded description; for example, it has been necessary to explain why certain burial customs were adopted before descriptive conclusions about the nature of society could be proposed (ch.8). In chapter 2 evidence from written data is analysed to make up a provisional descriptive model of society at various stages during the Merovingian period. The data have, wherever possible, been restricted to those from the region of Metz. In the earlier part of the period, however, this has not always been possible. Laws, chronicle references to the north of Gaul and so on have thus been employed to create a general 'northern Gaulish' back-drop against which the patchier specifically local data can be set. Evidence particular to other regions of Gaul, and from periods other than those under consideration, have not been incorporated into the descriptive picture. Where such evidence has been used I hope it is made clear that it is used purely as comparanda. It is nowhere implied that one can usefully 'fill in the gaps' in the description of fifth-, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-century north-eastern Gallic society in the region of Metz by straightforward incorporation of information from other times and places. Analogies with apparently similar experiences in other regions during different eras have, where I felt they were interesting or instructive, been traced; no one-to-one correlation is implicit and no general, consistent attempt is made to compare and contrast society and social change in Merovingian northern Lorraine with that elsewhere in the early medieval world. I leave such comparison to other researchers.

25

2 Social organization: descriptive analysis of the documentary evidence

The ethnic division1 The kingdoms of the post-Roman West derive much of their individuality from their division into two societies, 'Roman' and 'barbarian'. It is, however, a mistake to assume that ethnic distinction between 'Frank' and 'Roman' represented an immutable binary polarity. Ethnicity is, above all, an identity. This section will examine what purposes the adoption of ethnic identity served in Merovingian north-east Gaul. Sixth-century evidence for ethnic distinction comes from only a handful of sources: law, name-giving and anecdotal references in narrative and hagiographic works. The legal material is the most useful.2 As a statement of social theory, Salic Law may always have been, for want of a better word, a 'Neustrian' code, but even if this was the case, Austrasian Law probably derived either from Salic Law itself or from fundamentally analogous sources. Examination of the legal depiction of the ethnic division must begin with a consideration of the nature of the law itself. Did it set out norms only for a single people, as an ethnic or personal law-code, or was it territorial? If, as has usually been assumed, it was the former, specifically dealing with Salian Franks, our enquiry runs into serious difficulty. We must conclude that its compilers were not concerned with the norms of non-Frankish north Gallic society. The case for the 'personal' nature of Salic Law has, however, been weakened over recent decades by the realization that it may have drawn greatly upon Roman vulgar law, rather than ancient Frankish tradition imported intact from Germany (Wallace-Hadrill 1957; Collins 1983:24-31). Salic Law's promulgation thus has to be more than a simple record of the customs of a particular 'tribe' now settled on new lands (cp. Wormald 1977). Whilst acknowledging the many and dangerous pitfalls of using the Pactus Legis Salicae for any detailed semantic analysis (Murray 1983:ch.8), this problem may be elucidated by examining the use of ethnic labels within the legal sources. 1 2

Amory 1993 is now an excellent introduction to this topic, with a very useful bibliography. Throughout this work the laws have been treated as social theoretical 'treatises', rather than as necessarily effective legislation. Wickham 1992 (esp. p.233) makes excellent points about this and the positive ways in which Frankish law-codes may nevertheless be used. The analysis of cemeteries below will, furthermore, show that the ways in which the law-makers theorized about social order were interestingly similar to those in which local communities did so.

26

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Pactus Legis Salicae and the edicts appended to it legislate for Romans as well as Franks. That the clauses mentioning Romans relate (with one important exception) to crimes against the person led to the assumption that Romans only impinged upon 'Frankish' law where they interacted violently with Franks. Otherwise they lived by Roman law. This superficially reasonable deduction is questioned by two things. First, the exception mentioned (PLS 16.v) is a law about Romans burning the property of other Romans. Here, at least, Frankish law-makers felt competent to set out legal procedures for crimes not involving Franks at all. The second objection concerns the fact that, before Childebert II's edicts, the term francus (with two exceptions) only occurs in the same limited contexts as romanus. One might as easily deduce that Franks only appeared in Salic Law where they interacted violently with Romans. Ethnic personality was important in crimes against the person and personal freedom (murder, abduction, confinement, enslavement). There are no laws about Romans stealing from Franks or vice versa, about mixed marriages between Franks and Romans, and so on. The implication seems to be that in most cases everyone was subject to the same law. Most titles, including almost all those on theft, marriage, injury and inheritance, are entirely impersonal, beginning cif anyone' (si quis). Exceptions to the general impersonality of the laws concern those specifying crimes committed by or against ingenui ('freemen'). Interestingly, the bulk of laws mentioning freemen or freewomen relates to the same range of crimes as those mentioning 'Franks' or 'Romans'. Before the 590s the term occurs primarily in relation to violent crime (murder, robbery, castration) or crimes against personal freedom (abduction, confinement, enslavement, obstruction). Elsewhere, not surprisingly, the word usually occurs in laws mentioning the half-free and unfree (setting down different penalties for free and unfree, penalizing crimes by the free on the unfree and vice versa, forbidding marital or criminal unions between free and unfree, etc.). Again this legal personality is mainly important in crimes against the person or in the definition of degrees of freedom. On the basis of this unsurprising conclusion one might deduce that the word meant any free person, Frank or Roman. This would definitely suggest that Salic Law was territorial. However, in other cases (above all PLS 39.v and 42.iv), it is made clear that the term 'freeman' does not include Romans. An equation of 'freeman' with 'Frank' is suggested by PLS 4O.v, which refers to 'the sort of crime for which a freeman or Frank is held liable for 8,000 denarii', and indirectly by the laws on castration, the only laws on injury to specify a legal personality for the victim. In PLS 29.xvii the victim is a 'freeman' and in PLS 71 it is either a Frank or an antrustio (royal bodyguard, by which, as we shall see, is usually meant a Frank). Other indications perhaps point to the identification of 'freemen' and 'freewomen' with Franks, but for now the important conclusion is that the restricted and specific use of ingenuus implies that the bulk of the law applied equally to all other non-slave members of the population, surely including the half-free and Romans (who are legally equated in PLS 42.iv). Again we reach the conclusion that the theory of Salic Law applied territorially, to all the inhabitants of the Merovingian realms north of the Loire. This is supported by the specification of geographical limits to 27

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

the area within which the law was applicable (PLS 47), and by references to the sale of slaves abroad. Similar arguments have been put forward for the territorial nature of 'barbarian' law (Collins 1983:24-31, contra King 1980, for the Visigoths; Amory 1993 for the Burgundians). This conclusion is important, since it removes the necessity to assume a lost corpus of Roman law for the non-Frankish population of north Gaul. Salic Law represents sixth-century legal theory for all the region's inhabitants, from which we can study legal concepts of ethnicity and the social roles of 'Romans' and 'Franks'. The 'sixty-five-title text' of the Pactus is fairly consistent in its treatment of ethnicity. This may be because it indeed originated as a single treatise, rather than, like Burgundian Law (Amory 1993), being built up from a number of edicts of different date. The impression is given that the Franks already formed about half of the population, but we must consider what Frankish identity implied. Did it mean that a person was a settler from former Free Germany, or a descendant of such settlers, or did it mean something looser? The law clearly gave Franks legal privilege. Franks were valued at twice the wergild of equivalent members of the Roman population. The adoption of Frankish ethnic identity thus raised a kind of horizontal barrier, and could be used to obtain differential, and preferential, legal treatment. If the equation of ingenuus and francus is accepted, some indications point to a military role for the Franks. Two laws (PLS 26.i and 63) mention 'freemen' in the army. To be 'Frankish' may then have meant liability for military service. This would not be surprising. The Frankish kings who subjugated northern Gaul in the fifth century drew their military strength partly from an old-style tribal levy of freemen, and partly from the bands of warriors whom they attracted, and who subsequently adopted Frankish ethnicity. Those Franks who migrated across the Rhine and settled in northern Gaul had always been subject to military service; those who adopted Frankish ethnicity as a result of fighting on the winning Frankish side doubtless regarded themselves as subject to the same dues. What of the Romans? PLS 41 identifies two main kinds of free Roman: the landholder (in turn subdivided into members of the royal court and other landholders), and the tributarius, the rent- (or tax-) payer. This suggests that 'Roman' lands were held, as before, in return for rent, the landlord keeping a portion and passing on the remainder. Perhaps the distinction between Roman and Frank in northern Gaul was that between those who paid tax and those who did military service.3 This identification, which, it must be admitted, rests upon the equation of ingenui and Franks, may be supported by the fact that the highest class of Roman, the landholder at the royal court, is specified to be a member of the convivia regis (the 'king's dining friends') rather than the trustis regis (the royal retinue) like the highest grade of 'freeman'. The distinction was probably always a little blurred. An edict appended to the Pactus adds a further class, the Roman soldier, but this itself implies that Romans did not usually fight. 3

In Lombard Italy this kind of effective distinction between 'Roman' tax-payer and 'barbarian* soldier is more clearly suggested.

28

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

Ethnic identity may thus have highlighted a functional difference between Romans and Franks. The ethnic barrier between them does not seem to have been particularly strong. Salic Law, as mentioned, does not regulate mixed marriages (unlike seventh-century Frankish law). In spite of their higher wergilds there is no indication that the Franks were lords over the Romans. The laws give an impression of parallel societies rather than of an immigrant ethnic group dominating a subject indigenous population. Nor do they give any impression that sixth-century Merovingian kings had much interest in preserving the rigidity of the ethnic barrier. One might have expected that the kings would have tried to maintain the amount of taxable land by restricting the Romans' ability to avoid taxation by 'becoming' Frankish. That they did not implies that Frankish tax exemption was only partial. The personal names which occur in sixth-century sources, to whom we might add the bishops recorded in later Messin episcopal lists, shed important light upon ethnicity. The bishops have Graeco-Roman names almost uniformly until the accession of Agiulf (some time between 580 and 601; Parisse 1990:11). The two possible exceptions are Gunsolinus, who must have governed the see in the late fifth or very early sixth century, and the mysterious mid-late sixth-century bishop Gundulf (see ch.l). However, the predominance of Roman names in the church should not surprise us. Many of these had Christian associations with the apostles, evangelists or early martyrs. The church may have recruited its clergy and especially its bishops from 'Romans', or people destined for, or entering, the church may have been given, or adopted, Roman names. Another source of names is the handful of letters from the region, particularly that written by Gogo to Bishop Petrus (c. 580; Ep.Aust. 22). This is an interesting snap-shot of Messin notables. Of the seven named ecclesiastics, four have Roman names while three have German. The one possible secular official, Theodemund ('leader of the citizens'), has a German name, which may be significant. The people from the region named by Gregory are mainly secular officials and have German names. One, however, Gundulf,4 whilst having a German name, is revealed to be none other than Gregory of Tours' maternal great-uncle. Our sixth-century sources reveal more or less equal numbers of Roman and Frankish names, but there seems to be a functional difference: churchmen with Roman names, secular aristocrats with Frankish. However, the trend appears to be towards Frankish names. Gundulf's case makes this abundantly clear. Even to a member of what was, as his nephew Gregory was so fond of pointing out, one of Gaul's leading senatorial families, it was politically advantageous to have a Frankish name. The impression given by the main body of sixth-century legislation and by name-giving customs can be compared with the narrative and hagiographic sources' anecdotal detail. Almost all such sources come from further south which is unfortunate, but in some respects these writings acquire the characteristics of third-party observation and derive some interest therefrom. The use of the word Frank in Gregory's works is instructive; it is a word which appears surprisingly rarely. When used it is commonly as half of the 4

His association with the region comes mainly from his identification with the Gundulf who brought up the young St Arnulf, but also from Gregory's statement that he came from Childebert II's court.

29

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

compound regnum francorum or rex francorum. There are notable changes in the word's usage in different parts of the Histories. In Book II, not surprisingly, the Franks are simply a barbarian people with their own leaders. When relating the history of the late fifth and sixth centuries Gregory used the word in military contexts (LH 11.18-19) and contexts of domination and lordship (LH 11.35; IV.4; X.31). In Books III-V, the main usage of francus (and of its pejorative equivalent barbarus) is military and political. It appears routinely in battle and campaign descriptions. Before the Thuringian campaign, Theuderic I of Austrasia summoned 'the Franks' (LH III.7); cthe Franks' threatened to desert Theuderic for his brothers if he did not lead them on campaign (LH III. 11); during Chlothar I's disastrous Saxon war it was 'the Franks' who refused to make peace and clamoured for battle (L//IV.14). When describing his own time, however, Gregory used francus in situations where it implied political power: 'the Franks' asked Sigibert I to take over Neustria in 575 (L//IV.51); they attended the Neustrian court and brought wedding presents for Rigunth (LH VI.45); the Treaty of Andelot was made with the consent of cthe Franks' (LH IX.20). The army, however, was still the exercitus francorum (LH IX.25; X.3), though that may have been because it was the instrument of the regnum francorum. As Irsigler (1969) argued, Gregory's overwhelmingly politico-military use of the ethnic label might support the idea that to be Frankish was to be a warrior aristocrat. However, Gregory twice refers to Austrasia as Francia (LH I V.I 4 and IV. 16), and he may have considered that the bulk of the northern population was Frankish. In Paris a mob of 'Franks' gathered outside the church where Praetextatus of Rouen was being tried (L//V.18). Fredegundis was confronted in Rouen by a deputation of 'the senior Franks of the area' (seniores illius loci franci; L//VIII.31). Tournai was inhabited by 'Franks' (Tornacenses franci; LHX.27). The Franks who are mentioned in political contexts are qualified as utiliores (LH IV.22) or meliores (LH VI.45). A boy miraculously cured near Carignan was 'the son of a certain Frank, most noble among his people' (LH VIII. 16; see below). Chilperic I talked of acting for the glory and renown of 'the Frankish people' (L//VI.2). There were also 'Frankish' customs and rituals (ZJ7VII.29; VII.32; X.27). Perhaps most interestingly, Gregory (LH 111.36) tells us that the Franks of Trier despised Parthenius the tax-collector because 'in the time of King Theudebert he had inflicted tribute upon them'. More specifically (LH VII. 15), in Paris, Audo's life was in danger because, 'along with Mummolus the prefect, he had subjected to the public tribute [i.e. tax] many Franks who in the time of King Childebert [I] had been senior free men'. These passages again suggest that Franks were not subject to at least some taxation. Their anger took the form of righteous indignation whereas southern, Roman tax riots were based upon injustice or breach of specific, previously granted immunity. The implicit equation of 'freedom' with partial tax exemption and Frankish identity (LH VII. 15) is interesting. Francus in Gregory's works seems, therefore, to be a term used on several levels. At one level it meant the 'Frankish people', the inhabitants of northern and north-eastern Gaul. These Franks seem to have been involved in political 30

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and military affairs and to have been free from certain taxes, and this led to the use of the word in a more restricted sense to mean the northern 'Frankish' aristocracy. It is difficult to see the 'Romans' of the north in Gregory's works. He never specifically mentioned such non-Frankish people. This may be because to him all northerners were Franks, and thus Frankishness was a general regional identity, used when no more specific information was forthcoming. One embassy included 'Warinar [or Warmar] the Frank and Firminus the Arvernian' (L//IV.40), whilst another comprised 'Bodegisil the son of Mummolenus from Soissons, Evantius the son of Dynamius from Aries, and Grippo the Frank' (LH X.2). The Vita Gaugerici adds some information for the neighbouring region of Trier. Gaugeric, though having a German name, was a Roman by birth, his parents, Gaudentius and Austadiola, being neither rich nor poor (VG:281). However the vita's later seventh-century author appears to say that their home, the oppidum of Yvois (Carignan), belonged to 'Germans'. Here, the ethnic divide was clearly noteworthy, but it does not seem that Gaugeric's family were in any way subordinate because of their ethnicity. Nonetheless, they gave their son a German name. Gregory's information on the Roman population further south cannot be used to close the gaps in our knowledge about the north-east. The situation south of the Loire was very different. Salic Law did not apply there, and there was no extensive Frankish settlement. Here some Romans performed military service, as numerous references to the men of individual civitates under arms demonstrate. There are indications that not everyone was liable to military service in the south (LH VII.24; VII.42), but how such liability was assessed is mysterious. Tenants were apparently not subject to military service; those of St-Martin, Tours, were not accustomed to serve because they were 'the men of St Martin' (LH VII.42). This perhaps compares with Salic Law's distinction between landholders and tributarii but beyond that it is difficult to go. In the absence of a substantial 'Frankish' population the burdens placed upon Roman landholders may have been different in the south. Whether or not they were subject to military levies, they were certainly subject to tax (LH V.28). Changes in the nature of the ethnic division and of the social groupings thereby created begin to become apparent towards the end of the sixth century. The Decrees of Childebert II use ethnic labels in slightly different ways from earlier legislation. At clause 3.i, a law concerning latrones (probably hardened criminals), 'Franks' are differentiated from 'lesser people', which might support the interpretation of Franks as aristocrats, or might simply reflect the higher legal status of Franks. In clause 3.vii Salian Franks are differentiated from Romans in the matter of working on Sundays. This distinction, in a law not concerning crimes against the person, would have been unusual in earlier law. Lex Ribvaria, probably issued in 626 as an Austrasian code, is almost certainly territorial. In this code there are significant differences from earlier practice in the use of ethnic terms. Gone are references to Roman landholders or tributarii. The chapter about murder (Lex Ribv. 40) only assigns specific identities to foreigners; everyone else is a 'Ripuarian'. Importantly, clause 68.ii mentions Romans being liable to various 31

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forms of royal service, which might or might not include military duties. If so, any previous ethnic differentiation in this matter had broken down. Clauses 61.viii, 61.x-xi, 61.xix, 69.ii and 90 specifically equate Romans with king's freedmen or church freedmen. 'Roman' status has less of an 'ethnic' sense than before and implies rather a degree of personal freedom {Lex Ribv. 64). All Romans are dependent upon Ripuarian freemen, who speak for them at law and pay fines on their behalf, just as with the half-free. Perhaps not unexpectedly, clause 61.xi is the first legislation about mixed marriages. In cases of mixed marriage the offspring descend to the lower, Roman legal status. The equation of Roman ethnicity with 'freed' status is explicit. These are the only clauses to mention Romans. On the other hand the use of 'freeman' and 'Ripuarian' is widespread throughout the code and in relation to a far wider range of crimes than was the case with the use of 'freeman' and 'Frank' in Salic Law. A further difference from earlier law, however, is the specification that Roman law could be followed in cases involving people of 'Roman' status {Lex Ribv. 64.ii). In other cases, 'Roman law' is specifically associated with the church, and church freedmen {Lex Ribv. 61). The nature of ethnic identity has changed. It now refers more to legal status and degree of freedom, and is less the functional difference which it had been in the sixth century. In the seventh century far more personal names are known to us. The first point to note is that after Agiulf 's accession to the bishopric of Metz (between 580 and 601) only three bishops had Roman names during the remainder of the Merovingian period (Papolus, c. 612; Aptatus and Felix at the end of the seventh century). The Wissembourg cartulary furnishes a long list of landholders, their wives and children. With a handful of exceptions (e.g. Bonifatius, Benedict, Constantine, Justinus, Petrus) they have German names. By the end of the Merovingian period almost every north-easterner known to us has a Frankish name, even clerics. Indeed, by this time it is clear that all the free, lay inhabitants of the north regarded themselves as Franks; Romans were the people who lived south of the Loire (cp. Vita Eligii 11.20). The term francus still retained its association with the militarily and politically powerful, however (Gerberding 1987:167-8 for the Liber Historiae Francorurns use of the word), though, as we shall see, with slightly different emphasis. By the early eighth century, there is evidence that much of the region of Metz was now Frankish-speaking. Germanic place-names and names of topographical features and settlement types are increasingly recorded in the charter evidence from the east and north of the diocese (above, ch.l, and below Part II, for further discussion). This surely implies that during the fifth to seventh centuries these areas had been settled sufficiently densely by people from beyond the Rhine for major cultural changes to be effected. It is worth remembering this when rightly considering the often fictive nature of early medieval ethnic identities, and the socio-political purposes which their adoption, or abandonment, could serve. There were, in the north-east, many Franks who, simply enough, actually were descendants of people who migrated into Gaul from beyond the Rhine!

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Horizontal barriers (1). The late fifth and sixth centuries It must be conceded that a description of Merovingian society in northern Gaul builds on uncertain foundations. There is a huge gulf between, on the one hand, the many useful studies of late Roman governmental legislation and policy, and of literary sources, and, on the other, regional studies of the realities of late Roman western provincial society. In northern Gaul there are almost no late imperial written sources or epigraphic data, which prevents documentary historical studies of the type carried out for other late antique, particularly eastern, provinces. The vast corpus of data from the many excavated settlements and fewer well-recorded cemeteries has, unfortunately, not been tapped to drive social historical surveys, even for the early Roman period.5 Work has tended to be descriptive, concerned with villa typology, Romanization, religion, economics and manufacture (Baudoux et al 1990). There are, however, indications that some local archaeologists are beginning to move towards more sophisticated terms of analysis (Hoerner 1986; Burnand 1990). For the late Roman period there is a significant gap between what we know of the central imperial government's policies and statements and the literate elite's ideologies, and what this actually meant 'on the ground' in Belgica Prima. As stated, this makes a shaky foundation from which to study post-Roman social change on a local basis. Nonetheless, some provisional points can be made. The late Roman nobility Traditionally, the late Roman period saw the creation of a rigid, sharply defined social hierarchy with a small, immensely powerful nobility at its apex, standing in a clearly delineated relationship to the central government. In return for involvement in the extraction of the surplus necessary to maintain the imperial administrative superstructure, the nobility was rewarded with profuse titles and privileges and supported by legislation stratifying society yet more rigidly. In turn the nobility found the imperial administration to be one of its most important sources of wealth and authority. It was thus able to build up local power based upon large latifundia. In northern Gaul, this view can be disputed (Burnand 1990:211-32 is a thoughtprovoking antidote; see ch.8). Salvian's diatribe (esp. Governance V.5, V.8), so long one of the mainstays of the traditional view, has been reinterpreted more critically (cp. Drinkwater 1992), as showing more subtle struggles for local power than those simply based upon increasing opposition between oppressive aristocrats and oppressed coloni. The early Merovingian aristocracy The dearth of written evidence between the fourth and the sixth centuries makes it difficult to study the development of this social organization. When 5

Hingley 1989 on Roman Britain is an example of what might be done with the settlement data; Roman Britain is indeed better served all round than its neighbouring provinces.

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Salvian was writing in the 440s northern society was clearly in turmoil. Many Roman nobles, like Salvian himself, had fled to the south or even further (Mathisen 1992:228-30; Hunt 1992). Light can be shed on one aspect of this process. One feature of the late imperial government's symbiotic relationship with its regional aristocracy was patronage, the multiplicity of offices within the administration, which served to maintain the stability of the social order, as well as being, for some, a passport to high noble rank and consequent financial and fiscal privilege and immunity. Some curial offices, to be sure, were more expensive than profitable, becoming difficult to fill even in the fourth century. These doubtless vanished in the chaos of the fifth. They and the other, lucrative, posts depended, however, on their situation within a provincial and diocesan framework and thus on the maintenance of the wider imperial administration. As was seen in chapter 1, this kind of administrative structure ceased to be effective in northern Gaul by about 420. Even the efficient presence of the state, necessary for the maintenance of status based upon imperially bestowed rank and titles, and, indeed, of scattered extensive lands, increasingly ceased to be felt after 388. One response of the central government to this type of process may have been the institution of the comes civitatis, the count of the city, an attempt to invest local administrative and military power in the hands of a single magnate. Barnwell (1992:35-6) demonstrates the very weakness of the evidence for such a supposition, but the most plausible context for the creation of the comites civitatum remains the collapse of the Roman Empire. The counts, of unspecified type, glimpsed in accounts of the fifth century (Paul, Arbogast) look no different from other local warlords. They were, however, nominally at least, acting in the name of Rome and provided regional power bases which could support, and in turn be shored up by, military expeditions from the imperial bases in the south-east. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of effective government meant a significant reduction of imperial patronage.6 The local elite lost an important means of cementing its power; a vital link between it and the Empire was removed. This may have been a factor which led to the emigration of magnate families. The power of those remaining could no longer be drawn from old sources; new ones needed to be found. When documentary evidence again becomes available in the mid-sixth century the picture of society is quite different. Obviously, the settlement of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, and possibly the Alamans too, had caused great disruption. The personnel of the upper social strata had been changed and at a lower level a new element had to be incorporated into the rural population. This cannot but have added to the upheaval caused by the disintegration of the Roman state. The social hierarchy which emerged from this turmoil has long been a matter for debate, largely concerned with the nature of the aristocracy. Was there an hereditary nobility in the sixth century, as, for example, Irsigler (1969) argued, or was there no formal aristocratic rank? This is an historical minefield which has justly been worked through by a number of theses (Bergengruen 1958; Irsigler 1969; Grahn-Hoek 1976). Any discussion of 6

I am grateful to Dr Peter Heather for pointing out to me the scale of this process. 34

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social organization must deal with this problem but there is no space here to do more than sprint through the minefield. The Pactus Legis Salicae recognizes no hereditary noble rank among the Frankish population (Grahn-Hoek 1976:27-54). Instead all 'freemen' have a wergild of 200 solidi. Higher wergilds were assigned according to age or gender, as will be outlined, but there was only a single set of wergilds for the free population. The only other people with higher wergilds were those holding royal office (as grafio (count) or sacerbaro), the sworn members of the royal retinue (trustis), and men on active service. Clearly there must have been de facto differences in the wealth and prestige of 'freemen' even if, de jure, they were all created equal (Grahn-Hoek 1976:37). Nonetheless, this lack of legal distinction is extremely telling and arguments from it cannot be dismissed as based upon nineteenth-century beliefs in early Germanic democracy (cp. James 1982:130). Wickham (1992:233) makes an important contribution to this debate when he draws attention to the PLS' obsession with rural society (in which, it might be added, it differs significantly from seventh-century Lex Ribvaria). As he says, it is difficult to envisage such a treatise showing these concerns in a society where legal theorists needed frequently to consider 'the society of large landowners' (ibid.). However, we must not ignore (as Halsall 1990 and 1992b does) the existence of a Roman population. As has been mentioned, Salic Law set out a legal distinction between two types of free Roman: landholders and rentpayers. The 'landholders' seem to have been the equivalents of Frankish 'freemen'. The only group legally separated from this general body was that of landholders in the convivia regis; again social distinction was brought about by a direct link with the king. It might be possible to argue that the Franks, the 'freemen', were themselves aristocrats, as Irsigler (1969) argued was the case with the Franks who appear in Gregory's writings. If this were the case, the legal distinctions would give the group most of the characteristics of a nobility. However, this would imply a very different nature of Frankish settlement from that envisaged by Irsigler and, indeed, by most German scholarship. The settlement would become very similar to that of the Visigoths in southern Gaul and Spain: a warrior elite battening on to a native population. However, there are significant problems. There is no legal discussion of the relationship between Roman and Frank such as one might expect if most Romans were subject to Frankish lords (PLS 39.v is a possible though not probable exception). More importantly, if the legal use of francus did mean nobleman, where are the lower strata of Frankish society? Surely there must have been some non-noble Franks? The extent of linguistic change effected in the east and north of the region strongly suggests this. We are left with two alternatives: either there was no legally defined Frankish nobility, or all Franks were noble before the law. For now the former option appears preferable. It seems simplest to assume that the legally-defined body of free Franks included all classes of wealth and power from smallholders to prestigious families with extensive estates. The vague distinction between 'lower classes' and 'upper classes' in an undated capitulary appended to the Pactus Legis Salicae (PLS 102) bears this out. Even if one takes the the alternative 35

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interpretation, and, as should have become clear, there is evidence to support it, one must accept that the barrier between this Trankish' 'nobility' and the rest of the population was not particularly rigid. James (1982:130) argues that the narrative sources show a powerful sixthcentury aristocracy in existence, whose power 'was by no means dependent upon the king'. Gregory of Tours' writings do indeed depict men such as Guntramn Boso, Rauching, Berthefried and Ursio as extremely wealthy, with numerous followers and widespread landholdings. However, this picture does not contradict the impression drawn from Salic Law. The power of these magnates, or optimates as they are called in the Pactus pro tenore pads (524-58; Grahn-Hoek 1976:55 n. 248 for the dating) was extremely uncertain and based essentially upon the prestige of the individual. When Count Bodigisil died of old age (585) Gregory thought it noteworthy that he passed on his estate 'without having to forfeit any of it' (LH VIII.22). Unfortunately, no location is given for the story; Bodigisil may have died in the far south, though his estate could have lain elsewhere. When Waddo was killed near Poitiers (589) his son had to go to the king before he could enter into possession of his father's estate (LH 1X35). These stories suggest that the power of the Frankish elite, south of the Loire as in the north, was based upon gifts from the king, of fiscal resources. Anecdotes like these thus argue against aristocratic power being independent of the king, and underline just how uncertain the transmission of power was from one generation of 'Franks' to the next. The army, the political assembly of the Franks, could dictate a king's 'foreign policy', threaten to betray him for his brothers (LH 111.11) and even manhandle him if he refused to act as they wished (LH IV. 14). Nevertheless, even these stories underline the fact that, individually, the members of the army relied upon the king and his wars to bring them treasure and the chance to demonstrate their worth and to try to obtain offices through good service. The relationship between aristocracy and king can be illuminated if we consider the question of taxation. Sixth-century Merovingian rulers attempted to preserve late Roman taxation (Durliat 1990). As we have seen, Franks appear to have been at least partly exempt. This may have sprung from the Roman army's exemption from taxation; if the Franks were the army then they were not liable to the capitatio. The mechanics of sixthcentury Merovingian taxation in the north, and its efficiency, are largely concealed from us. Indications from the south are that taxation was levied on all landholders, royal officials (counts and their subordinates) and appointees being responsible for its levying. In the absence of small denomination coinage it was probably levied in kind (confirmed, in relation to the Limousin, by LH V.28), as had been much of late Roman taxation, or in bullion, perhaps using old coins still in circulation. Royal officers had the responsibility for turning these levies into bullion (Goffart 1982b). The efficiency of taxation may not have been high. The Franks' violent resistance to attempts to tax them, and anecdotal evidence from the south, where there was more administrative continuity, have been used to suggest general opposition to taxation and ever-increasing immunities (Goffart 1982a: 15; Wickham 1984:21). We should perhaps not be misled by this evidence. Parthenius was 36

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stoned, and Audo driven into sanctuary, because they tried to tax a social group not deemed liable for taxation. The nature of Gregory's other tales implies that acquiescence in taxation was more the norm; the revolts were against unfair taxation rather than against taxation toute courte. Similar points can be made about military service. This is not surprising; the levying of taxes and the harnessing of manpower for military service were the two most important ways in which the royal government impinged upon the lives of its subjects. Here again we see that all free Franks were liable to such service. To adapt a phrase of Kiefer's (1972:55), to be Frankish was to be capable of fighting; a man must fight because he is a Frank. The association of Frankishness with military power has already been noted. That the army was a political as well as military assembly is shown not only by references in Gregory's works but also by the fact that the edicts of Childebert II are dated on 1 March, the date of the annual military muster, the Marchfield. Neither the narrative sources, nor the hagiography, nor the laws give any indication that military service was differentiated according to wealth or social status, as it would be later, let alone restricted to the aristocracy. Aristocrats who held the offices of count, which involved marshalling and disciplining (cp. LHV1.31) levies, or of duke, which involved leading armies, were the only ones with any institutionalized role in the raising of armed forces. The only other military aristocracy was composed of the antrustiones, the members of the royal trustis or retinue. In all cases royal appointment or a direct relationship to the king were stressed. Beyond that, the theory was that the army was the levy of all free Franks - and all Franks had the right to serve (something to which we shall return). Institutionally, as with taxation, the aristocracy was by-passed or harnessed to the king. In questions of military service, early medieval kings across Europe long strove to maintain such a system, or at least the fiction of one (cp., for Italy, Wickham 1981:136-40), even in the heyday of military feudalism (cp. Henry IPs 1181 Assize of Arms; Douglas & Greenaway (trans.) 1981:449-51). Another aspect of the relationship between king and aristocracy concerns royal marriage. As is well known, the Merovingians of the sixth century drew their wives from two sources: foreign princesses and slave or servant women. The two groups are well represented by the protagonist queens in the wars of the late sixth century, Brunechildis the Visigothic princess, and Fredegundis the ex-slave. Merovingian kings did not marry their aristocrats' daughters or sisters, though they did sometimes promote the relatives of their low-born wives (such as Berthechramn, a relative of Chlothar Ps wives Aregundis and Ingundis, who became bishop of Bordeaux). This refusal to unite in marriage with aristocratic families, and the actions of certain rulers and regents such as Brunechildis herself suggest it was 'policy', can be seen as a correlation of the kings' attempts to by-pass the de facto powerful in the extraction of surplus or manpower, and of their attempts to frustrate the creation of an institutionalized aristocratic rank, a nobility. It may have been behind the anger of the Franks at Theudebert Ps marriage to Deuteria, a Roman noblewoman (LH 111.27). As far as we can tell the inverse was also the case; Merovingian princesses did not marry into aristocratic families. One possible exception concerns the eighth-century tradition recorded by 37

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Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:264) that Bishop Agiulf of Metz was descended from a daughter of Clovis I who had married a Roman senator. Though problematic, this tale may be based upon fact (though, as mentioned, Elziere 1993: n. 45, makes him a relative of Deuteria). In the early phases of his reign, Clovis may have felt the need to make alliances with the more powerful native aristocrats, as, in an obviously garbled story, Procopius records (Wars V.12.xii-xv). By the reigns of his sons, this need had passed. Patronage is a final aspect of the relationship between kings and their aristocrats. Mention has been made of the dramatic reduction in imperial patronage in the fifth century. This, as stated, weakened the link between the imperial government and the local aristocracy. But what had been a weakness and a failure for the western emperors could be made into a strength and a success by the Frankish kings. Above all, sixth-century kings, unlike fifth-century emperors, ruled Gaul from Gaul, and could make their presence felt, when necessary, in any part of their smaller realms, enabling skilful use of patronage. Titles such as duke or count were few and worth competing for, particularly as they brought substantial local administrative and legal power, and control over fiscal lands, which could be exploited. Such titles were not, however, permanent and did not bring hereditary rank, unlike Roman high offices. The bearers of these titles were tied directly to the king, who thus held all the aces. By clever regular redistribution of comital and ducal offices, the king could both ensure that his patronage was spread widely and evenly and prevent any one faction or group of families from acquiring too much power. Such distributions and redistributions also enabled kings to keep control over their more distant fiscal lands. When offices were hereditary, later experience would show that kings would have enormous difficulty in preventing their lands from falling under the control of the local count or duke (cp. Reuter 1991 :esp. 85-7, for the case of Carolingian Germany). Contemporary terminology is also illuminating. The appearance of the Frankish word leudes, and of the Latin terms optimates, potentes and even viri magnificentissimi obtimates in the sixth-century capitularies (PLS106, issued by Chilperic I), does not necessarily argue against these conclusions (cp. Grahn-Hoek 1976:55ff). As has been repeatedly pointed out (cp. Bergengruen 1958:ch.2), none of these titles says anything about security of tenure or whether or not such status was hereditary or granted. In the Histories Gregory uses nobilis thirteen times to describe people. In eleven cases it is used to describe Romans, people living south of the Loire (including one Italian Ostrogothic context; L//III.31) or the Merovingian royal house. In only one instance (LH VIII. 16) is it used to describe a Frank (Francus cuiusdam et nobilissimi in gente sua). Given Gregory's usual modus operandi in discussing politically sensitive issues,7 it may well be that he is talking of an unnamed Merovingian here. Genicot (1962:52) was quite wrong to say that the Histories are full of nobiles; they are not, and where nobles 7

These characteristically (see Wood 1993) include cryptic circumlocutions only understood by reference to the rest of the text, here the other uses of nobilis in a Frankish context; the situation of such discussions in reported speech; and the authentication of statements by their association with men or women of sanctity, in this case Vulfolaic the Lombard.

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do appear they are either Merovingian royalty or southerners. If Gregory shared his younger contemporary Isidore of Seville's definition of nobilis, 'one whose name and lineage are known' {Etymologies X.I84), it is surely significant that the only term which could imply an hereditary nobility is largely absent in Frankish contexts. This is underlined by the fact that hardly any of the Frankish counts mentioned by Gregory can be shown to have had a father of similar status. The Soissonais Bodegisil (not to be confused with the Bodigisil who died of old age) and Bobo his brother are exceptional among northern Frankish aristocrats in that Gregory knew their civitas of origin and the name of their father. How did all this theory work in practice in the north-east? Ultimate dependence upon the king is shown by the careers of the principal Austrasian aristocratic faction mentioned in Gregory's Histories: Guntramn Boso, Rauching, Ursio and Berthefried. The 587 'Revolt of the Dukes' was led by these men, of whom at least two were associated with the region of Metz. The family of Guntramn Boso's wife was connected with Metz (L//VIII.21); Ursio held estates in the Woevre (L//IX.9). Although such men could acquire vast lands and treasures, their continued well-being relied entirely upon the maintenance of good relations with their master. When they fell foul of the king they had no option but to take to a sanctuary (LH IX.8) or a stronghold (LH IX.9) and plead for forgiveness. Either way the end was near. The careers of men like these show that whilst it was possible to hold out for some time (cp. LH VI. 1 and ff (strongholds); LH V.4 and ff, and VII.21 and ff (sanctuary)) and sometimes to slip into and out of royal favour with comparative ease, the withdrawal of royal support was usually fatal. Boso, Rauching, Ursio and Berthefried all met similarly bloody ends (LH IX.9-10; IX.12). Their property was confiscated by the fisc, and their families exiled. The removal of royal favour was frequently arbitrary. After the revolt of these magnates, Gregory tells us, 'certain dukes were removed from their dukedoms, and others were appointed to replace them' (LH IX.12). In Metz itself, a certain Magnovald was summarily executed on Childebert IPs orders and no one knew the reason why (LH VIII.36). His property too was appropriated by the treasury. In these cases we see in action the redistribution of royal patronage, and the subsequent reestablishment of control over fiscal lands. Though there were clearly powerful men in sixth-century Austrasia their power was by no means guaranteed. Samson (1987b:288) has concluded from an analysis of the Libri Historiarum that perhaps as many as 40% of the highest levels of office-holder (dukes, counts, patricians, etc.) could expect to die violently. The non-aristocratic free in the sixth century Sixth-century people had as much difficulty as us in drawing a firm line between aristocrats and the rest of the free population; in our terms a rigid horizontal barrier did not exist. The nature of the elite obviously has important repercussions for the discussion of the less powerful classes. The study of the non-aristocratic Merovingian free has suffered from the tendency towards aggregation of evidence (castigated in chapter 1). This study aims 39

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to describe a society in constant change, and one very different from that of central and southern Gaul, the areas best served by written data. Southern Gaul is exceptional in post-Roman Europe. The chaos of the transition from Roman province to barbarian kingdom there was less, and the continuity of social organization greater, than in almost any other western region. It is unwise to generalize from this area's evidence (the survival of which is itself unusual). Where emphasis has been laid upon change we run into the tendency towards teleology, equally common in Marxist and non-Marxist histories. For the Roman period we have plentiful statements, by the government and its nobility, about the nature of the rural population, coloni and slave tenants, and their relations with their landlords. For the Carolingian period we have voluminous legislation and statements of ideology, with the additional benefit of plentiful data about specific regions and estates, and so can say much about the late eighth-, ninth- and tenth-century peasantry. It has been possible to detect similarities between the late Roman and Carolingian situations (cp. Percival 1969; Goffart 1972 is a sophisticated critique). Researchers have assumed that the state of affairs during the less well-documented Merovingian period was somewhere mid-way between. The Roman tenurial system was evolving into medieval serfdom. A social formation based upon slavery and/or taxation was at some point (exactly when being the subject of debate) giving way to a feudal social formation. cIt is very easy to be misled into seeing all these processes as teleological, viewing 'fully formed' military feudalism and the seigneuries as the logical and inevitable result of the economic relations of private property' (Wickham 1984:29). Like all analyses which take predetermined categories of social formation and the progression from one to another as a starting point rather than a descriptive result of the study of social change, even Wickham does not entirely escape his own strictures. The necessary corollary of envisaging society in a perpetual state of redefinition and renegotiation of the barriers on the 'social map' is that there can be no inevitability about social change. That analogous situations existed in c. 300 and c. 800 which could plausibly be linked by a single and direct process of 'evolution' is no reason to suppose that there should not have existed in c. 550 a social formation radically different from both. It should come as no surprise, given the foregoing discussion of the aristocracy, that those of the free who could not be included in that category are found generally to have lacked the classic relations of dependence on their more powerful fellows. The Roman tributarii of Salic Law are the single exception. In the context of the law (PL5 41), tributarius clearly retains its old Roman sense: a payer of tax and rent to a landholder. Among 'freemen' there is no mention of rent-paying or of being in the service of others. The impression given of local politics is of decisions made by the local community. Struggles for local power within this arena are made from a, de jure at least, more or less equal starting point. Legislation about the formation of illegal armed bands talks of contubernia (PLS 42, 43), which other use of the word would argue were gangs of equals (pace Irsigler 1969). The accept-

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ance or otherwise of a newcomer into a community depended upon the goodwill of all community members equally (PLS 45). As has been argued, the theories of taxation aimed at raising taxes from all landholders of whatever size of property. Military service was, as suggested, levied 'horizontally' on all 'freemen' rather than Vertically' down a chain of lords, dependants and retainers. The Pactus Legis Salicae's concern with protecting freemen in the army (PLS 26.i, 63, 69) manifests a desire by the royal legislators to encourage people to perform their duties, but, at the same time, to exercise their rights. Armed assemblies were, obviously, occasions where personal rivalries could burst into violence and old scores be settled, as a law of Chlothar I (PLS 91) acknowledges (and as, later, Fredegar, Chron. IV.55, shows), and weaker freemen might thus need protection and encouragement to attend. Sixth-century legislation maintains, similarly, equality before the law. It does this not simply by assigning a single set of wergilds, but by implying that royal law is applicable everywhere within the realm. Every freeman is answerable to the king's law and has access to his justice, which is everywhere administered by his officials, albeit assisted by shadowy figures called rachimbergs. The nature of these 'speakers of the law' is unclear but an equation with modern jurymen is plausible (Rivers (trans.) 1986:12). Whatever the case, in theory, the law, like taxation and military service (as far as can be judged), applied equally across the free population; the only mediation between freeman and king was through royal officers. The free population, in our terms, constituted at most three ranks, Roman rent-payers, Roman landholders and Franks. Within this amorphous mass there were many classes of more or less powerful. At the more powerful end of the spectrum were those whose relationship with the king accorded them temporary privilege. At the other were those, like the tributarily who were dependent upon more powerful men, but among the Frankish population these were not yet recognized as a separate category. Beyond this, the only institutionalized attempts to group the free population were those using vertical and diagonal barriers: gender, age and family. The half-free in early Merovingian society There were ranks below those of the free: the half-free (laeti) and the unfree, slaves. Evidence for these groups is even scarcer than for the non-aristocratic free, who made up the bulk of the population. The laeti are particularly obscure and can only be approached via references in the laws. Freeing a slave usually made him or her a 'freedman' or 'freedwoman', technically a 'half-free' person, linked in a direct relation of dependence to the manumitter. If we are searching for a dependent population or peasantry then it may be to the laeti that we must look. The scarcity of overt references to them hardly implies that they were numerous, but, as suggested earlier, the bulk of impersonal (si quis) legislation may include them. Their social role is obscure. In the Roman period laeti had been freed prisoners settled upon the land in return for agricultural and military services. It is not difficult to

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see how the name came to be applied to freed slaves, particularly if the latter had been captured during raids. If laeti were settled on, and worked, portions of estates, the name is yet more suitable. As for military service, the law (PLS 26.i) makes it clear that half-free men could be found in the army with their masters, though it is not clear whether they came to fight or, as with certain married ceorls in the seventh-century Northumbrian army (Bede, Ecclesiastical History IV.22), just to fetch and carry for their masters. The latter is perhaps more likely. Like the Roman laeti, the sixth-century halffree were probably required to perform agricultural and military duties. Related to the laeti who performed military duties may have been the pueri encountered both in Salic Law and in the narratives. It is occasionally assumed that these are slaves, the application of the word 'boy' to male slaves being analogous to the situation in the antebellum United States. In the legal sources the word puer means, literally, a male sub-adult except, it seems, when talking of pueri regis, usually translated as 'king's servants' (PLS 13.vii, 54, 117). These pueri regis are equated with freedmen or laeti and so are the pueri mentioned in PLS 42.iv (where the word regis may have fallen from the text), where they are also equivalent to 'Romans'. The puer is then distinguished from a 'freeman' but that term, as we have seen, seems to have been rather more specific than is often presumed. The law-makers also saw some reason to separate pueri from slaves and freedmen. Where we meet pueri in Gregory's Histories (cp. VII.42), they are retainers; their actions rarely suggest that they were in any way unfree. An equivalence with the ministeriales ('unfree knights') of central medieval Germany might be suggested, but it is not the only interpretation. If laeti lived apart from their masters, farming separate lands, this might explain why kings and their legislators felt less need to regulate their interactions with their masters and other members of the free population than those of slaves. Perhaps, however, it is safer to assume that there were simply not very many of them. Early Merovingian slavery* The question of the numbers of the unfree is vexed. Bloch (1947:30-1) surmised that the wars attending the end of the Empire in the West greatly increased the number of slaves, and this premise is still widely accepted (cp. Bonnassie 1991b:2; Wickham 1984:4-5). Unfortunately, it is not based upon any evidence. Fifth- and sixth-century warfare doubtless produced its unfair share of human booty (cp. LHIX. 18). Literature is full of references to captives and their ransom (cp. in a local context, Lib.Ep.Mett.:263). But the scale of warfare was smaller than it had been and, within Gaul after 536 at least, it was waged within a functioning political system. There were usually means of tracking down and ransoming enslaved relatives (LH III. 15). The law (PLS 39.ii-iv) envisaged mechanisms whereby freemen and kidnapped slaves sold abroad might be redeemed. Plundering raids may well have served more to redistribute an existing unfree population than to create substantial num8

For slavery in the late antique and medieval world see Bonnassie 1991b; Dockes 1982; Finley 1980; Verlinden 1955 (Book II, ch.l for Merovingian Gaul), and bibliographies.

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bers of new slaves. Enslaved captives brought a short distance over the frontier can have hoped for escape back home or for release during the next counter-raid launched by their own side. A small raiding army could do more damage to its enemies by freeing the latter's slaves, and make a more profitable return by 'enslaving' free people simply to hold them to ransom. It would split its own strength by the need to guard captive slaves day and night, and both slow its speed and increase its vulnerability to attack by trying to shepherd large numbers of human beings across the countryside. Sixth-century material suggests that the prime sources of slaves were largescale operations outside Gaul (e.g. the invasion of Thuringia) and foreign slavers, both mechanisms which could operate in reverse (as in Breton, Basque and Lombard attacks, or as in the PLS reference to selling slaves abroad), as well as penal slavery and hereditary slavery. It is doubtful whether any of these means did more than replace slaves lost to manumission (as reward for good service, as death-bed piety, or, probably rarely, through ecclesiastical intervention) or mortality (which must have been higher, and fertility less, among the unfree than the free). Sixth-century and later legislation suggests that the manumission of a rival's slaves was a tactic in local power struggles, particularly as a freed slave became a dependant of his or her manumitter. The lack of references to the half-free in sixth-century law suggests that most slaves made the transition directly to free status. Halffreedom was an unwanted complication in sixth-century northern Gaulish society, with its paucity of rigid horizontal barriers. Many slaves will have acquired their freedom in fifth-century northern Gaul, with its political chaos and uncertainty, the local changes in patterns of authority and the flight of many landlords, replacement of others and attendant upheavals. This could be done either by running away, by obtaining freedom from their owner's rivals, which in this era must have been even more common than in the sixth century, by joining barbarian warbands or the bands of rival local masters (sufficient slaves did this for it to become a cliche, and even for illegitimate authority to be dubbed slave rebellion), or, for agricultural slaves, simply by continuing to farm the same land and claiming free status. No source of this period gives a clear indication, let alone states outright, that the numbers of the unfree were increasing. It seems far more likely that slavery in northern Gaul was on the decrease. The social and economic role of slavery is, of course, directly linked to the number of slaves. There are few enough anecdotal references to slaves in northern Gaul, and the issue is blurred by the mistranslation of puer as 'slave'. Those which survive, and those from further south in the Loire valley (where slavery may have been more common), tend to situate slaves in the households of their owners or otherwise in direct attendance upon them, rather than living separately, farming distinct parts of the estate, or in slavebarracks. Our primary evidence from the north, the legal material, gives a similar impression. The royal legislators' concern with 'mixed marriages' between slaves and free is perhaps more likely to have arisen in a society where small numbers of slaves lived in their owners' households than in one where slaves led separate existences. Such slaves probably worked (or more 43

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probably helped to work) their owners' lands and did household chores. The laws also enumerate slaves involved in more specific skilled work: blacksmiths, swineherds, vinedressers and grooms (PLS 35.ix). Nothing contradicts the impression of numerically few slaves living in close proximity to their owners. In this kind of situation slave-free relations were frequent, everyday and intimate, carried on within a very restricted arena. Legally, a slave nonetheless remained a 'non-person', under the absolute control of the head of the household and subject to whatever discipline he wished to impose. Slaves were simply chattels: cif anyone steals another's slave or maidservant, horse or ox . . . let him be liable for thirty-five solidi (PLS lO.i). They could be sold to another owner with or without their spouses and children. There was no legal recognition of slave marriage. The slave was, as Patterson (1982) terms it, a 'genealogical isolate'. Children born to slaves were also slaves and any free or half-free person who married a slave joined his or her partner in unfree condition. Being completely at the mercy of another person in, to use Patterson's (1982) phrase, ca relation of domination' could and probably did result in horrific mental and physical abuses, especially where the owner was a powerful aristocrat with many slaves. In Francia, unlike Visigothic Spain, there were no laws limiting slave-owners' power to inflict physical punishments on their slaves, but it is likely that with most slave-owners living under the same roof as perhaps one or two slaves, free-unfree relationships were, if not harmonious, at least rather more peaceful. The intimacy of these relationships is further supported by tales, albeit from other regions, where arbitrary violence against a slave resulted in retaliation by the slave and the owner's injury and even death (LHVIIA7). This could suggest, though it is admittedly far from being the only interpretation, that routine violence against slaves was not the norm. One would not expect it to be in the kind of small-scale, domestic slavery suggested here. The Pactus Legis Salicae is unclear on the question of slaves having possessions. In places (e.g. PLS 12) it implies that a slave could pay fines. However, PLS 40 makes it explicit that this can only be done with the master's consent, presumably because the slave ultimately has no possessions. PLS 35.viii specifies that the slave's master was responsible for heavy fines. More important, however, is the PLS9 repeated stress upon physical punishment for slaves, and torture as a means of establishing guilt. Early Merovingian slaves doubtless saw more of their masters and mistresses than had many Roman slaves, but, as their numbers fell, so their conditions seem to have improved. The realities of social organization produced a discrepancy between the institutional theory of the laws and the practical exigencies of the habitus. Thus, according to this interpretation, the best analogy is with an extreme, brutal version of 'Upstairs Downstairs'. This did not, of course, mean that slaves were content with their lot. Slave resistance did not take the form of armed revolt. Dispersed in ones and twos in their owners' houses, organization would be difficult; even if it were not, whatever the short-lived satisfaction it produced, violence brought little chance of lasting success and the near-certainty of harsh retribution. Resist-

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ance thus followed lines well attested in other slave-owning societies. Laws bear witness to slaves selling their owners' produce or goods (PLS lO.v, where it is equated with theft), undoubtedly pretending to be ignorant of the legal niceties which dictated that they could own no property. Early medieval literature contains the same caricature of the slave as idle, drunken and stupid, so well known to students of black slavery in America or of nineteenth-century Russian serfdom. The reasons behind this caricature doubtless centre on the slave's best means of resisting enforced labour: getting drunk, feigning ignorance and working as slowly as possible. Less subtle resistance included flight (if the slave could run far enough, as Attalus did (LH III. 15), or escape detection for long enough, this could be successful), or, as mentioned, attempting to gain manumission from the owner's rivals. Flight into sanctuary could bring about enforced manumission, even if it meant becoming a dependant of the church. Sixth-century society was structured according to very few definite horizontal barriers. Between the two poles of slavery and royal service, the social hierarchy seems to have been fluid.

Horizontal barriers (2). The seventh and early eighth centuries The later Merovingian aristocracy In the seventh century our evidence becomes more plentiful, and by 700 we begin to have local 'documents of practice', charters. The picture of earlier seventh-century society is different from that of sixth-century. Seventhcentury law continued to deny legal recognition to any noble rank, but reveals vitally important transformations in the nature of the aristocracy and its relationships with the king and the other hierarchical ranks and classes. Lex Ribvaria, whilst often modelled on the Pactus Legis Salicae, differs notably in several respects. Certain lords have immunity (Lex Ribv. 68), some freemen have their own bands of dependants (homo cum satellitibus suis; ibid. 45.iii), and mention is made of freemen in the service of others (ingenuus in obsequio; ibid. 35). Some of these developments can be paralleled in other seventh-century legislation, such as Chlothar II's 614 Edict of Paris, which similarly mentions immunities for aristocrats (c. 14). Furthermore, Lex Ribvaria (68.ii-iii) makes it clear that not only freedmen but 'Romans' too all now have a lord responsible for them. Examination of contemporary, early seventh-century terminology reveals similarly slow but important changes in the same direction. In our major source, Fredegar's Chronicle, the word nobilis remains rare and notable by its absence in a Frankish context until the end of Dagobert I's reign. Fredegar uses the term to describe the magnates of other groups such as the Burgundians (Chron. IV.27), Lombards (IV.34) and Bavarians (IV.52). Within Gaul the existence of the senatorial aristocracy in the south and of the

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burgundaefarones in Burgundy9 suggests that the Franks were alone in not formally recognizing a noble rank. Instead, their magnates are described as proceres, primati, optimates or leudes just as before. In 636, however, Fredegar describes Aega as cof noble birth' {eratque genere nobele; Chron. IV.80), and the losses during Sigibert IIPs 639 Thuringian campaign included many of cthe bravest of his noble warriors' {nouilium fortissemi pugnatoris seo; Chron. IV.87). As becomes clear from Gerberding's (1987:167-8) analysis, the author of the early eighth-century Liber Historiae Francorum uses the word franci to mean the aristocracy, in, superficially, a similar fashion to Gregory of Tours. However, it is clear that his (or her) franci are rather different from Gregory's. They are representatives of powerful and wellknown families, controlling vast estates, numerous dependants and private monasteries, more or less independently of royal control. Later in the eighth century this is underlined by Fredegar's continuator. Glossing the earlier Liber Historiae Francorum^ he describes as noble Bodilo {uno franco nobile; Continuation 2), Leudesius (Leudesio filio Erchinoaldi nobile; ibid.) and Ansegisel {quondam franco nobile; ibid. 3), all franci in the LHF. Whereas the carnage of the civil wars between Childebert II's sons was described in terms of cmany strong warriors' being killed {Chron. IV.31), that in Charles Martel's wars for supremacy is described as the loss of noblemen {non modicum ibi perpessus est damnum de viris strenuis atque nobilibus; Continuation 9). It has often been remarked (Sprandel 1961:57-8; Graus 1965:ch.3; Prinz 1967:532) that seventh-century hagiography differs from sixth-century in that the saints are repeatedly described as of high and even noble birth (cp., in the present context, VA 1, where Arnulf is described as prosapie genitus francorum altus satis et nobilis parentibus; Cracco Ruggini 1992). Whatever the precise interpretation, it appears to support the conclusions drawn from Fredegar and suggests, as Sprandel (1961:57-8) said, a clear class identity in the later period. That Leudesius was recorded as 'son of Erchinoald' and Pippin as 'son of Ansegisel' is also significant. Frankish magnates' lineage, and thus their 'nobility', was becoming better known by the later years of the century. It is no coincidence that historians have been able to produce prosopographies of northern, Frankish aristocrats in this period, showing the tenure of offices within particular families (Ebling 1974). As before, the security of land tenure is a good index of aristocratic power. Here we must address the significance of the fact that from the early seventh century, growing numbers of documents survive regulating the ownership and transmission of land. The earliest version of the Vita Waldradae seems to be based upon the text of a charter of 596-612 (and is thus the oldest surviving fragment from the region of Metz),10 there are at least two surviving charters in favour of Metz cathedral (Gauthier 1980:387 n. 85) and Holy 9 10

Burgundian law, unlike Frankish, distinguished nobles - nobiles - from other freemen even in the early sixth century. See Liber Constitutionum 2.ii. The standard edition of the Vita Waldradae is Ada Sanctorum, Mai II, pp.51-2. There are problems with this text, however, which looks like a later (Carolingian?) expansion of a very bald earlier life (existing in a Utrecht MS), edited in Mabillon's Acta Sanctorum Ordinis S. Benedicti. From its style and structure, the latter seems clearly to be based upon an early seventh-century charter.

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Apostles (Pertz, Mayoral 2), and the Wissembourg cartulary includes a number of seventh-century documents. Several objections may be raised against the significance of the appearance of such documents only in the seventh century. Literacy may well have been higher in the sixth century, and the use of written documents in law and the administration was widespread (Wood 1986; 1990). The date of the oldest surviving written records may then depend only upon the date of the foundation of monasteries; older charters, written on papyrus, have simply been lost. Neither explanation is entirely satisfactory. Chance loss can never be ignored in the early middle ages, but the extent and completeness of the documentary blank across sixth-century northern Gaul cannot be explained solely as an 'accident of survival5, by appeal to accidental fires and marauding warbands. Moreover, when we have Merovingian papyri which have survived 1,350 years since c. 625, a further fifty years is neither here nor there. We are not in any case talking simply of the survival of originals; even charters copied by later compilers (like the Waldrada charter mentioned earlier) go back no further than c. 600. The fact that our documents do largely come from seventh-century foundations is more interesting, but again not entirely satisfactory. Metz cathedral and Holy Apostles existed in the fifth and sixth centuries too. The difference may be explained by the fact that the seventh-century foundations were probably different in nature from earlier ones, being aristocratic rather than episcopal. This change itself requires some explanation, though, and is probably significant. A final, more satisfactory explanation would attribute the appearance of charters and other documents to the break-down of municipal archives (gesta (or acta) municipalia) in the seventh century. Documents were now kept by individuals or institutions, rather than being kept in central municipal archives. This and the collapse of the gesta led to the creation of the later seventh-century formularies, the Roman-style documents preserved therein providing the link between Merovingian deeds and late Roman prototypes (Classen 1955; 1956). But there are problems here too. This change from communal to private in the traditions of keeping documents would itself be significant and demand explanation. Though the Epistulae Austrasiacae probably originated in a royal archive in Metz and the trial of Egidius of Reims shows royal and episcopal archives in action, there is little or no other reference to municipal acta in the north, and Wood (1986:13-14) shows that the acta further south in Le Mans had broken down by 616. It is difficult to attest the continuation of any other late Roman urban institutions in northern Gaul between c. 400 and c. 600, making the continuation of gesta municipalia questionable. Furthermore, why should the archives have begun to die out only in the seventh century? Consideration of a broader range of evidence questions their survival still further (ch.9, below). Early seventh-century Lex Ribvaria manifests a particular concern with written documents. Whereas transfers of land in the Pactus Legis Salicae are verified by witnesses, and governed by precise rituals (cp. PLS 46, 50), Ripuarian Law talks of producing authentic charters or deeds (Lex Ribv. 59, 62, 63, 70). Dowers were confirmed by written document (ibid. 41) and 47

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slaves manumitted by charter {ibid. 61). Fouracre (1986), though showing that written evidence was far from being the only admissible form of proof, demonstrates this use of, and demand for, written documents in practice. The formularies, which appear in northern Gaul in the late seventh century, include precisely such things as charters (Marculf II.2-6), and deeds of immunity {ibid. 1.3-4), manumission {ibid. 11.32—3) and dower {ibid. 11.15). The chronological correlation between the first detailed legislation about charters, the earliest surviving Frankish examples of such documents, and the appearance in the north of formularies argues that the increase in the survival of documents is significant, representing real social change. Fairly widespread literacy and use of written administrative documents in the sixth century did not lead to a perceived need to preserve documents for their own sake. There does not seem to have been an idea that written deeds were of long-term use in matters of property and landholding (which may be similar to the Roman situation; Classen 1955:34-5). This interpretation can be challenged but it will be retained as a working hypothesis, and receive further attention in chapter 9. The seventh century thus saw an increasing concern to keep written records of property ownership and transfer. This, I suggest, represents a fundamental change in society. As was mentioned above, the bestowal of fiscal lands in the sixth century seems to have been a temporary and personal contract, revocable at will by the king, and subject to royal confirmation when the original grantee died. Even at other levels of society, the use of public rituals and living witnesses manifests a particularly temporary view of property ownership. Anyone who called a royal charter a forgery and could not back up the accusation was subject to either capital punishment or penal slavery {Lex Ribv. 59.iii). Land held by charter was now distinguished from other forms of landed property. If a deed confirmed a landowner and his or her descendants in perpetual possession of a specified estate, then, as long as any conditions set down in the original deed pertained and were adhered to, perpetual ownership was exactly what was meant. As Wormald (1984:22-3) has argued for early Anglo-Saxon England, the appearance of the charter in the seventh century represents more permanent ownership of, and the right to alienate, at least certain types of land. Security of land tenure was increased and, with it, the independence of the landholding elite. The attendant changes in views of heredity, property, time and one's place in the landscape should by no means be ignored. Increased aristocratic independence is also suggested by the fact that (even though the law discouraged the practice) lords evidently answered for their retainers in certain legal circumstances {Lex Ribv. 35). Chlothar II's 614 Edict of Paris, which shows several similarities to Lex Ribvaria in this, reveals that some lay and ecclesiastical lords had acquired rights to administer justice on their estates (c. 14) and were involved in the appointment of judges (c. 19). What was earlier termed the 'horizontal' application of royal law was breaking down. Consideration of the mechanics of taxation and military service reveals similar processes. Seventh-century taxation is difficult to study but by the early decades of the century it seems that local landlords had appropriated many forms of Roman taxation, passing on much more 48

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limited dues to the king (Goffart 1982a). Some lords acquired immunity from certain dues and public duties such as the maintenance of royal agents or the hospitality due to people on their way to the royal court {Lex Ribv. 68). The decline of taxation is perhaps not surprising given the spread of 'Frankish' ethnicity and the association of Frankishness with tax exemption (Marculf 1.19; Goffart 1982a:21; James 1988a:193; Durliat 1990:109 challenges this). The documents collected in Marculf's formulary show the realities of immunity (e.g. Marculf 1.3-4). The army, too, is less often spoken of as the army of the Franks, until Charles Mattel's and Pippin the Short's campaigns against Gascons, Saracens, Lombards, Alamans and Bavarians in the early eighth century. References to military service in the narratives are few and oblique. As before, though, there is a sense in which taxation and military service were alternative obligations.11 In Dagobert's 631 campaign against the Wends, launched from Metz, the Austrasian army was joined by Burgundian and Neustrian scarae (bands) of selected men, under their dukes and counts (Fredegar, Cbron. IV.74). Whether or not this is indicative of a more socially selective form of military service is unclear. By the later seventh century, individual aristocrats, such as Pippin CIP, raised exerciti (Fredegar, Continuation 3 and 5) from their supporters (socii) in Austrasia. Ebroin, the villain of the early chapters of the Continuation of Fredegar's Chronicle, raised 'a mighty force of followers' (multo comitatu excercituum; ibid. 2) for his invasion of Francia (by which, as before, is meant the north). Immunities which forbade the king's agents from entering estates left the lord to raise any necessary military contingent; such at least is the impression given by the fact that the immunist could collect the fine for non-fulfilment of military service. This led to the ability to raise substantial forces from friends and followers and to a 'privatization' of the army, spelling the end of 'horizontally' levied military service. Armies were raised Vertically' down a chain of lords and their dependants. Thus, as stated, the losses suffered in Charles Martel's wars against the Frisians and Neustrians (715), were discussed in terms of noblemen rather than 'strong men', such as had been those lost, a hundred years before, in the battle of Toul (612). When, in 741, Pippin the Short campaigned in Burgundy, his army was composed of ca multitude of magnates and a great band of their followers' {multitudine primatum et agminum satellitum plurimorum; ibid. 24). During the seventh century, as is well known, royal authority broke down and, with it, kingly control of patronage, though warning notes have been sounded against taking the weakness of the later Merovingians too far.12 By the second half of the century patronage was controlled as much by the mayors of the palace as by the kings. The situation reached its apogee in 708-15, when Pippin 'IF installed his grandson Theudoald as puppet mayor of the palace to the puppet King Dagobert III (LHF 50; Fredegar, Continu11

12

Cp. Fredegar's Chronicle IV.74, where the Saxons offer, in effect, to perform military service in defending the Franks' Wendish frontier instead of paying the tribute of 500 cows hitherto due annually to the fisc. Inter alia, Fouracre 1990; Fouracre 1986 makes valuable points about the importance of the royal court; Gerberding 1987:63 and 109-14 has significant implications for the power of Clovis II and Childebert III respectively; Wood 1992b:21-2.

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ation 7; James 1982:151). The extent to which aristocratic families now controlled ecclesiastical patronage in the north, hitherto seemingly shared between the king, the local community and the church itself, is well known, through many studies of Merovingian Kirchen- and Klosterpolitik (cp. Prinz 1965). Seventh-century politics after Dagobert Fs death (638) were increasingly dominated, as sixth-century politics had never been, by struggles for power and control over the royal courts between rival aristocratic factions. In this context it is not surprising that the relationships between king and aristocracy, or nobility as at least a part of it was by now, were the inverse of those of the sixth century. We saw earlier how kings such as Childebert II could arbitrarily strip of their power and even execute aristocrats like Magnovald. When Childeric II tried to revive such powers in 675 and ordered Bodilo, significantly termed a noble by Fredegar's continuator, to be beaten, he was swiftly assassinated along with his pregnant wife {LHF 45; Fredegar, Continuation 2). In chapter 1 we noted that this assassination resulted in an effective interregnum of six months. Earlier, the Austrasian mayor, Grimoald, had placed his own son, Childebert, on the throne for six years or so. Although, as Gerberding (1987:83) rightly stresses, the nobility still needed a king to provide a figurehead and focus, the nature of their relationship with, and need for, the king differed profoundly from that of their sixth-century predecessors. This is shown by even the most careful studies of the seventhcentury nobility, concerned to rectify the traditional picture of late Merovingian impotence. The LHF's author glossed Gregory's earlier account of Merovingian royal politics to make the kings consult with their franci before major undertakings (Gerberding 1987:33-5). This is clearly an early eighthcentury perspective on the nature of politics. In the region of Metz, it is only from the late seventh century that we can move from the theory of the laws, the circumstantial evidence of the narratives and saints' lives, and from the discussion of general developments on a wide geographical basis, to look at the realities of landholding and aristocratic power. Before the end of the Merovingian period, our evidence comes almost exclusively from the Wissembourg cartulary. Sprandel (1961:54-5), working from the witness-lists of these documents, concluded that they testified to the existence of a class of free commoners under changing leadership, but his conclusion needs some modification. The geographical spread of the estates suggests that some families at least could be described as potentes qui per divisa possident, to borrow Chlothar II's phrase (Edict of Paris, c. 19). Gundoin's family gave extensive lands in five villae13 around Einville in the Sanon valley, as well as in the upper Sarre valley at Biberkirch (Wiss. 223, 226, 228-9, 239-40, dated between 699 and 715). The contemporary family of Weroald, son of Count Audoin, held estates in several villae between the middle Sarre and the Vosges (Wiss. 231, 233, 241-3, 256, dated between 700 and 721). Similarly, the family of Chrodoin (d. before 21 March 726-7), whose dealings with Wissembourg can be traced well into the Carolingian era, gave estates in fairly widespread villae in the Sarre valley, the 13

See below, ch.5, for discussion of the meaning of this word.

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Vosges foothills and possibly further afield (Wiss. 194-5, 224, 227, 232, 247, 257, dated between 712 and 736). The witnesses of these three families' charters show no very clear patterns of association. Constantine, Dructimund, Frumoald and Charoin witnessed charters of both Chrodoin and Weroald in 712. Dructimund and Charoin witnessed two of the Gundoinings' charters three years later. Chardoin and Theudo also witnessed these charters (and those of the Gundoinings for 699) but are attested in the witness-list of a 713 charter issued by Weroald. In 718 they witnessed a charter of Chrodoin and were joined by Baldoin, who had witnessed a charter of Weroald in 713 and one of the Gundoinings of 706-7. These witnesses were not involved in any exclusive ties with any of the major families. This, presumably, led to Sprandel's conclusions. However, there are problems. The witness-lists seem to be the most problematic parts of the Wissembourg documents. That of Wiss. 246 (Wissembourg, 29 June 775) includes the somewhat suspicious pair Romanus and Francus. More suspiciously, the witness-list to Wiss. 235 (Wissembourg, 1 Dec. 741) contains, after the first three names, those of the witnesses to the previous charter in the collection, issued twenty-nine years earlier. None of these men is otherwise known after 715. More importantly, there are reasons to believe that Ermbert and Otto (the sons of Gundoin), Weroald (son of Audoin) and Chrodoin (son of Petrus) were members of a particular noble faction, if not more closely related. In addition to political historical indications (see ch.l), Audoin is in one charter referred to as Otdo, like the son of Gundoin. The latter is occasionally referred to as Ottun or Odon, suggesting that the two shared the same name. The three families also held lands in many of the same villae. Apart from Audoin, two other counts are associated with them. Counts Willibert and Adalchard signed Weroald's charters in 713 and 721 respectively. In 720, Adalchard also held as benefice the lands which Gundoin's sons gave to Wissembourg. It can be proposed that we are dealing here with closely allied families, or even with different lines of the same high-prestige family. As discussed in chapter 1, this group of families may have provided the principal local opposition to the Pippinids and Arnulfings in the later seventh century. The charters reveal the power of people like the Gundoinings. In, for example, Wiss. 240, Ermbert son of Gundoin gave ten named properties to Wissembourg; in Wiss. 194 Chrodoin son of Petrus gave nine named properties; the forged foundation charter of St-Mihiel (St-M. 1) records that the Gundoinings' postulated relative, Count Wulfoald, held twenty or so estates. Bequests included slaves (see below) and churches: the Gundoinings controlled the church of SS Martin and Hilary at Einville-au-Jard; Chrodoin owned St-Martin, Kirch-Berg and Waldhambach church; Samuel and Benedict, sons of Chroccus, held St-George, villa Teurino and St-Remigius, Bourscheid. The splendidly detailed charter Gorze 19 (below, ch.5), illustrates the income which the control of local churches produced for aristocrats by the later eighth century. Aristocrats like Duke Theotchar (Wiss. 213) and Count Wulfoald (St-M. 1) also controlled forms of manufacture, such as salt-pans on the middle Seille. One feature which is worth stressing, however, is the absence of aristocratic rural monastic foundations in the region of Metz, which thus 51

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contrasts significantly with neighbouring areas. St-Mihiel, twelve kilometres from the south-western extremities of the diocese of Metz, is the exception, founded on lands confiscated from Count Wulfoald (Gauthier 1980:397; Dipl. KaroL 8). All other known rural houses (St-Avoid and Gorze), were founded on episcopal initiative. Only urban houses, such as St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains and Ste-Glossinde (but not, pace Gerberding 1987:100, St-Arnoul), can be argued to have been aristocratic foundations. Benefices appear in the region of Metz in 718-20 (Wiss. 195, dated Rimsdorf, 18 May 718; Wiss. 267, Biberkirch, 12 July 720). The term beneficium appears as a sudden cluster of references (in 718-21 and 736-9 west and east of the Vosges respectively), followed by a sparse but steady trickle thereafter. The use of benefices was, it seems, well established by the time that Gorze Abbey was founded in the 740s. The significance of this requires attention. The relatively sudden appearance of the term14 might quite simply stem from the introduction of a new model charter into the scriptorium. Beneficium is a Roman term (cp. Classen 1955:20) and may be found in royal charters of the early seventh century, but in a very different sense, as 'benefit' or as the 'benevolence' of a gift (cp. Pertz, Royal 85). This is its usual sense in Marculf. However, in practice, the term begins to be used in a new way, to describe a form of landholding, at about this time across northern Gaul. The earliest such usage in Pertz's collection is Mayoral 10 (dated 2 December 719). By the middle of the eighth century, references begin to the lex beneficium (Gorze 7, dated 1 Jan. 761). Legal references to benefices also begin at this time (cp. Pippin I 'Decree concerning Marriage Issued at Compiegne', 757, c. 9; Boretius (ed.) 1883:38). Major secular landholders, dukes and counts gave land to lesser freemen as benefices (Wiss. 9, 10, 58, 60, 162, dated 735-84); this was not a peculiarly ecclesiastical landholding arrangement. I would argue that the appearance of beneficium at this time reflects a need to describe adequately a particular relation of landownership, and probably a new one. This is, again, open to debate, but it may be retained as a hypothesis and tested against other evidence in chapter 9. The vocabulary of the benefice reflected the personal rather than economic nature of the transaction, the intimate relationship between grantee and grantor and, nevertheless, the dominant position of the latter. This created a landholding context into which the terminology of commendation could be fitted. The often associated term precaria similarly has Roman origins. It appears in Wiss. 229 (Wissembourg, January 706/7), and is already found in Marculf's collection and elsewhere, albeit not always in quite the sense it has in the eighth century. It is usually a simple arrangement whereby a donor receives back the usufruct of the land given. It has been suggested that this, especially where the gift is to a 'family monastery', was simply a means of protecting a family patrimony against its disintegration through divided inheritance. This interpretation perhaps gives added significance to the spate of precarial grants by the Gundoinings and their allies in the critical period 14

We have twenty-seven or so Merovingian charters from the region which predate its appearance, and Marculf's formulary, though usually using beneficium in its earlier sense (see below), uses it twice to mean this kind of land-tenure; Marculf 11.39-40.

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700-20. This relationship appears much more rarely outside ecclesiastical contexts. Also visible on the local level is the break-down of royal patronage in the later Merovingian period. The Wissembourg cartulary reveals two or three counts of (or in) the Pagus Sarroensis, a duke in the Pagus Salinensis and another count (Audoin, the father of Weroald) whose territorial jurisdiction is unclear. In the early Merovingian period, there was one count per civitas (and, as we noted, even this institution may not have existed at Metz), and dukes ruled even broader areas. It was noted that, as a result of the paucity of offices and of frequent redistributions of titles, the kings held significant power over their aristocracies. By the last century of the Merovingian period such offices had proliferated, and some families (such as the Etichonids in Alsace) had managed to acquire control over certain of them. In the region of Metz, Adalchard, count in the Pagus Sarroensis in the second and third decades of the eighth century, may have been related to Count Adalramn, an official on the other side of the Vosges in the same decade.15 The Wissembourg documents also show that deceased counts were referred to by their old title, perhaps suggesting that such titles had become more permanent than in the sixth century. Offices and titles had multiplied, and control of their distribution had slipped from the king to his senior palatine officials and even into the hands of individual families. Throughout the later Merovingian period the nature of the elite was constantly developing. By 750 the local aristocracy had acquired an impressive degree of authority over land and men. Their power reached deep into the daily lives and even patterns of worship of lesser folk, and their control of estates and tenants was assured and independent. As a result, the personnel of the aristocracy remained more constant and, from the early seventh century, a group identity was fostered; legal recognition and privilege was gradually accorded to the elite. During the last century of the Merovingian period in the region of Metz, it seems reasonable to talk of at least the more powerful aristocrats as a nobility. The free in the seventh and early eighth centuries To recapitulate, seventh-century legal material gives much more recognition to the existence of freemen in relations of dependence upon other freemen. We have already encountered the satellites and ingenui in obsequio of Lex Rihvaria. These seem to be followers in immediate attendance upon their lord. These clauses of Lex Rihvaria give legal recognition to aristocrats' creation of dependent followings outside the usual structures of political power. This might also be suggested by the general absence of contubernia in Lex 15

Wiss. 41. Ebling (1974:32), despite suggesting no relationship, makes Adalramn a count of the Pagus Sarroensis, which would make kinship even more plausible. However, this relies upon a location of the land-grant in question {villa Audoino) west of the Vosges, perhaps at Einville-au-Jard (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Audviller (Moselle) or Ottwiller (Bas Rhin). GlSckner & Doll choose Einvilleau-Jard out of these but argue persuasively that, although Einville was a villa Audoino, the subject of Wiss. 41 is to be located at Edesheim near Landau. Einville-au-Jard was in any case in the Pagus Salinensis. Audviller and Ottwiller are not ruled out.

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Ribvaria; they are replaced by references to hariraida, which may imply more a leader and followers than a band of equals. If land was given to satellites or ingenui in obsequio as reward for service, the relationship between grantor and grantee seems to have remained informal. We can examine seventh- and eighth-century freemen through the, admittedly problematic, medium of the charters. The Wissembourg documents, as Sprandel noted, do not permit any conclusion that the witnesses of the Gundoinings', Weroald's or Chrodoin's charters stood in any formal or exclusive relationship of dependence upon them. What we may have is evidence of an aristocratic faction and its supporters, those over whom they had the power and influence to call to an assembly in their support; it does not look like a group of lords and their followers and retainers. Economic independence is shown by the fact that Charoin/Heriwin (who witnessed charters of, amongst others, Weroald and Ermbert son of Gundoin between 712 and 717) was himself able to dispose of his paternal alod and extensive Alsatian lands in favour of Wissembourg (Wiss. 18, 27 Feb. 725/6; Wiss. 1, 15 June 742.). Other references to land of paternal and maternal inheritance might suggest that even the less powerful donors to Wissembourg (and, later, to Gorze) were in possession of landed inheritances of which they had the power to dispose at will (but see Reynolds 1991 for important reservations about this kind of conclusion). The charters suggest that before the mid-eighth century, the usual means of land transfer, apart from dower and dowry, were sale and outright gift. Even these donors, however, were hardly paupers. Further down the social scale we find references to tenants (accolae) who may have been free. These drop out of the formulae of the Wissembourg charters for Lorraine by the 730s, though they persist into the 740s in the Wissembourg cartulary's 'Rhenish' documents16 and until the end of the century in the Gorze charters. In this cartulary, from about 800, they are replaced by references to lands c held' by X (again, the freedom of X and the nature of the tenure is usually left unclear), to X holding land as benefice, and to mansi ingenuiles (cp. Gorze 19). It is difficult to know on what terms lands were 'held' in this period. Rents expressed as money could mean all kinds of movable goods and produce (cp. Campbell 1989:27, and Gorze 19 as a practical example); servitium could simply mean rent. In the Merovingian documents of the region of Metz, the mention of angaria (messenger services) in Wiss. 267 is the first reference to rent in services, and is unique. Formal, specified services attached to land tenure appear gradually through the eighth century. The freemen of Gorze 19 (770) paid rent in kind and were responsible for the upkeep of ten perches of enclosure. The use of the terms jornales (the land which could be ploughed in a day's work) and carradas (possible cartloads of produce) to measure land might hint at labour services. In the Wissembourg charters, both terms only become common after 740, and especially after the 780s, during which decade they were used particularly frequently. The services listed in the mideighth-century Lex Baiouariorum (1.13), which include sowing and har16

They reappear there in a burst of references in 774-5.

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vesting andecingae of arable and reaping one arpent of meadow, support this interpretation. In 795 Deodatus agreed that the rent due from his benefice in St-Julien-les-Gorze, Higmarega (St-Baussant) and Sontonega (PXonville) would be that he (or at least his men!) would plough, sow and reap one;ornalis of arable (Gorze 34, dated St-Julien-les-Gorze, 21 Dec. 795). One of the most important implications of the use of term beneficium was that the personal nature of the transaction gave it some degree of 'honour' and marked the holder of a benefice out from the occupier of a simple free tenement. The Romans constitute a further, albeit shadowy, element among the free population. However, as mentioned, in the seventh century, Lex Ribvaria made the lesser legal status of Romans much more rigid, and equated them with king's or church freedmen; mixed marriages were regulated, offspring descending to the Roman status. 'Roman' status is very frequently equated with manumission of slaves and half-free so that Roman law is largely associated with the half-free. A slave might be freed, but making him or her a Roman denied equality with his or her previous owners. The unfree classes in later Merovingian society The sources give the impression that the social groups not considered fully free multiplied in the later Merovingian period. We may begin with seventhcentury law. Rent-payers {tributarii; Lex Ribv. 65) were a kind of manumitted freedmen, with a low, thirty-six-so/zd^s wergild. This might support the idea, mooted earlier, that laeti were settled on tenements away from the estate centre. Nevertheless, this new rent-paying category is interesting. The half-free remain much as before, although two new classes, king's freedmen {homo regius) and church freedmen {ecclesiasticus', or homo ecclesiasticus) are added (cp. ibid. 61.xi); their wergild is 100 solidi {ibid. 9-10), the same as a Roman in sixth- and seventh-century law {ibid. 64.ii), or the earlier pueri regis. The extent to which the half-free are dependants of others is made even more explicit than in the PLS. By 797 a document of manumission (Wiss. 68) refers to freedom from servitium or libertinitatis obsequium (the service of a freedman; the formula is from Marculf 11.32). Much of the law concerning the half-free relates to manumission, proofs of half-free status and accusations of illegal manumission, or legal procedure pertaining to them {Lex Ribv. 60-l.i-viii, 64-5). The peculium, the belongings of a half-free man or woman, or the fruits of their labour, remained the property of those upon whom they depended {ibid. 61.i, for church freedmen). If king's or church freedmen died without heirs, their property passed to the fisc or the church {ibid. 6O.iv, 61.iv, 64.i). There appears to be a far wider range of law pertaining to these categories, although the nature of the barrier separating them from the free seems to have related purely to legal procedure. The half-free were a dependent, peasant population, but, to all intents and purposes, it seems that their lives might differ little from that of legally 'freer' inhabitants of rural north-east Gaul. The pueri of the PLS and sixth-century narrative sources are almost entirely absent from Lex Ribvaria. The one appearance of the pueri regis relates to the killing of a count of such status {Lex Ribv. 54.ii). Though 55

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modified, it is very similar to PLS 54.ii, and possibly something of a fossil. However, VA 12 refers to apuer in the service of a Frankish magnate called Noddilo. Here the puer is a household retainer and relative; there is no implication of servile status. On the other hand, the pueri encountered by Gaugeric near Famars (VG:286) are indubitably slaves. The 'boys' (pueri) of the sixth century have been replaced by the 'men' {homines) of the seventh, not simply king's and church freedmen, but also freemen in obsequio and satellites.

Lex Ribvaria s discussion of slaves is different from that of the Pactus Legis Salicae. Royal and ecclesiastical slaves are distinguished from others (Lex Ribv. 61.ix, 61.xx). As before, certain laws demonstrate that the slave was still viewed as a form of property (ibid. 75.iff, 78), but it may be that the institutionalized lot of the slave was improving. There is no mention of a slave suffering corporal punishment; it seems clearer in Lex Ribvaria that slaves will pay fines, whilst, if they are believed by their owners to be innocent, their master may swear an oath on their behalf. Only in cases of the murder of a slave by a slave, or of the injury of a freeman by a slave is it made explicit that the lord pays the fine (ibid. 23, 29). The fine in both cases is thirty-six solidi, which might be seen as more than a slave could typically pay; the other fines mentioned are well under this amount. This is very different to the procedures envisaged in the Pactus Legis Salicae (PLS 35). If the master cannot tell the slave's guilt or otherwise, he must deliver the slave up to ordeal by boiling water. Here is the major difference between royal or ecclesiastical slaves, and other slaves. The difference between king's slaves and other slaves in the PLS is simply that the king's property was more valuable, whereas Childebert IFs Decrees (3.vi) maintained no difference between church or fiscal slaves and any other; in Lex Ribvaria the former may swear oaths and answer in court themselves. The distinction concerns legal rights. Although slaves were now considered capable of paying small fines without their masters' consent, no one was permitted to buy anything from a slave (Lex Ribv. 77); their peculium was ultimately the property of their masters. There is detailed legislation about intermarriage between all these different unfree and half-free classes, and between them and the free (Lex Ribv. 61.ixff). As before, slave-free marriage results in both partners, and their descendants, becoming slaves. In all cases of intermarriage, it is now specified that any offspring will descend to the lower legal status, but, unlike earlier law, Lex Ribvaria (61.x) allows for instances where the higher status of one of the parties is retained for the duration of their lifetime. The family of a freewoman who wishes to marry a slave may offer her the choice of 'sword or spindle': choosing the sword forced the woman to kill the slave; choosing the spindle meant she remained with him in slavery (Lex Ribv. 61.xviii). The important difference between seventh- and sixth-century law in this respect is Lex Ribvaria's concern with the status of descendants. Lex Ribvaria is far more concerned with manumission than the PLS (Lex Ribvaria 60, 61.i-viii, 64), and, as mentioned, with subsequent proofs of free, 'Roman', 'rent-paying' or freed status. A slave may now be freed by charter, 56

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as well as by 'penny-throw'. Seventh-century law lacks the extended enumeration of different types of slave, found in the PLS, which may be significant. Lex Ribvaria allows the suggestion that perhaps the conditions of slaves had slightly improved. There can be little doubt that the legal difference between slave and free remained the most important institutionalized barrier in society. With a more varied, and evidently more important, group of 'half-free' classes between them and the free, and a perhaps more blurred boundary between some at least of the half-free and the lower free classes, perhaps this barrier was becoming less important in daily life. This impression might be tested by examining Marculf 's formulary and the charters. Marculf's documents shed a very immediate light on the theory of the laws. The deeds confirm the absolute authority of the owner of the slave. this slave I now give over to you to possess and from this day you freely have the power to have, hold and do whatever you want to him/her (Marculf 11.22) if I do not do this, or if I wish to leave your service in any way, or to petition another lord, or to take on his business, you have licence to impose whatever kind of discipline you want on me, or to sell me or to do whatever you want with me. (ibid. 11.28).

Patterson's 'relation of domination' is still clearly attested. The documents, as shown above, show that sale of these individuals and complete rights over their persons was still practised, and presumably slaves could be and were sold away from their families. Marculf also includes deeds of manumission (e.g. Marculf 11.32—4). These usually imply that manumission made a slave a freeman. The phrase commonly used is that the slave will be cfree as though born of free parents'. No mention is made of half-freedom or freed status as such, though reference to dependence upon churches or 'anyone else you choose' (ibid. 11.32) shows that it was common for freed slaves to enter into some other protective relation of dependence. The charters attest a wide array of unfree categories: mancipia, servi, ancillae, accolae (who might be free; see above), vasalles, puellae, homines, liberti and liti are all mentioned as evidently dependent groups of people in seventhand eighth-century charters of the region. This might confirm the diversity suggested in Lex Ribvaria. The complete absence of references to coloni in the Merovingian region of Metz is worth noting, however. The liti encountered in Gorze charters of the later eighth century (they disappear by the ninth) are probably the half-free of the law-codes; these charters constitute their only appearance outside the legal material in the region of Metz. There is one reference to liberti (Wiss. 45, of 20 June 719); they are granted with their peculium, confirming the laws' statements about this. 'Thepuellae (Wiss. 17, of 19 June 739), homines (Wiss. 12, of 731-9, and 52, of 27 May 742) and vasalles (Wiss. 17), met with in earlier eighth-century 'Rhenish' Wissembourg charters, all seem to be household servants. Their degree of legal freedom is unspecified; they could be free or slave. That they are granted with the domus in which they work does not necessarily imply unfree status. It might simply be a right to their work that was being bestowed. 57

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More can be said about the mancipia of the charters. This category is that which appears most commonly in the documents; by the ninth century it has all but completely replaced the others. A large number of mancipia are named. That they and servi are frequently named whereas accolae never are might suggest that rights over the person and his or her descendants are being bestowed in these cases, while in the case of accolae it is rights to land and the rent or labour due from it which is being given. This might suggest that accolae are indeed in some sense 'freer' than mancipia or servi, whatever the de facto similarities of their condition. In the charters mancipia seems sometimes to be used as a noun incorporating male and female slaves {servi and ancillae respectively). Servus and ancilla seem usually to be used as singular nouns; neither is as common as mancipium. Mancipia could be given away either with the land which they farmed or without it. It is the latter (for example, Wiss. 241, of 18 June 737) which goes furthest to proving a real lack of freedom. Gift with the land might merely indicate a gift of labour and other dues from the land worked by the specified mancipia', gift of mancipia away from land indicates the gift of human beings and some fuller degree of control over their persons. Wiss. 183, of 769-84, records the sale of a slave called Amalbert for two pounds, showing such transactions in practice. That mancipia held no property outright continues to be attested by gifts of mancipia and servi with their peculia (cp. Wiss. 1, 13, 15, 16, 46, 54, 96, 100 and 125, ranging in date from 695 to 788). There are some indications of an amelioration of status. The mancipia given away in Wiss. 241 are listed by family: for example, Chroacar and Gaila his wife {cum uxore suae Gailane), and their children {cum infantis eorum). Grouping of male and female names within other lists of mancipia suggests that this may have been common practice. Children too are grouped with their parents. In 788 a 'Rhenish' Wissembourg charter (Wiss. 102) refers to a grant of mancipia cum uiris et mulieribus uel infantibus. Age and sex were now to be distinguished within the general category of mancipia. All this suggests that the attitude towards slave families in late Merovingian north-eastern Gaul was not, in practice, quite as harsh as Bonnassie argues (1991b:23-5). His argument, though, derives solely from the 'barbarian' lawcodes (to which he adopts a singularly diachronic, 'aggregating' approach). His argument is certainly plausible in the earlier period, but even the laws suggest (as argued above) some slight improvement in legal conceptual status between the sixth and seventh centuries. There are, nevertheless, early Carolingian instances of mancipia being granted away from their family (Wiss. 210, of 24 Nov. 783, a gift of four female mancipia), showing that unfree families could still be broken up by their owners. The listing of children may have less to do with any more 'humane' recognition of slave families than with a concern to make clear the unfree status of the descendants of mancipia, such as is attested in Lex Ribvaria and in Marculf's formulary. But even so, practical exigencies had forced a recognition of slave families; the slave is no longer quite Patterson's (1982) 'genealogical isolate'.

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The Wissembourg cartulary includes references to manumission, closely modelled upon Marculf 's formulae. Wiss. 68 (?Ottwiller, nr Drulingen, Bas Rhin, 7 Jan. 797), from the region of Metz, bestows freedom upon eight servi vel ancillae. These are freed from servitium and libertinitatis obsequium (as noted above), and are to be subject to God alone. Nevertheless, Wissembourg Abbey is given mundium (legal guardianship) over them all and they are to pay the abbey four denarii a year, at Martinmas. Not unexpectedly, these slaves did not make a straightforward transition to fully free status. Freed slaves would have been extremely poor and would have found life difficult without a powerful protector. By the later eighth century, there are also references to specified services to be performed by mancipia. Wiss. 63 (24 June 774) specifies that mancipia perform three days' work per week, with a further forty days per year on major works if necessary {Lex Alamannorum 22.i specified similar service in the early eighth century). By this time, those mancipia who lived away from the estate centre on unfree tenements had their owner's demands on their time and labour restricted by custom. By 830, Thiethar and Wolfgart, two mancipia in Biberkirch (Bas Rhin) were granted freedom from all labour services in return for two denarii per annum, and Wissembourg Abbey's agent at Waldhambach was to go to their house to collect it (Wiss. 51, and cp. Wiss. 198). This is a significant improvement in the slave's lot, and shows how far the barrier between slave and free had been blurred by the late eighth century. By this time it seems to have largely concerned legal procedure. In practical economic terms, the poor free, the half-free and the unfree were merging into a single dependent peasant population. Hence it is no surprise that by the ninth century, in our charters, mancipia is almost the only term used to describe dependants. In the region of Metz, this change would would appear to date to the period c. 775800, which tallies with Kuchenbuch's (1978:355-82) conclusions on the neighbouring region around Prum. Goetz (1993) has usefully highlighted the opposition of legal, juridical, 'conceptual' treatments of slavery, and practical, everyday socio-economic exigencies and de facto status. Which of these determined the conditions of slaves? Without adopting any crosy' view of early medieval slavery, it must be said that much work on slaves has been excessively concerned with legal formulations and has perhaps painted too uniformly bleak a picture. As has been argued above, the habitus probably moderated the legal status of slaves considerably even in the sixth century; Lex Ribvaria hints at a weakening of these institutionalized barriers in the seventh century. Nevertheless, that the diversity of different unfree and semi-free classes attested in seventh-century law is also witnessed by documents of practice, the charters, argues strongly that the institutionalized, legal identities were of primary importance until the late eighth century. The terminological change noted above might suggest a final triumph of socio-economic similarity over juridical difference, of social assimilation over legal distinction, in the decades around 800. One cannot call it a triumph of serfdom over slavery; the legalities of unfree condition remained in force, and were exploited for a long time

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to come. Such a straightforward, binary opposition is, as Goetz argues, too simplistic.

'Vertical' and 'diagonal' barriers Kinship, marriage and the family Throughout Merovingian Austrasia the kin-group was of dominant importance in defining social organization. The subject has been thoroughly covered in the literature, albeit usually from a diachronic and general European point of view17 and so does not require detailed treatment here. In the earlier part of our period, the Pactus Legis Salicae defines the formal kingroup widely, including the father's and the mother's relatives. This kingroup was supposed to help in the payment of fines (PLS 58) and, conversely, the law delineated very carefully how, and in what order, these people would inherit family property, or receive shares of fines paid to the kin (PLS 44, 59, 68; Murray 1983:chs.9-15). But it is always important to remember Bourdieu's (1977:33ff) useful distinction between official and practical kin. The laws are concerned with official kin. The 'practical' kin may have been much smaller.18 Nevertheless, official kin were important. Gregory (LH X.27) shows how involvement in feud could ripple outwards through the kin-group from the immediate 'practical kin'. In the sixth century we should also note the power of the local community, as witnessed by PLS 45, concerning migrants. Marriage was clearly important as a social strategy in such a society, especially since maternal as well as paternal relatives became part of one's 'official kin'. Marriage would have been a key means of securing allies and protection. The Pactus says little about it, except that betrothal took place as public declaration, and penalized a man who broke off such an engagement (PLS 65a). The laws for betrothal to a widow (PLS 44, 100) underline the point that it is public betrothal which is important. That family approval is vital, as one would expect in these circumstances, is also suggested by these clauses and by those dealing with illegal procurement of children for marriage (PLS 99) and raptus (illegal abduction). Little mention is made of divorce. This will be discussed further below. Presumably, once a man and woman were betrothed, the important alliance was made, and was held to be in force whether or not the parties lived together, as long as neither took another partner. At the end of the century, Childebert IPs decrees (l.ii), deal with incest, which is punishable, in the case of a son marrying his father's wife, with death. The degrees within which incest is prohibited are quite narrow, however. This contrasts with other legal definitions of kin, and may 17 18

Herlihy 1985 contains a useful introductory bibliography; Theis 1976 is interesting; Murray 1983 is essential. This is the conclusion of Theis' (1976) interesting study. There are obvious problems, though. It is unsurprising that authors of saints' lives were unaware of their subject's more distant kin. They almost always knew their subjects (if at all) in their ecclesiastical or monastic setting, and late in life. Where a hagiographer came from the same family as his subject, as with Altfrid's Vita Liudgeri (Lebecq 1990), a deeper knowledge of the kin-group is, not unexpectedly, demonstrated.

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restrict marriage only within 'practical kin'; restricting marriage within 'official kin' would have been too prohibitive in sixth-century rural communities. In seventh-century Lex Ribvaria^ there are important changes in the legal concept of the family. Whereas PLS 58, concerned with what happened when a man could no longer pay a fine, envisaged the formal, ritualized, widening of the circle of his living kin brought in to help pay the fine, Lex Ribvaria (c. 12) says 'let his descendants pay for three generations'. Though the notion of three degrees of kinship remains constant, there is an important change from the kin-group broadly defined in the present to that more narrowly defined but projected into the future. This parallels the law's concern with the legal status of the offspring of mixed marriages, and also the increased concern with projection into the future suggested above, with relationship to the new practice of keeping documents. Lex Ribvaria has few clauses about marriage and betrothal, though it does add an increased concern with written deeds of dower, as noted. At the very end of our period, Pippin I issued two capitularies about marriage (Decree at Compiegne, 757, and Decree at Verberie, 758-68; Boretius (ed.) 1883:3741) which were largely concerned with detailed prohibition of incestuous marriages, and, in contrast to Childebert II's edicts, these are quite broadly defined, being prohibited between partners related within three generations. The collective will of the later Merovingian kin-group could often override the wishes of the individual. According to the second version of the Vita Waldradae (c. 2), when Waldrada's father Leutherius granted additional estates to his daughter's abbey of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains in the early seventh century, he was murdered by his kin. The story may well be apocryphal but this fear remained into the Carolingian period, as shown by the repetition of clauses safeguarding donations of land against attempts by the donor's family to regain them. The fact that the worth of an individual was very often subordinate to his or her value to the kin-group is further underlined by examination of the vertical and diagonal barriers delineated by gender and age. Gender19

The nature of the social barriers created by gender can only be studied in geographical, chronological and, above all, social context. Much work has been reductive, making gender into a straightforward binary polarity, applicable not only across huge geographical zones and widely differing regions but also at all levels of society. The construction of gender differed, as we shall see in chapters 3-4, across comparably short distances and from one century to the next. The constraints on male and female power and action were differently traced among different hierarchical classes, especially when these became separated by clear horizontal barriers. To speak of 'class 19

The literature on the subject is, though patchy in coverage and quality, voluminous. Affeldt et al. (ed.) 1990, an annotated bibliography, is invaluable. Wemple 1981 is a useful general survey which, without eradicating them, suffers less from the problems of diachronicity than many other works, and wisely restricts the discussion to the Frankish realms.

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transcending gender' (as Nelson 1990:63 does) is to assume that gender construction is uniform across society (and in this case time too!). For now it is important to sketch out the nature of the 'gender barrier', how it constrained action and how it delineated the space within which women and men could act to further their own aims. As is common, I have used the condition of women to highlight the nature of the gender barrier. Most of these features have been extensively dealt with elsewhere, so their treatment here can be summary. Analysis of sixth-century women must, as ever, proceed from the laws.20 The legal condition of sixth-century women is by no means easy to establish. Past work on this topic has suffered from the usual aggregating tendencies. The legacy of the Rechtsschule is the treatment of all 'barbarian' law as a single corpus. Historians have only recently rebelled against this, and the study of women is still in its thrall. Separating the Frankish codes from those of the other post-Roman kingdoms allows us to see that many of the commonplaces of early medieval women's condition are not supported by the evidence in this region. As everywhere in this work, legal material is only treated as a general back-drop against which we can try to compare more strictly contextualized regional surveys of society. The Pactus Legis Salicae is surprisingly tacit on the legal condition of women, and this is a point which must be constantly borne in mind. Its silence is difficult to interpret, but we should not do this by extrapolating from the Burgundian or other Germanic law-codes. We must keep our investigation rigidly within context. The legal role of women remins unspecified. The Pactus (PLS 44) outlines how someone who wishes to marry a widow must pay a betrothal fee (reipus; ring-money) to her late husband's relatives (Murray 1983:ch.ll). This might imply that a woman lived under the legal guardianship of a man, but only PLS 100, from a later capitulary, makes this clear, when, again in relation to a widow's remarriage, it talks of the payment of achasius (the price of mundium, guardianship, over the woman) to the husband's relatives. The laws are silent about women in legal procedure. Pactus Legis Salicae is almost entirely masculine in its provisions. There is no mention of female oath-helpers, but three clauses {PLS 19.iv, 55.iv and 58.iii) imply that women could pay fines. Women are specified as criminals in only a handful of instances. The only case of violence is PLS 19.iv, where a woman may be accused of causing another's infertility through witchcraft. It is significant that the violence is magical rather than physical and inflicted by a woman upon a woman, and that the crime relates to child-bearing. That apart, female crimes concern illicit sex and marriage, either by elopement or with the unfree. In both cases attitudes changed through the sixth century, and in one, under the influence of Roman law, they undeniably hardened. The csixty-five-title text' of the Pactus underlines its exclusion of women from the law by making the man alone responsible in cases of fornication (PLS 15.iii) and adultery/bigamy (15.i). By the end of the century, though a later capitulary repeated male responsibility for elopement with another's wife (PLS 133), Childebert II 20

Ganshof 1962 is the classic study; see, more recently, von Olberg 1989 and Schmidt-Wiegand 1989.

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decreed in 595 (Childebert's Decrees 2.ii) that a woman who consented to elope with a man should suffer death or outlawry with him, or exile if they sought sanctuary in a church. Initially the Pactus (PLS 25.iv) simply sentenced a freewoman who married a slave to slavery, in the same way as it condemned a freeman who married a slave woman. However, by the time that the third capitulary was added, the freewoman who married a slave was outlawed, her possessions confiscated by the fisc and her relatives given permission to kill her without penalty. That apart, most laws, as mentioned, begin si quis; most criminal activity is not gender specific. That the law's provisions are almost entirely couched in the masculine might be taken along with the Pactus' refusal to accept female culpability in cases of fornication or adultery/bigamy to suggest a conscious exclusion of women from the law; even if a woman does commit a crime, the man under whose mundium she lives will be responsible. Nevertheless, this remains only an assumption. There is no outright statement that women are legally incapable of certain crimes (cp., in Lombard Law, Rothari's Edict 278 and 378, and Liutprand's Twenty-Second Year Laws, Women are not mentioned in the resolution of guilt, but we should nevertheless hesitate before assuming absolute legal incompetence. The Pactus never refers to oath-swearing cwith right hand armed3, which, on comparison with other evidence, might suggest a restriction to males, and never states outright that women cannot swear (again, compare Rothari's Edict 204). That women could pay fines might suggest otherwise. Slave women were treated by the law in the same way as slave men in means of proof and punishment (PLS 40). This might imply that amongst the free guilt was similarly established in the same way for men and women. It might alternatively indicate a different legal construction of gender at different ranks of society. However, the main point of PLS 40 is that, unlike the free, slaves are subject to torture and physical punishment, and (at PLS 4O.xi) its concern is with establishing a female equivalent of castration. The legal condition of women might also be examined through the system of wergilds. A freewoman's wergild is the same as a freeman's: 200 solidi (PLS 24.ix, 41.xv and xvii). When of child-bearing age, this increased to 600 solidi (PLS 24.viii, 41.xvi), three times a freeman's and the same as a free count's (PLS 54.i). Whilst this has been interpreted as indicative of a concern to protect the vulnerable (Irsigler 1969), this argument is easily countered. It is difficult to interpret the laws thus when similar high wergilds are not assigned to old people, widows or female children; the Pactus does give a high wergild to boys before their first hair-cutting, at about twelve years of age (PLS 24.i, 24.iv, 41.xviii). The wergild in any case was paid to the family of the deceased, and therefore represents, in our terms, institutionalized value. The victim obviously derives no active benefit from a high wergild payable upon his or her murder! Grahn-Hoek (1976:30-1) also refutes the claim that the high wergilds for child-bearing women represent a concern for the vulnerable, arguing that the concern was to protect the family line. The 600-solidus wergild thus indicates only a high value to the woman's family based upon her child-bearing capacity. Nevertheless, that apart, it is 63

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significant that a woman was regarded as of equal value to her family as a man, which contrasts clearly with the Visigothic legal situation (cp. the table of wergilds given in Bonnassie 1991c:75). The bases of a woman's status can be further illuminated by consideration of crimes against women and their punishment. The Pactus includes a clause about rape (PLS 15.ii); the fine is 62| solidi, compared with 45 for fornication (PLS 15.iii, where, nevertheless, the woman is not considered responsible for her actions). This implies that in matters of sex a woman's wishes were taken into account. Needless to say, this applied only to the free and semi-free (PLS 13O.i-ii); in clauses about fornication with slave women, there is no distinction between cases where the woman consented and those where she did not. Most of the other specified crimes against women can be interpreted, like fornication, as a crime against the family rather than against the woman herself. This is certainly the case with abduction, bigamy and adultery, as already discussed. Other laws deal mainly with the effect on a woman's child-bearing capability (PLS 19.iv; 104.ivff). Clearly the ability to have children is often central to a woman's own desires for her life; here, in conjunction with the high wergild for child-bearing women, it might again be argued that the law has the family's rather than the woman's concerns in mind. This difficulty in establishing whether the laws are dealing with crimes against a woman or against her value to her family applies equally to the clauses about hair-cutting (PLS 24.iii, 97), touching the arm or breast (20), calling a woman a witch (64.ii) or a whore (3O.iii),21 or pulling her hair (104.iii). A woman will not wish to be publicly dishonoured or humiliated verbally or physically but again we might suspect that it is the dishonour brought upon the family which is being penalized. This is difficult to resolve, but in some ways perhaps it does not need to be. The alternatives are not mutually exclusive. Even if the laws do envisage the crime as an insult to the family rather than to the woman, the latter can still use the law in just the same way. Similarly, a woman of child-bearing age could use the protection afforded her by her 600-solidus wergild to derive some active benefit from life. Thus, although the laws ascribe female status in terms of value, we can see how a woman might nevertheless acquire worth. The laws make it clear that a woman could own property. References to women paying fines have already been noted. Other laws show that women received a share of a wergild paid for dead relatives (PLS 68, where the mother of a victim receives one quarter of his wergild). The laws show that a woman's dos remained her property. A woman was thus able to manage an independent property base, upon which she was to live in her widowhood. However, she was not able to dispose of it if she had children (PLS lOO.ii). If she predeceased her husband, he was to manage it on behalf of their children (PLS lOl.i); if there were no children, her family received back two-thirds of the dos on provision of two covered beds, two benches and two chairs, otherwise one third. If the woman remarried, she could take one or twothirds of the dos with her, similarly depending upon the provision of covered bed, bench and chair, and, in this case, the payment of the achasius. It is the 21

Note how verbal insults again only concern witchcraft and extra-marital sex.

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widow who pays the achasius, not the second husband (who, in PLS 44, pays the reipus, albeit to a significantly different group of relatives; Murray 1983:ch.ll). Laws relating to property are complex. PLS 67 suggests that an equal share be given to daughters and sons upon a daughter's betrothal and a son's first hair-cutting. This probably relates only to movable property. In inheritance the general rule was that male heirs succeeded to land in preference to female, but that daughters inherited before their uncles (PLS 108; Murray 1983). Most of the debate concerning female inheritance has centred upon the celebrated c. 59 (de alodis) of the Pactus Legis Salicae. The most disputed clause is that (PLS 59.vi) which reads: cBut concerning Salic Land (terra salica) no portion of the inheritance is for [or 'shall pass to'] a woman, but all the land belongs to members of the male sex who are brothers [or 'but the male sex acquires it, that is the sons succeed to the inheritance'].' Murray (1983:ch.l5 and refs.) effectively excluded the sixth century from the debate over the meaning of the word salica by showing that this word does not appear in the earliest recension of the law. In sixth-century law, quite simply, the deceased's property was divided into movable and landed property. The former was divided equally between male and female heirs; sons postponed daughters in the inheritance of land. Early Frankish law did not define particularly clearly the boundaries within which women could act. We might note the absence of lengthy consideration of betrothal, marriage, divorce and other sexual concerns (which contrasts greatly with Burgundian and Lombard law), and the absence, already mentioned, of explicit statements about female legal competence or incompetence. The gender divide, in terms of possible action, is not explicitly delineated in the Pactus, though it is made clear that a free male, once he has come of age, is entirely responsible for his own actions. Women in sixthcentury northern Gaul may have had rather more space within which to acquire social status than is often assumed. On the other hand, as suggested above, the Pactus' silences might be very deliberate, refusing to countenance active female involvement; they may imply that the gender divide was very rigid, but lay within the jurisdiction of family (in the same way as a master's dealings with his own slaves are never dealt with in the Pactus). There is little within the legal evidence itself to allow us to choose between these alternatives. It will suffice to repeat the point made earlier, that many of the commonplaces about female status among the Franks are based upon filling in the Pactus' silences from Burgundian or other Germanic codes (cp. Wemple 1981:esp. ch.2), and this will not do. However, even the more optimistic reading of the laws suggests that women could acquire prestige in the community most easily within the contexts of marriage, child-bearing and the family ascribed to them by men. Other written evidence from sixth-century northern Gaul is sparse, especially from the region of Metz. Like aristocratic men, aristocratic women could be educated (Riche 1976:218-30), to help mark their distinction from other people, as is shown by Venantius' epitaph for Vilithuta, a 'barbarian' who lived in Paris (Carm. IV.26; George 1992:93-4). Aristocratic women could acquire significant wealth and power through their status as powerful 65

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men's wives, as shown by Gregory's vignette {LH IX.9) of Duke Rauching's wife riding through Soissons bedecked in jewellery and accompanied by two troops of pueri. More light is shed upon female status by a story from Paris {LH V.32). A woman had left her husband and was rumoured to be living with another man; her father was challenged by the husband's relatives to prove her innocence or let her die, clest shame of this kind strike down our honour'. He swore to his daughter's innocence on the relics of St Denis, his in-laws refused to accept this, a fight broke out in the church itself, and some were killed. Eventually both sides paid fines and were readmitted into the communion of the church by Bishop Ragnemod. The woman was then summoned to trial, but strangled herself before this could take place. The story has a number of interesting implications. First, it was not the act of leaving the husband (put into an ablative absolute sub-clause) which shamed the family, but the accusation of living illicitly with another man (this would tally with the interpretation of sixth-century law put forward above, p. 60). If this was generally the case, it would contrast starkly with the situation in Burgundy {Liber Constitutionum 45.i); killing adulteresses out of hand was common throughout Gaul {ibid. 68; L//VI.36, VIII.19; GM 69). Secondly, it was her father, who, in these circumstances, was responsible for her legally and swore the oath to her innocence. Thirdly, the stress on honour amongst these powerful families should be noted. This is made explicit by the husband's relatives; the woman herself committed suicide rather than suffer disgrace.22 This tale would support the gloomier alternative interpretations of the Pactus' provisions and its silence with regard to female legal competence. However, it is worth stressing that there is nothing in the evidence from Francia which suggests that men there had any more right to divorce a wife. A feud in Tournai {LH X.27) was sparked by a husband's ill-treatment of his wife, and alleged infidelities. Most statements about gender difference in rights of divorce among the Franks are based upon southern Gaulish or Burgundian evidence, or upon the practices of the Merovingian kings, whose marital customs were hardly typical (see above, p. 37, for reasons). Generally, the only sixth-century north Gallic women visible to us are royal women, queens and princesses. These acquired an impressive degree of power, wealth and even sexual freedom {LH IX.34) but, as has been mentioned, the Merovingian royal family was not typical, and we cannot generalize from it. Gender was clearly constructed differently at this altogether exceptional level of society.23 In seventh-century legal material, there are some subtle changes in the treatment of female status. Perhaps most noticeable is the absence in Lex Ribvaria of a clause on rape {pace McNamara & Wemple 1976:101). There is now one clause covering all forms of extra-marital sex with a free-born girl {Lex Ribv. 39.ii), punishable by a fifty-solidus fine, whether or not the 22

23

It might be significant that Boniface (Ep. 73; Whitelock (trans.) 1979:819) says that the Old Saxons forced adulteresses to hang themselves, but this example is well removed from sixth-century Paris in time and space. I am grateful to Ross Balzaretti for this possible parallel. Female royalty is well covered by the literature. See, for example, Nelson 1978 on Merovingian queens, and Stafford 1983 more generally.

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'girl' consented. This may well represent a change in the laws' attitude to female status; the woman's wishes are ignored; the crime is clearly against her family. Lex Ribvaria introduces clauses requiring oath-swearers to swear c with right hand armed' (Lex Ribv. 37, 69.i) and judicial duels (ibid. 36.iv, 6O.ii-iii, 84), which might imply a restriction to males. Lex Ribvaria 84, however, implies that a woman may bring a suit and answer in court after the age of fifteen, and the choice of csword or spindle' opens the use of judicial violence to women in at least one specified situation. That apart, Lex Ribvaria's provisions concerning women's wergilds (Lex Ribv. 12-15), attacks upon women (ibid. 39.iii, 43), and bigamy/adultery (ibid. 39.i) remain largely as in the Pactus, but there is even less treatment of women in the later code. Gone are the lengthy discussions of bodily mistreatment and hair-cutting, of accusations of witchcraft and prostitution, of magical violence, of widowhood and remarriage, and so on. There are changes in the area of mixed marriages (ibid. 61.ix-xviii); as mentioned, the laws now give greater attention to the status of the descendants of such marriages. The laws, following the later sixth-century decrees, view a freewoman's marriage with a slave in a harsh light (ibid. 61.xviii), allowing the woman's family to give her the choice of csword or spindle'. Note, however, that the family has no right to try to stop a freeman's marriage. A final area of change concerns the woman's dower. Lex Ribvaria 41 distinguishes dower given by charter from other kinds. The former is irrevocably the woman's. Where nothing was bestowed by charter the woman receives a dower of fifty solidi, and may ask, upon her husband's death, for one third of all the things they acquired together. If, however, all the things given to the woman were consumed jointly by her and her husband, she may ask for nothing. How this was determined is not especially clear (but see below). The charter gives the husband the right to limit (or increase) the amount of property alienable, upon his death, from his family to his widow, by specifying her dower in writing. The Pactus' lengthy treatments of a woman's dos are absent from Lex Ribvaria. In questions of inheritance, Lex Ribvaria again largely repeats the Pactus' formulae (ibid. 57.i-iii). Lex Ribvaria (ibid. 62.ix) specifies, however, that a man may not leave any one of his children (son or daughter) over twelve solidi more than he left any of the others. This looks like a similar provision to PLS 67, and may refer to movable property only. The specification that daughters may not inherit 'ancestral landed inheritance' (hereditas aviatica; ibid. 57.iv) represents a new departure. Inherited property was now distinguished from acquests. Sons were given clear priority in regard to the former, whereas the latter was treated together with the movable property. This development is probably more or less contemporary with the insertion of the word salica into clause 59.vi of the Pactus Legis Salicae. Bergengruen (1958) argued that terra salica was land around the household (sola) or estate centre, rather than land belonging to the Salic Franks. Again, there seems to be an increased concern to keep 'ancestral' land within the male line, though it should be stressed that females and maternal kin are still by no means excluded. There seemed to be redefinitions of the gender divide in later sixth-century capitularies, which restricted, or punished more severely, female actions. 67

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Certain aspects of Lex Ribvaria appear to continue this trend, but, on the whole, the legal status of women remains puzzling and often contradictory. Though Marculf's formulary originated elsewhere, the Wissembourg charters suggest that it (or something very similar) was in use in the region of Metz by c. 700. Its documents allow us to examine further the legal status of women. They show that, as intimated by Lex Ribvaria, charters and deeds could be used to modify custom. Critical is Marculf 11.12, which leaves an equal share of a landed inheritance, 'whether paternal alod, purchased land, mancipia or chattels or whatever' to a daughter. The formula states that although it is a 'long-standing custom' that daughters should not inherit paternal land (paralleling Lex Ribv. 57.iv and the later recensions of the PLS) the donor regards this as an impiety, and gives his daughter a share equal to that of her brothers. Marculf illuminates marriage too, including a nuptial gift (Marculf 11.15), and reciprocal gifts between husband and wife (ibid. II.7-8). The latter are particularly interesting. They apply in the case of childless marriages and detail how the husband and wife give each other all of their property in case of one predeceasing the other. The deed is entirely equal, and the man and woman are on an equal footing. Moreover, the man gives the woman his alodial land as well as that acquired by other means. These documents shed some light upon the practicalities of Lex Ribvaria 41 (see above). There are also documents about raptus (Marculf 11.16) and illegal intermarriage (ibid. 11.29). In the former, the husband, who has carried off his 'beloved' wife without her family's consent, gives her landed and movable property, which henceforth shall entirely be her property, as though it were a normal dower. The document stresses the crime against the family, and mentions that the penalty for raptus is normally death. This is underlined in Marculf 11.29, which states that the slave who ran off with the freewoman should have been executed and that, if the woman had followed him willingly, she should suffer enslavement and become the property of the slave's owner. Nevertheless, in this document, the slave's owner grants freedom to any children produced by this marriage. Finally, Marculf 11.30 is a deed of divorce, wherein a man and wife, 'discord reigning between them so that they can barely talk to each other', are allowed to separate, with their belongings, and neither's relatives may claim any of the other party's property. This certainly argues that divorce was possible in some circumstances, at least among certain classes of seventh-century society (those with knowledge of, and recourse to, this kind of legal deed). Marculf's documents, if they were in common use around Metz, and so can reflect social realities in this region, imply that the institutionalized aspects of the gender divide (and other social barriers) could be moderated by the use of written documents. Women could own and control property. They appear as parties to wills (Marculf 11.17) and precaria (ibid. II.5), and, according to the deeds of reciprocal gift (ibid. II.7-8), they could alienate such property too. The documents imply a greater freedom of action, including divorce. But, again, it must be repeated that these documents may relate only to a restricted social class, hence the repeated concern with land- and slave-owning. 68

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

In the seventh century, evidence allows us to home in more specifically on the region of Metz. Here the discussion will be kept rigidly in geographical context. Much work has been done on the women of neighbouring, northern regions, especially in the Carolingian period, using the Carolingian family saints' lives for the earlier period, and the polyptychs (see Kuchenbuch 1978 and 1986) for the later. As noted, the areas to the north were geographically different, the appearance there of large, influential aristocratic monasteries contrasts sharply with the region of Metz and suggests a dissimilar socio-political structure. The Merovingian cemeteries of the Trier region also suggest a different social organization (above, p. 7). Moreover, society had changed by the ninth century, when the polyptychs appear. It is dangerous to extrapolate from these studies southwards into the civitas of Metz, and backwards in time from the Carolingian period. Of the seventh-century saints' lives, the Vita Glodessindis is the most interesting. Like the Vita Waldradae, it dates from the Carolingian period; its subject is difficult to date exactly24 but a vague seventh-century floruit is certain. Her vita shows subjection to her family. Marriages were arranged for her, and, after her first fiance, named as Obolenus, was executed by a King Childebert (II or III), she refused to go through with a second marriage. Fleeing to Metz cathedral, she was besieged there by her irate father and his followers, until, after a miracle, they saw God's will at work, and allowed her to become a nun, founding and endowing a monastery for her. The story is not unusual, and illustrates a common Merovingian family conflict (at least among the aristocracy). When subjection to a man, and the conventional opportunities for power only within the confines of marriage and child-bearing become a reality, the daughter rebels and becomes a religious, where she may achieve prestige and privilege based upon her own worth, rather than her value to a family. However, we should not assume that this conflict was entirely restricted to daughters. Certain male saints' lives (VP 6.i, 2O.i) show a similar course of events, though the family's response is invariably more muted and less violent. As the laws on free-slave marriage also indicate, a man had more freedom to choose the path which his life would take. By the late seventh century we begin to have 'documents of practice', charters, and these allow us to examine certain aspects of female status in some detail. First, we may consider land ownership. Whatever the laws say about this, there are very few instances of women alienating land. There are thirty-nine documents in the Wissembourg cartulary relating to the region of Metz, but in only seven of these (18%) are women named as donors (Wiss. 202, 225, 228-9, 261-2, 265). Two of these women issued the charter 24

McNamara et al. (trans.) 1992 place her not very convincingly in the very early seventh century, at the same time as Waldrada; Gauthier dates her more convincingly to the end of that century (again, in her interpretation, at the same time as Waldrada), but, in doing so, clashes with certain explicit statements of her vita, notably Vita Glodessindis 14, which states that, at the time of Glodessindis' burial, Arnulf 's body did not yet rest at Holy Apostles, thus dating her burial to before c. 640. Given the late date of the life it is possible that its author, like later editors, supposed Glodessindis' burial to have predated Arnulf's purely because of her father's name, Wintrio, possibly erroneously equated with the duke of Champagne of that name mentioned by Gregory of Tours (LH VIII.18, X.3). Gauthier's arguments for a connection with the Arnulfings and a late seventh-century date seem more solid. 69

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

jointly with their husbands, and another with her son (her brother also appears in the witness-list). Two of the remaining four charters are issued by Gundoin's wife Wolfgund (Wiss. 228-9) without any male occurring in the text of the charter as co-donor. Nonetheless, it is significant that in Wiss. 228 her son Ermbert appears as the first witness, and in Wiss. 229 her two sons (Ermbert and Otto) head the witness-list. Wiss. 261 is issued by a Geretrude-Gaila, but on behalf, not only of herself but also of her three sons, one at least of whom, Buccellin, was old enough to be the first witness. This leaves only one Merovingian charter out of thirty-nine (2.56%) in which a woman grants land to Wissembourg Abbey other than in partnership with, or with the consent of, an adult male. All of the other Merovingian charters relating to the region of Metz are issued by men (though Pippin 'II's' wife, Plectrude, is co-donor in Pertz, Mayoral 2). However, charters represent only the last, formal stage of a transaction. How much informal, 'behind the scenes' influence existed is unclear. We must remember, nevertheless, that these documents relate to fairly powerful classes of the free, as has been mentioned. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale we can push any conclusions suggested by the charters about female alienation of property. Except where they are donors, women never appear in witness-lists. This might suggest legal incompetence, and support one reading of the laws. It might also suggest that women did not attend the public gatherings where such documents were issued in any active capacity. Again, however, this applies to a comparatively restricted social group, and, perhaps, only in restricted circumstances (land-giving). Another means of examining female status is through name-giving practices, a method used by Herlihy (1976), who suggested that the early middle ages saw a growth of matronymics to identify men. We may divide matronymics and patronymics into 'primary' (the child takes exactly the same name as his/her father or mother; obviously this is only possible where child and parent are of the same sex), 'secondary' (the child is identified as 'X, son (or daughter) of Y (father's or mother's name)') or 'tertiary' (the child takes an element, prefix or suffix, of his/her father's or mother's name). The last may well be more significant than 'secondary' naming practice, since the name makes a direct link with that of one of the parents. However, the Germanic name-pool, or name-element-pool, of the early medieval world was so small that deliberate choice is rarely susceptible of proof. Because of this chance or coincidence factor, this practice must be relegated to tertiary status. A common theory is that early medieval names were frequently of a hybrid 'tertiary' formation; that is, the child took an element of both his father's and mother's names (James 1982:76). There is hardly any indisputable evidence to support this. Even leaving aside his rather dubious use of statistics, Herlihy's thesis finds singularly little support in the region of Metz. Obviously, there are no men with the same names as their mothers, but there is similarly no evidence of what we might term maternal patronymics (taking the maternal grandfather's name), as far as this can be detected. Nor are there any examples of a charter's donor being identified as the son/daughter of his/her mother 70

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

(secondary matronymics). This makes it very nearly impossible to look at primary matronymics for women or at tertiary matronymics, but wherever a mother-son relationship can be found, there is no evidence that an element of the mother's name was used in that of her son. Conversely, tertiary patronymics are sometimes indicated for women (cp. Wolfgund, the daughter of Wulfoald (Wiss. 228-9)), and secondary patronymics are also known for women (Wolfgund again, but see also Geretrude-Gaila, daughter of Theudo (Wiss. 261)). The only times when men are identified by their relationship to a woman are in the witness-lists to charters issued by their female relatives, and here the reason is obvious. On the other hand, primary patronymics are evidenced in the charters. Duke Theotchar's son was also called Theotchar (Wiss. 213), and one hundred years later we meet a Gebold son of Gebold. Primary patronymics at various removes (equating with the practice of 'leading names') are known in some families. The Merovingians themselves are the best-known example, but in our region the repetition of the names [ChJRodoin, Gebehart and Lantfrid amongst the descendants of Petrus is noteworthy. Secondary patronymics are also common (Chrodoin son of Petrus, Weroald son of Audoin, Erlafrid son of Wolfrid, etc.). Tertiary patronymics are not perhaps as common as might be expected but they are attested (Erlafrid's case again; Gundoin's son Otto seems to have been called Audoin as we have noted they appear as Gundun and Ottun in Wiss. 226; Sigoin son of Haroin). This use of the father's suffix is particularly common in the Gorze cartulary between 770 and 790, when almost every father-son relationship bears witness to this name-giving custom. After this short period the names return to the same, more or less random-looking patterns as were attested earlier. We should note, however, that there are many possible name-giving customs which would simply be invisible in the charter evidence, such as naming after godparents or even, in most cases, after uncles or grandparents. It is, given the Merovingian practice of not naming children in lists of mancipia^ impossible to look at patronymics and matronymics amongst that element of the population. Later, Carolingian charters more often name children, but with the exception of Reginulf, son of Reginhar (Wiss. 193, of 19 Nov. 764), an example of tertiary patronymics, no patterns are suggested. We may examine the mancipia of the charters to look at other aspects of female status at this level of society. In contrast to the Carolingian charters of the region, where there are significantly fewer women listed (for whatever reason),25 there are almost exactly equal numbers of men and women among the Merovingian named mancipia (twenty-nine men to thirty-one women). The only other point which might be suggested concerns sale away from families. In this region, this only occurs in Wiss. 210 (Wissembourg, 24 Nov. 783), where four female mancipia are given to the abbey, without being attached to any land-grant. Other such gifts of unfree women are well 25

This is not uncommon in the Carolingian period; Wemple 1981:72. Coleman 1976 suggested the existence of selected female infanticide. Her argument attracted the powerful criticism of J.-P. Devroey (1981). The existence of female infanticide may be unpalatable to the modern mind, but it is well attested in pre-industrial societies, and it is dangerous to dismiss it, as Goetz (1993:45) does, as 'improbable'.

71

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

attested in other regions. Whatever the purpose of the gift, it might be significant that we have no gifts of male mancipia away from land and families. Might this suggest a difference in attitude to unfree female children, that they might be taken away from their families? By the eighth century, in Pippin Fs decrees on marriage and divorce, a freewoman largely has the same rights as a man. By this period, with its new and more clearly defined horizontal social barriers, the roots of female power may have been traced differently at different levels of society. Age2'

There is little that can be said from the documentary records about the role of age and position in the life-cycle in the creation and acquisition of power. In the Pactus (PLS 24; 41.xviii), male children were valued at a higher wergild (600 solidi). A later capitulary (PLS 104.viii), however, punishes the killing of a female foetus with an astonishing 2,400-solidusfine(compared with 600 for a male foetus). A boy is, moreover, not held to be responsible for any of his actions (PLS 24.vii). None of this appears in Lex Ribvaria. By the time we have charter evidence, children in the communities of mancipia are usually left unnamed (they are named more frequently in early Carolingian Wissembourg charters). Children, whether male or female, came of age at the same time, at twelve (PLS 24) or fifteen (Lex Ribv. 84). However, the narratives suggest that, at least for the royal family, fifteen was the age of majority even in the sixth century. Ceremonies included the cutting of hair, especially for males (PLS 24). There is little evidence from the north about male age at betrothal. PLS 67 implies that women were betrothed at about the time when they came of age, and when boys had their hair cut, that is at about twelve. This age for female betrothal is supported by Venantius' epitaph for the 'barbarian' Vilithuta (Carm. IV.26), who was married at thirteen. Age of marriage may have increased, with legal majority, to fifteen in the seventh century. At this point we might return to the subject of the pueri. As mentioned, on most occasions when such people appear in the narrative sources, they do not seem to be in any way unfree. PLS 54.ii, moreover, mentions that a puer regis might become a count. It was noted that the word puer usually simply means 'boy' when it is used in the laws. It might be proposed that pueri are retainers, who might be of free birth, but who have yet to settle down as heads of families, and thus are an equivalent of the young landless Anglo-Saxon warriors, discussed, for example, by Charles-Edwards (1976). The word thus relates directly to at least 'structural' age (for which, see Bernardi 1985). The significance of old age is difficult to establish from the written sources. Once a freewoman ceased to be able to bear children her wergild fell back to the usual 200 solidi. There are no other legal provisions concerning age. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in some cases (such as that, probably exceptional, of Queen Brunechildis), people might hold on to their power into old age, but the implication of the narratives is clearly that the tenure of 26

There is so far very little on this topic. Minois 1989, though problematic, as ground-breaking studies often are, opens a way into the study of the old.

72

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

prestige and power was more likely to be challenged as one grew older (cp. Chramn's rebellion against his ageing father, Chlothar I; the removal from power of Queens Brunechildis and Baltechildis). Widowhood is mentioned in the laws, largely in relationship to remarriage. PLS 44 and 100 make it clear that a widow is at least partly under the control of her husband's relatives, and that she must consult with her children before remarriage. PLS lOO.i states that a woman for whom there are no immediately recognizable responsible kin is in the guardianship of the king. What this meant in practice is unclear. It may have implied that she lived under the protection of the community. There is little such evidence for the status of old men. Obviously, according to the law, they were still entirely responsible for their actions and legally competent. Any loss of status can only have been the result of the everyday demands of the habitus, rather than being institutionalized (this contrasts, again, with Visigothic law, where an old man was valued at half, or less, of the wergild of a man between twenty and sixty-five; Bonnassie 1991c:75). It is worth wondering whether the term senior which occasionally appears in Gregory's work (cp. L//VIII.31 for a northern Frankish context) might mean, more literally, 'elder', rather than 'senior' in the broader, ranking sense. Marculf's collection contains two documents (Marculf 11.11, 11.13) which shed a grim light on old age. In both, an old man is seen to be no longer able to fend for himself, and so adopts an heir. In one document (Marculf 11.11) this is one of his grandchildren; in the other, the heir is not a member of the family. In both cases the heir undertakes to feed, clothe and protect the donor. Fictive kinship27

A final element in social organization concerns groupings of people, the membership of which is not based upon either consanguinal (blood) or affinal (marriage) relationships. Though it is not without its problems, the term c fictive kinship' can be used to describe such links. In the Merovingian period there were a number of ways in which fictive kinship bonds could be created. Spiritual kinship, godparenthood (Lynch 1986:ch.6), is perhaps the most obvious, but we should also note the existence of adoption (Lynch 1986:179-80). Both Frankish law-codes allow for the adoption of an heir when there were no children (PLS 46; Lex Ribv. 50). Marculf includes a deed of adoption of an heir (11.13). The ceremonies involved in the first cutting of a boy's hair, traditionally carried out by someone other than the boy's father (Lynch 1986:180; alluded to by PL5 24.H), and of the first bestowing of weapons on a young male, were also used to create bonds between families. A comparable bond could be created by giving a child to another family to bring up. Arnulf of Metz was brought up by Gregory of Tours' great-uncle Gundulf. Clearly, relationships like this served important secular as well as spiritual purposes. Bonds between godparents and godchildren could, of course, bridge other barriers such as class or rank. Thus Sigivald could be the godson 27

This topic is thoroughly covered by Lynch 1986.

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of the Merovingian Theudebert (although there was some blood-relationship between the two; LH III. 13, 111.23). We may suppose that godparenthood and spiritual kinship were mechanisms used in improving the status and prestige of the individual, either the godchild or his or her parents. Brunechildis' sponsorship of Berthefried's daughter {LH IX.9) may have been a ploy used to win his support during Childebert IPs minority. It is worth noting how female as well as male children could be used equally in the creation of these ties. The obligation to treat a godchild as a blood-relative could be used to protect a child. Godparents might be chosen from amongst those who could otherwise threaten a child's inheritance. When Fredegundis and the Neustrian aristocrats placed the infant Chlothar II in Guntramn's care and asked Guntramn to stand sponsor to him at the font this was a deliberate, and very necessary, policy to protect the child-king's inheritance {LH VII.5, VIII.9). Similarly, Theuderic II chose Chlothar II to be the godfather of his son, Merovech (Fredegar, Chron. IV.42). Bringing up or educating another's child could also bridge rank barriers, and (most noticeably in the case of the nutritor of a royal child) be of great political use to the family of a guardian of lower social rank. Guardianship, like godparenthood, also helped to remove the risks involved in the transfer of prestige from one generation to the next. Should a boy's father die, then his guardian would, theoretically, help to secure his inheritance. Association with a guardian would (where he was of the same, or higher, standing as the child's father) also enhance the transmission of prestige. Of course, godparenthood, adoption and guardianship all bridged the barriers created by age difference. A final form of fictive kinship would be constituted by membership of the sworn bands or gangs of freemen mentioned in the Pactus, the contubernia, which may have been a form of age group. Lex Ribvaria's hariraida may or may not have been similar; it has already been seen that Lex Ribvaria is more concerned with Vertical' ties between a leader and his followers {satellites, ingenui in obsequio). Ties of lordship, vassalage and dependence can be viewed as yet another form of fictive kinship, bridging and blurring the horizontal barriers of class and rank. This brings us back to the first section of the chapter, which described the creation of such links in the establishment of a more formal aristocratic caste, a nobility and the creation of more rigid social hierarchy.

74

Creating a model: cemeteries of the Merovingian civitas of Metz

Introduction In 1990, 305 possible Merovingian sites could be catalogued in the civitas of Metz (fig. 3.2).* The civitas' Merovingian burial customs differed from

•

•Florange \ Bouzonvillet

Wittersheim #Altheim ••Walsheim

Berthelming Bettborn St-Ulrich#

Fig. 3.1

Places mentioned in chapter 3

Halsall 1990, app.2.a, is the most recent and complete catalogue of the sites of the whole civitas, to which must be added the newly discovered site at Fontoy {Arch. Med. 1991:386) and the latest excavations at Florange-Daspich {Arch. Med. 1991:385-6). For other general surveys of archaeological data, see Clermont-Joly 1978; Forrer 1934; Guillaume et al. 1988; Hurstel 1984, vol.11; LB; LFS; LS; LT; Lutz 1952; 1956; 1978; Maisant 1971; Salin 1937; Simmer 1987; Stein 1989b; Toussaint 1938a; 1938b; 1938c; 1938d; 1943-5. These draw on older repertoires, such as Beaupre 1897; Benoit 1862; Boulange

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Fig. 3.2

Merovingian cemeteries in the civitas of Metz (including all possible sites)

those of the late Roman era in several ways. Late Roman burial in the civitas, as most clearly shown at the sadly unpublished site at Scarponne,2 took the form of inhumation with a decreasing number of grave-goods, usually ceramics. The dead were buried in simple trenches or in stone- or tile-lined cists. Orientation was irregular, as was the lay-out of the cemeteries. The custom of stone-lining the grave can be traced back to early Roman times when cremations were similarly placed in stone-lined pits (Baudoux et al. 1990:66-80 for a recent discussion of the region's Roman cemeteries). Around 400, changes occurred. In place of the largely unfurnished and standardized late Roman rites, burial with weaponry and jewellery began to reappear (weapon-burials had been known in the highlands of the Vosges until the third century (Lutz 1964), but in the civitas' lowlands such graves had been unknown in the Roman period). By the beginning of the sixth century, burial with numerous and diverse grave-goods had become common, though the inhumation of the dead in simple trenches or stonelined cists remained. At about this time many new cemeteries were estab-

2

1853-4; Hoffmann 1893; Huber 1889-90; Joly 1870; Kraus 1889; Lepage 1843; REL; Simon 1859; Verronais 1844; Viville 1817; Wiener 1895. For other sites of the civitas, not discussed here, see Ancelon 1874; Barbier 1867; Barthelemy 1842-3; Bellard 1933; Chatelain 1881-2; Dufresne 1854-5; Guillaume 1864; Merciol 1886; Moineaux 1966; Morlet 1863-6; des Robert 1878; de Sailly 1869; Sauer 1958; Schlosser 1881-4; 1895; Schmit 1879; Simon 1843-4; 1850-1; Welter 1902; Wichmann 1894. Gallia 1968:374-6; 1970:281-3; 1972:349; 1974:338-9; 1976:356; 1978:335-6; Baudoux et al. 1990:67. Masson 1975 contains the only accessible inventory.

76

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

lished. As elsewhere in the post-Roman West, these were organized in rows, more neatly than in late Roman cemeteries, though the extent to which such organization was adhered to varied from site to site. The nature of the gravegoods and their patterns of association will be discussed further below, as will alleged instances of deviation from burial norms. The publication of all the sites discussed here (except Bettborn, which alas contained only eleven graves) suffers from certain problems. None has really been published to the standard expected in the 1980s and 1990s, even Audunle-Tiche, the most recent (see ch.4). Only selected grave-plans are given, leaving us with vague written descriptions of skeletal lay-out, artefact position and grave construction, and no information on grave-shape. Further, the areas around the graves are not planned in detail, and where pits and similar features are found, these are not properly described or illustrated. The only features deemed noteworthy are earlier Roman buildings and occasionally later medieval structures; these too are not published to the standard expected today. We may conclude that these sites were excavated and published according to some very outmoded precepts: 1 That the grave is the only thing worth recording on a cemetery site (because burial is assumed to be the only thing which went on there), and 2 that within the grave the only important variable is the nature of the grave-goods. These assumptions were reflected in the excavation methods, which sometimes involved digging parallel trenches a metre or so wide and a metre or so apart. This method is relatively quick and almost certainly discovers all the graves on a site, but it is not particularly useful if the possibility of other structures on a site is accepted. Nevertheless, this method, used by Salin in the 1920s to 1940s, was used at Altheim in the 1970s (Hackler 1989:fig. 3). It can be said that the things which interest the excavator of a Merovingian cemetery, the things which he or she records and the way in which he or she does so, have hardly changed since the Voinots excavated Chaouilley in 1902. These limitations in the quality of observations reflect the limited analyses performed by Merovingian archaeologists upon their data. The data used are, as will be seen, often very old, and frequently problematic. The age of the data is not a problem in itself, as Huggett and Richards (1990) have shown. As will be seen, the larger sites discussed here were excavated and recorded (if not always published) competently. Other problems remain, however, notably concerning sample size and the ageing of skeletal data, and it is far from impossible that the thesis proposed here might be shown to be fundamentally mistaken, because based upon statistical chance. Nevertheless, the picture to emerge from these analyses seems remarkably consistent. We cannot ignore this apparent consistency and refuse to attempt its explanation for the simple reason that there are, in theory, problems with the evidence; to do so is to fall into the most convenient positivist 'cop-out'. There are no (and will never be) perfect, valueneutral data. It must be the duty of the early medievalist to put forward a model explaining the evidence as it is seen at a particular point in time, and 77

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

which can be tested, modified or rejected as and when better quality data become available. That proposed here rests only upon those aspects of the sites' recording and excavation which can be taken as reliable. It is at least as likely that more plentiful and higher quality evidence will allow greater subtlety to be extracted, in support of this model, as that it will force its rejection.

Ennery cLes Trois Arbres' (fig. 3.3) Analysis of the archaeological cemetery evidence from the civitas of Metz began with the site of Ennery (Moselle), the only sizeable cemetery of the region yet published. The site was excavated in 1941, with, for its day, unusual rigour (Reusch 1941-2:40-52 and Taf.I-VII), and extensive records were kept (Alain Simmer is currently preparing a definitive publication). It was not, unfortunately, published as well, though a detailed inventory can be built up from careful study of the original publication (Delort 1947), the anthropological report (Heuertz 1957) and the catalogue of the Musees de

&S&i£s&2

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a N • 5

10

M

Fig. 3.3

78

Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': site-plan (after Delort 1947 and Clermont-Joly 1978:18)

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Metz (Clermont-Joly 1978), to which most of the finds were sent (the remainder largely going to the Musee du Pays de Sarrebourg). Eighty-two graves were excavated, fifty-eight of which were intact and suitable for analysis. The excavated section of the site seems to have been occupied during the last three-quarters of the sixth century, but with one or two graves dating from the very early seventh century. The bulk of the sample is then to be placed in Bohner-Perin period III (c 525-c. 600; Bohner 1958; Perin 1980). That the excavated section of the cemetery covers only two or three generations means that chronological distortion of mortuary practices is unlikely to have affected the data to any great degree. Associations between artefacts and sex The analyses performed on the Ennery data began with an attempt to examine the artefactual construction of gender. Rather than using Heuertz's (1957) physical anthropological study from the start, this was a valuable opportunity for testing a methodology of determining the deceased's sex from grave-goods. If such a method was found to be accurate it could then be used with the region's other cemeteries which had not been studied by a physical anthropologist. The method would, above all, test the common assumption that weapons are always an indicator of a male burial, whilst jewellery is always the mark of a female grave. The method involved dividing the grave-goods into a series of 'artefacttypes' (or object-types), types of artefact found in at least two intact graves containing at least two such artefact-types. The term 'grave-goods' has been used to refer, more generally, to any and all objects placed with the dead. Thus a grave containing three spears contained three grave-goods but only one artefact-type. Artefact-types were given a numerical code (fig. 3.4) which, it was hoped, would reduce preconceptions about the expected strength of the gender-related messages of particular artefacts. Graves disturbed by later burials, building or farming were excluded from the analyses, as the integrity and completeness of their assemblages was doubtful. A diagram was then drawn wherein the artefact-types were plotted in identical order on X- and Y-axes. Weaponry was placed at the end of the axes nearest the origin, and jewellery at the other, according to the preconceived notions about their gender associations mentioned above. Other items were placed in between. In some cases, their position was influenced by the results of analogous work on Anglo-Saxon cemeteries (e.g. Shephard 1979). When this was done, any association between object-type A and object-type B was plotted at the intersection of the two types. After the first test, which showed no clear patterns, the order of the object-types was adjusted to bring together groups of associated items. After seven tests the results shown in figure 3.5 were produced, revealing three groups of artefact-types, two of which were never associated with each other. In the Ennery analyses, however, weapons were kept grouped together. This was not done in later tests on other sites for the very good reason that some artefact-types seemed to be at least as strongly male-specific as, and occasionally more so than, certain weapon-types. The three groups of artefact-types could be described as mas79

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Code 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Artefact-type Bronze hairpin. Earring(s). Brooch. Bronze ring. Bracelet. Necklace. Disc brooch (Lavoye phase 2 only). (Not used). Spindlewhorl. Iron buckle. Flint. Bronze, silvered bronze or silver buckle. Comb. Shoe or garter buckle. Shears. Bone or antler medallion. Knife. Grey or grey/black ceramics. Red or red/orange ceramics. Glassware. Intaglio. Coin(s) (except where mounted as part of a necklace). Bronze needle. Bronze tweezers. Fig. 3.4

Code Artefact-type 25. Awl. 26. Spear (any type except ango) or arrowhead. 27. Purse-fastener or purse-buckle. 28. Single bead. 39. Axe (including francisca). 30. Belt-fittings (counter-plaques, dorsal plaques, strap-ends, &c). 31. Scramasax. 32. Sword. 33. Plaque-buckle. 34. Strike-a-light. 35. Chatelaine. 36. Key. 37. Bone pin. 38. Truss. 39. (Not used). 40. Fork. 41. Shells. 42. (Not used). 43. Dress-pin. 44. (Not used). 45. Shield-boss. Ango. 46. 47. Bronze vessel. 48. Bucket.

Numerical coding of artefact-types used in analyses described in chapters 3-4

culine, feminine and cneutral\ The word 'neutral' is here used guardedly simply to mean those artefact-types which, in the cemetery evidence, revealed no exclusive association with either males or females. Reservations must be expressed, nevertheless. The contents, for example, of otherwise identical pots may have been vitally important in gender construction; a brooch may be feminine simply because people were not buried in cloaks and women alone wore brooches to fasten other clothing; in the deliberate act of furnishing a grave, objects may have been given specific meanings which were treated loosely in everyday life; symbolisms may even have been inverted in the transition from a 'living' to a mortuary context. The terms 'neutral' and 'neutrality' must thus be used with care, and note taken of the foregoing riders. Three objections might be raised here. The first is that the reduction to a binary opposition of two groups of objects oversimplifies the data. The second objects that the small sample size leads to results which are too sample-sensitive. The third concerns the small size of the samples themselves. These are valid objections, but the results of the tests do seem to show that this binary opposition was in fact vitally important within the customs of grave-good deposition. As for the second objection, the 80

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key) O 6 9 3 11 3 2 2 3 3 3 L 1 2 3 1 1 2 2 2 2> 1 1 >2 4 4 7 3 9 5 62 2 6 9 1 3 0 "7 1 7 6 8 0 3 0 5 2 32 26 29 31 33 30 17

I

I

(J 11 27 36 18 10 23 20 25 22 12

1 1 1

1

1

I

II 1 1 I 1 1

I 11 I 1 11 I 11 1 1 1 I 11

I

1

I 1

1 1I 1 1 11

I 11 I I I 11 11 I 11 I 11

I 1 1 1 I

1 I 1 1

I1 I 11 1

I

I

I I 1

I I

° 14 4 37 13 19 5

9

6 2

I 1

11 I 1 11 1 I

I I

I I 1 I I I 11 I I

III •

I I 1 I 1 I 1

1

11

I

1

I

| = artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 3.5

Ennery (Les Trois Arbres3: artefact associations

requirement that an artefact-type be found in two or more intact burials containing two or more such artefact-types was based upon the notion that the material record was meaningfully constituted. An object-type must have had symbolic significance if deliberately (and publicly) placed with other objects in two or more burials (between 1% and 4% of individual samples). In practice, cases where the results were affected by small sample size (as at Audun-le-Tiche; see ch.4) showed up fairly clearly. The third objection is the most important. Separating the Ennery graves into gender and age groups did result in tiny samples. The picture to emerge from these analyses cannot therefore be regarded as, and is not presented as, more than a sketch. Its outlines, nevertheless, are very interesting and deserve attention. After the artefact-types were arranged into the series shown in figure 3.5, it was felt that one ought to be able, if the two unrelated groups did refer to gender, to predict the sex of the deceased. Consequently, a new diagram (3.6) was produced in which the sorted order of artefact-types was placed 81

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Vrtefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key )

6 •j j

1

"\

Z J J 2 6 9 13

Grave

Z

o •1

III 1 / 11 I

70 71 54 6 5 4 39 22

1

|

1

11 •I• I i••

1 37 65

36 3 55 35

•1

•

11 1. 1,

28 63 61 75 47 7 11 67 42

•

81 8 82

52 58 60 40

9

o 1 3 1 1 z zo z ABC 0 '7 1 7 6 8 0 3 2 4 4 7 3 9 5 6 2 0 5 2 6 6I 6 66 I I 6 6 4 6 6 4 6 64 . ' ; a a 6 6 5 6 64 | 6 6 5

"X " J

M•

.1'1

11 I

•

I 1

1'

1 1

2 57

•

48

49 79 51 73

•

34

6 6 6 6 6 6 6

1 i I

•

1

I

6 6 66 AB.2 6 5 6 5 O2 O5 O2

6 96

1 1

32

1

6 cJ3 o o4 o o? B 9 o6 o o? o o l 9 95 9 93 9 03 9 o1 BC 9 03 9 6*5 9 93 9 9 4 9 9 4 C

1 1 1 i

c=

ag e according to Heuertz = 7-14 yrs; 3 = 14-22 yrs; 4 = 22-40 yrs; 5 = 40-60 yrs; 6 = 60+ yrs) .

A = F )redicte
d = c)-7 yrs;:I

1

1 • 11 1.

•

665 665

1

I

•

6 65

1

•

1

6 65 6 64 ~3 o 6 6 64 6 O3

|

1

I

AB.l

6 64

Ii 1 1

•

A

Fig. 3.6 Ennery cLes Trois Arbres3: grave seriation, and sex predictions

on the X-axis and the number of the intact grave on the Y-axis. Then the artefact-types found in grave Y were plotted in the order indicated by the X-axis. If a grave-assemblage fell towards the end of the X-axis nearest the origin then the subject of the grave should have been male; if it fell towards the other end of the X-axis then it ought to have been female. At Ennery, the method of sexing graves proved to tally with the anthropological report in 82.8% of cases (fig. 3.6), and in one instance where it seemed to be wrong

82

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

(grave 32, buried with a necklace but sexed by Heuertz as male), it probably corrects an error by Heuertz. Arranging the grave-assemblages into a series from those with the most diagnostically male artefacts through to those with the most typically female produced the seriation shown in figure 3.6. Five groups were distinguished. Group A comprised those graves containing only male gender-specific objects and Group B graves contained only 'neutral' artefacts. In between was placed Group AB, graves containing masculine and 'neutral' artefacttypes. This, in turn, was sub-divided into AB.l (AB-graves containing weapons) and AB.2 (AB-graves without weapons). Beyond Group B was Group BC, graves containing 'neutral' and feminine artefact-types. Group C, graves with feminine items only, was represented by grave 34, and possibly by grave 21, which produced a necklace but nothing else. Intact graves containing only one artefact-type were excluded from the seriation. Grave 21 is unlikely to constitute a C-grave, however, since it contained iron debris, and at Ennery no exclusively feminine artefacts were made from this metal. The other graves containing only one artefact-type could not reasonably be put in any of the groups. Such graves were listed as Ax, Bx or Cx depending on whether their single artefact-type was masculine, 'neutral' or feminine; graves only containing objects excluded from analysis were called X-graves. From the artefactual data it was concluded that the males of the Ennery community were buried with a greater range of artefacts and, generally, with a greater number of grave-goods, than the females. Items with which most males were buried were knives, coins, awls, a belt-buckle of some sort and, to a lesser extent, flints. Twenty-three out of twenty-nine anthropologicallysexed males buried with grave-goods, whose graves remained intact, were interred with between two and five of these artefact-types. Only grave 44 had none. All six graves unsexed by Heuertz but predicted to be male from their artefacts had between two and five of such items. Twelve men were buried with weapons: six (graves 6, 5, 39, 54, 70, and 71) with two types of weapon, six (graves 1, 4, 22, 37, 44 and 65) with one. Both the number and the range of artefacts buried with women were more limited than those found in male graves. Furnished male graves contained an average of 4.5 artefact-types drawn from a range of twenty-two different types; furnished female burials contained an average of 2.5 types drawn from a range of twelve. However, there were almost three times as many such male graves as female. Associations between artefacts and age Physical anthropological evidence was also used to examine the relationships between the types of object buried and the age of the dead (fig. 3.7; again only intact assemblages were studied). There are many problems associated with establishing the age of the deceased (Morris 1992:ch.3, is an essential introduction to the study of skeletal material; see also the papers in Roberts et al (ed.) 1989). In particular, conventional ageing methods tend to telescope the ages over forty. It is consequently very likely that old people are

83

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

a: Intact assemblages b: All assemblages 2 2 6 5 19 19 13 37 ~L~^MHB~PH 3 7 4 4 14 a: N = 48 u 12 - ~ « | ^ b j ^ ^ H 22 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ H b: N - 53 25 25 Artefact-type 20 (for key, see fig. 3.4) 23 1 1 1 I ^ B 2 3 10 18 Z ~ J B L _ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ I S 36 1 1 T _ _ ^ B ~ J 36 1 1 | ~ ^ 27 •I^BMI 11 17 30 33 31 _ ~ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ H 31 ^ • ~ ~ 29 26 ~ZZ^HBB_J 261 1 32 ~Z^H_ZL~J 321 I 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 4 Age erouD 1 = C h i l d » °" 7 y r s = Young adult, 20-40 yrs 5 =Mature adult, 40-60 yrs 2 = Child, 7-14 yrs 3 = Juvenile, 14-22 yrs 6 = Old adult, 60+ yrs

ZZTZDH^BCZXZ] • ^ • • • F j

6 •r~^HH

IIZTZIBBHBCZZ

H^H^HH^lHi

HHi^Hlii^H

^—L^^K—WM—J

—t—••*—

ZZEZlHzzH

mj^jMM^^^B

20

ZZLZJHHII^^Hi

i°

| ^ = Artefact-type Y is associated with age group X

1 11 • • —tm^^M M

2i\\_\-w/^M

•^H• X ^ ^H ^^^^^H

"•••ZEZ^^H 30 ^ H | ^^^H

^ — ZZZ^^^^^H

29i

1 1

Fig. 3.7

I

zzHH

Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres3: association between artefact-type and age group

underrepresented in our samples. However, at Ennery, the number of old people does not seem unreasonable, and the use of twenty-year 'brackets' allows a fair margin of error. Much of the discussion below concerns ages under forty, especially changes in the teens and at about twenty, ages which are fairly reliably recognizable. Another change seems to take place at about forty, and this too might not be unduly affected by the problems mentioned above. However, it must be stressed that the ageing of skeletal data, especially with the data sets used here, is extremely problematic. Nonetheless, as mentioned, a consistent picture emerges which it is difficult to dismiss lightly. A model must be proposed which can be tested against better data in the future. It was expected, on anthropological analogy, that children would not be associated with strongly gender-specific objects. This was expected to change as one approached adulthood, with young adulthood being the age group in which gender was most emphasized. Thereafter, these distinctions would reduce as old age was approached. The results followed the expected pattern closely. The youngest children received a few gender-related artefacts; older children were buried with no such items. When Heuertz's 'juvenile' age (fourteen to twenty-two years) was reached, women began to be associated with the full range of female-specific items: necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Four out of nine BC- and C-graves were juveniles. At this age, however, males remained artefactually 'neutral3. This changed when they reached their early twenties. They now received the full quota of weapons, belt-fittings 84

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

and so on. Women between twenty and forty wore jewellery less often, but retained the female artefact-types nevertheless. In mature adulthood (forty to sixty years) the women seem to have lost their earrings and rarely wore jewellery, one bracelet and one six-bead necklace being the only such items associated with this group. Males were no longer associated with swords but retained the remainder of their characteristic burial goods. In old age, as expected, there was a return to artefactual 'neutrality'. Women lost all of their gender-specific items, and men were no longer interred with spears or swords, though the axe was retained in two cases (graves 44 and 71) and the scramasax in one (grave 71). Graves 44 and 71 were the only weapon burials out of six furnished graves of elderly men (and out of eight old men's graves in all). The female Groups BC and C contained four juveniles and two young adults. Grave 21, excluded from the seriation but, as argued above, probably BC, was also a juvenile. This underlined the notion that women were most likely to be buried with characteristically female finery at these ages. The weapon-carrying Groups A and AB.l were predominantly (nine out of eleven) young or mature adult males, six of the eleven being aged between twenty and forty. Most children (three out of six) and old people (seven out of eight) fell towards the more 'neutral' end of Group AB.2, and in Group B. The range of artefact-types also rose with age, before dropping in old age. Seven artefact-types were found with young children, eight with older children, fourteen with juveniles, nineteen with young adults, twenty-one with mature adults, and sixteen with old people. Two children broke away from this pattern. One (grave 70) was interred with five artefact-types, all masculine and including a spear and a scramasax. This child was about six years old. The other, grave 49, contained a necklace and a comb, and was, again, of a child under seven. The conclusions about the associations between artefact-types and age and gender were then compared with the disturbed burials. A diagram of these graves, in the same form as figure 3.6, was produced (fig. 3.8). In the three cases where verification was possible, gender was correctly predicted. In four cases the age of the occupant, estimated from the artefacts, could be checked against physical anthropology. One case was wrongly predicted; one (grave 46) was predicted to be of 'juvenile' age or above, and was a young adult. Another (grave 19) was predicted to be older than seven, and was also a young adult. Grave 56 was predicted to be a mature adult and this turned out to be correct. This satisfactory result suggested (though, given the tiny sample, it was only a suggestion) that the deceased's age could be predicted from grave-goods within reasonable limits. For these brackets to be narrowed, however, more artefacts needed to be present in the burial. More specific artefact-age associations were revealed by looking at all the Ennery furnished graves. As already suggested, younger and mature adults were buried with most of the weapons. The knife also revealed this pattern of association, with an especially strong bias towards mature adult males. Sixteen out of thirty-four examples were buried with this age group. A further ten were buried with younger adults and five of the remaining eight were found in the graves of old men. Apparently, the knife had some of 85

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key) 3 1 1 4 7 3 9 5 62

1

19

1

27

1

33

Grave

1

38

1 I 1

46 56 72

1

1 1 1 1

76

A

B

C

D

0

6

2-6

4

o

o

?

?

6

6

4/5

?

o

9

?

6

6

6

3-6

4

6

o

5

5

9

9

5

4

o

o

2-6

?

A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Heuertz; C = age according to Heuertz (1 = 0-7 yrs; 2 = 7-14 yrs; 3 = 14-22 yrs; 4 = 22-40 yrs; 5 = 40-60 yrs; 6 = 60+ yrs). Fig. 3.8

Ennery graves

c

Les Trois Arbres': predicting age and sex of disturbed

the symbolism of weaponry, in that it was usually buried with adult males. However, it differed from true weapons in its stronger association with men of over forty. All the examples except that from the disturbed grave 72 were from male graves. Buckles were also generally found with age groups past childhood. Iron buckles were most commonly associated with men between twenty and forty, and plaque-buckles usually associated with men between forty and sixty years old, occurring most often in AB.2-graves. Five out of seven bronze buckles were similarly found with people aged over forty but these buckles, unlike the others, could be found in female graves. Of jewellery, the necklaces with the most beads were associated with young adult women. Unfurnished graves There werefiveintact burials of adults without grave-goods (graves 31,41, 68, 69,74). Three were of males, one was female and one was unsexed. Three graves were of mature adults (forty to sixty) and two were elderly (above sixty). In addition to this there were three apparently intact unaccompanied burials of children (graves 24, 25 and 50), though the skull was all that survived of grave 50. These graves appear to underline the notion put forward above that furnished burial, especially that with gender-specific artefacts, was particularly associated with those past childhood and under forty. Unfurnished adult graves were labelled E.I, unfurnished child graves being designated E.2. Arrangement of the grave (fig. 3.9) Many artefacts from Ennery seem to represent the contents of small pouches of belongings. These containers were placed by the head of the deceased in 86

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ Grave

Type A

B

70 71

A A

8 8

1 6

54 6 5 4 39 22 1 37 65

ABJ L AB.lL ABJ L ABJ L ABJ L ABJ L ABJ L ABJ L ABJ L

8 8 8 8 (J d <J cJ 8

4 4 4 5 4 5 4 5 4

36 3 55 35 28 63 61 75 47 7 11 67 42 81 8

AB.2 AB.2 AB.2 AB.2 AB.2 AB.2

o 8 o 8 8 8

AB.;I AB.;I AB.;I AB.;I AB.;I

o o o 9 8

6 4 3 5 5 5 6 6 5 5 2 5 2 6 3

82 52 58 60 40

B B B B B

o o c? o o

2 57 48 49 79 32 51 73

BC BC BC BC BC BC BC BC

9 9 o o o

34

AB.:I 8 AB.;I 8

AB.2 8 AB.2 8

8 9 9

D 9 9

H H

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

*

H

F

9

9

9

9

9

CP

LF LFm LF 9 LA 9 H 9 RA 9 H

9

CP CP ? 9

9

?

9

H H

9

Sh Ch Sh Sh Sh Sh Sh& W

9

9

H H H H H H H H

?

9 9 9

9

Sh

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

W A

9 9 9 9 9

9

Sh A W

9

9

9

H

H RF RF LF

9

9

9

9

*

H

9

Sh

4

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

?

?

6

9

?

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

1

9

9

F

9

5 3 3 1 3 5 3 4

CP

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

H

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

9

?

?

9

9

9

9

9 9

9

LA

Column A = sex according to Heuertz. Column B = age according to Heuertz (1 = child 0-7 yrs; 2 = child 7-14 yrs; 3 = 7-22 yrs; 4 = 22-40 yrs; 5 = 40-60 yrs; 6 = 60+ yrs) Column C = position of arms. Column D = position of the pouch of belongings (with caution). Column E = position of pottery. Column F = position of buckle (& therefore belt). H = at the head; RF = by the right foot; LF = by the left foot; RA = by the right arm; LA = by the left arm; A = by the arms (unspecified side); * = left arm of grave 6 placed under right arm of grave 8; W = at the waist; CP = crossed on the pelvis; F = at the feet (unspecified side); Sh = at the shoulder; Ch = at the chest; LFm = by the left femur.

Fig. 3.9

Ennery cLes Trois Arbres': arrangement of the grave 87

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

twenty-one cases (according to Delort's publication), over a quarter of the total number of graves. When not positioned there they were placed near the middle of the body, by the arms or by the femur, and once by the foot. Where sufficient information was recorded, the purse was placed to the right or the left of the body with more or less equal frequency. The placing of the bag by the head was most often found in Group AB.2 burials, with only two of this group not having their pouch so positioned. Similarly, both of the A-graves had their bag placed by the head, but only seven such examples were found among AB.1-, B-, BC- or C-graves (counting only intact burials). In ten out of eleven recorded cases, pottery was positioned by the feet, in five cases by the right foot and in three by the left, with two cases where the side of the body was unspecified. The remaining recorded position of a vessel was by the head (grave 7). No distinctive age or gender associations were found for these positions. Glassware was similarly located but with one example positioned by the pelvis. Here it is important to note that in two graves the spear was placed resting on a vessel (red-ware in grave 6; glassware in grave 54). This appears to have been a relatively common practice in early medieval furnished burials. At Ennery, added significance may be provided by the fact that these two graves (6 and 54) are the two which contained swords. Grave 6 was, however, part of the double grave, to which we will return. Skeletal arrangement The arrangement of the corpse is not, unfortunately, the subject of many published observations. Delort (1947) said that most bodies were laid out on their backs with their arms by their sides but also noted the custom of crossing the hands on the pelvis in four cases (graves 1, 3, 4 and 22) and that of placing the hands on the chest (grave 69 being the only example). Three of the instances of crossed hands on the pelvis were AB.l-graves but this is probably not as significant as the location of these burials within the cemetery (see below). Finally, the double burial ('graves' 6 and 8) involved placing the right hand of grave 8 on the left hand of grave 6. Grave structures The Ennery graves were almost all simple trenches. Coffins may have been used but no specific instances were observed or published. Some nails were found in one grave, but these were bronze and probably from a plaquebuckle. It is possible, however, that some of the iron debris noted represent coffin fittings. Two graves were found to have the common feature, within Lorraine, of a stone-lined tomb. Perhaps significantly, both were of juveniles, one male and intact, the other unsexed and disturbed. These two cists represented the only grave structures observed at Ennery. Cemetery lay-out The cemetery at Ennery was laid out in an orderly way. No traces of above-ground markers were noted. The edges of the cemetery appear to 88

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

have been located by the excavation on the north, east and possibly south sides, but the extent of the site in the other directions remains unclear. There were only two certain cases of violation by later burials (graves 63bis and 2$bis). Within the cemetery we can plot the distribution of burial types, skeletal positions, certain artefacts, and so on. Mapping the occurrence of Groups A to E.2 (D-graves are disturbed burials) produced figure 3.10. From this it can be seen that analogous burial practices were frequently grouped within the cemetery. Thus both of the A-graves were found side-by-side at the north-eastern extremity of the site, AB-graves, particularly AB.l-graves, were clustered at the opposite end of the excavated area, and there were several other examples of similar rites being grouped together. Variations in skeletal position, where noted, could also be plotted (fig. 3.11), and revealed that three of the four published observations of arms crossed on the pelvis were found in the cluster of graves in the south-west of the cemetery, where, as noted, AB-graves were concentrated, and this might well be significant. The stone cists were not, however, located near each other, one being in the northern part of the cemetery and the other in the southern. It was noticeable that the glassware found was concentrated in the centre of the eastern edge of the site, with graves 42, 52, 54 and 57 all being provided with such vessels. As Delort (1947) noted, individual types of weapon were of more or less even distribution across the site. Only the north-western area yielded no weapon-graves.

/J Ax • AB.l DAB.2 • B OBx

Ox ABC

Acx

• E.I OE.2

N 0

5

10

M

Fig. 3.10

Ennery (Les Trois Arbres3: distribution of grave-types 89

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Group 2

Group 1

|7 = Arms crossed on chest.

N • 5 it M

Fig. 3.11

10

y

= Arms crossed on pelvis.

A

= Male.

A

= Artefactually masculine.

0 = Female. O = Artefactually feminine. \ = Suggested edge of area of prestige burials.

Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': distribution of sexes

A final point relating to the cemetery's organization concerns the fact that of the fifteen artefactually or anthropologically sexed females of the site, no fewer than eleven lie in the northern half of the cemetery (fig. 3.11), which may indicate that within Merovingian cemeteries the use of space could be related to gender. Legoux has shown that in the first phase of the cemetery at Bulles (Oise), men and women were buried in discrete parts of the site (Perin 1980:307, although Legoux does not interpret the data in this way). The double grave One of the most unusual graves at Ennery is the double burial, 'graves' 6 and 8. Briefly, this burial comprised two males, one in his early twenties, the other between sixteen and eighteen years old, with their arms linked, as noted above. The man in his early twenties was buried with a sword and a spear, the latter being placed upon a red-ware pot, as already described. He had two buckles, one at least by his head, alongside a knife. The teenager similarly had his belt and a bone comb decorated with chevrons placed by his head. Alain Simmer (1983) studied the double burial in the Frankish world but had not then read Heuertz's anthropological report and was consequently unaware that both occupants of the grave were male. He thus repeated Delort's assumption (far from unusual in early excavated instances) that the 90

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

subjects of the burial were man and wife, with 'grave5 8 being the woman! Double graves such as this are not uncommon in Lorraine. Simmer found one on his own excavation of Audun-le-Tiche (Simmer 1988), and others are known from Torgny in 'Lorraine Beige' (Simmer 1983) and just beyond the civitas* northern boundary at Ramelfangen (the only publication is Saarbrucker Zeitung, Thurs., 23 April 1987). The pit On the eastern edge of the cemetery was found a large pit full of bones: jaws of dogs and 'herbivores', ten or so tibias, six humeri, an enormous femur, phalanges and many other types of bone (Delort 1947:391-3). This could well be linked with the cemetery itself, as will be argued below. Prestige graves

How might we search for prestige among the people of Merovingian Ennery? One means of doing this would be to count the grave-goods and produce a bar chart showing the number of grave-goods on the X-axis and the numbers of graves containing X grave-goods on the Y-axis (cp. Arnold 1980). It was noted earlier that many of the artefacts at Ennery were originally the contents of pouches of belongings, often attached to belts. If they were simply worn as in life there might be a case to be made that they represent simply the everyday dress of the dead man and that the number of goods in them was somewhat random. Counting the straightforward number of grave-goods probably does present a biased view when comparing males and females, if these bags are not taken into account, for women were not, it seems, buried with them. This does not, of course, affect the conclusion that young women were buried with more goods than females of other age groups. As for the problem of whether or not the number of artefacts contained can have any meaning for men, the conclusion must be reached that the contents of such pouches were carefully chosen before being laid in a specific part of the grave; they do not represent what the dead man 'had on him' when he died. We may then include such artefacts when counting the artefact-types placed in a grave. With males, it seems that the number of grave-goods placed in the grave rose when adulthood was reached (adulthood being reckoned as starting in the early twenties among Ennery men, it seems), dropped slightly when mature adulthood was reached (at about forty) and fell more seriously at the age of sixty (fig. 3.12). With this in mind, we cannot analyse all male burials together to try to find lavishly furnished graves, as the age factor will obviously blur the picture. Each age group must be examined separately. The results of such analyses did not reveal any clearly distinguished graves, but seemed to suggest that a separation into two groups, well furnished and poorly furnished, became more accentuated as old age was approached (fig. 3.13). 91

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Average no. of grave-goods 7

A B C D E F

= = = = = =

Child I, 0-7 yrs (N = 4-5). Child II, 7-14 yrs (N = 3-4). Juvenile, 14-22 yrs (N = 2). Young adult, 20-40 yrs (N = 8). Mature adult, 40-60 yrs (N = 13). Old adult, 60+ yrs (N = 8).

Unshaded areas represent maximum averages (including only furnished graves). Shaded areas represent minimum averages (including unfurnished graves).

Fig. 3.12

Ennery 'Les Trots Arbres3: average number of grave-goods in male graves, by age group

How else might prestige be manifested? The only way to examine this is by looking at all the elements of a grave and its context within the cemetery. Two instances of possibly higher standing may be noted. The first concerns graves 70 and 71, and is probably the most likely case of prestige burial within the cemetery. These two burials are unusual in several ways. First, and most obviously from the plan, they lie at the north-eastern extremity of the site and are oriented differently from surrounding graves. Secondly, these two burials represent all the A-graves (including masculine artefacts only) known from Ennery. Thirdly both have two types of weapon. Apart from the fact that only six such graves are so furnished in the cemetery, we must note the age of the two subjects. One (grave 70) was aged six or seven, the other (grave 71) over sixty. Thus grave 70 represented the only child provided with weapons at Ennery (and indeed across all of the cemeteries examined in the course of this study), and grave 71 is one of only two weaponburials of old men (and the only one with two weapon-types). They both came from age groups not usually associated with weaponry.

92

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ 3 2 1 x 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0 0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

0

1

2

3

4

c

A

Young adulthood

5

6

7

E

Mature adulthood

Old age X = Numbers of artefact-types (A, C & E) or gravegoods (B, D & F). Y = Numbers of graves containing X artefacttypes/ grave-goods.

0

1

2

3

rfln 4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

0

1

2

n m 3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

0

1

D Young adulthood

Fig. 3.13

2

3

4

5

F Old age

Mature adulthood

Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres': numbers of artefact-types and gravegoods in adult male graves, by age group

Furthermore, grave 70 was the only child buried with a plaque-buckle and/or belt-fittings and one of only two buried with a knife (he had two quite long examples). He was buried with a quite unusual number of gravegoods for one of his age, and the old man had slightly above the average number for a man of over sixty buried with grave-goods. All these unusual factors combine to allow the suggestion that these two, perhaps related given the similarity of their burial rite (both had a pouch of belongings placed by the head), their similar orientation and their location next to each other, came from a family of some standing in the community. We might see these two as a family elder and a young heir who died at about the same time and were buried with a great display of their distinction from the others in the community. These two graves lie quite close to grave 65, the most lavishly furnished burial on the site, and to grave 61, one of the other two wellfurnished graves of old men. These graves may be connected with graves 70 and 71. The second example concerns the group of graves in the south-west of the site, centring on the double grave. The latter burial represents something quite different from anything else in the cemetery. As far as we know, there were no other double interments at Ennery. Alain Simmer's proposition (1983:170) that the different quantities and types of artefacts placed with the two occupants of such double graves represents a difference in class or rank between them is unlikely to be the case. We must take into account age differences and look at artefact/age associations

93

6

rO

7

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

throughout the cemetery before we can put forward this idea, and to be fair Simmer does not pursue it very far, arguing, probably with more reason, that it is the fact of double burial itself which is of significance in determining status. As has been mentioned, 'grave' 6 was one of only two burials with swords, and, like the other sword burial, had his spear laid on top of a vessel. It may not be unreasonable to see the occupants of this grave as two young men (possibly brothers given the linked arms?) belonging to a family of high prestige in the community which wished to bury its dead in a suitably distinctive manner. If this was so, the similarity between grave 54 and 'grave' 6 might suggest that the latter was of similarly high prestige, but we should not press this idea too far. The remainder of the group around the double burial shows certain features which mark it out from the rest of the cemetery. First, there seems to be a zone free of burials around this group. This is clear not only from the excavation but in part from the distribution of chance finds of grave-goods made by the owner of the site. Secondly, the group contains an unusually high proportion of AB-graves, particularly AB.l-burials. Thirdly, burials with the pouch placed by the head were more common than usual (eight out of twelve intact graves) and three of the four recorded instances of burial with hands crossed on the pelvis were found in this group. Fourthly, two of the three burials of mature adult males most lavishly equipped with malespecific items (graves 7 and 4) are to be found here. Finally, three out of the four females interred in the southern half of the cemetery were buried in this group. These distinguishing features, and the fact that the people responsible for this group of graves felt able, like those who buried the subjects of graves 70 and 71, to break apparent community rules (this time concerning the burial of females in the northern half of the cemetery) allow us to see the people who used this area of the site as wanting to show distinction in the community. The conclusion must be drawn that the means of demonstrating social difference at Ennery were, in a way, quite subtle.

The other cemeteries of the civitas of Metz Altheim cam Knopp* (fig. 3.14) Although, at the time of writing, Ennery remains the only substantial cemetery of the Merovingian civitas of Metz to have been published, other small clusters of intact graves have been found and published. We begin with a cemetery not yet properly published but which requires discussion: Altheim in the Saarland (most recently, Miron & Reinhard 1990). The site is mainly seventh century, thus later than Ennery, and appears to have been completely excavated, 116 graves having been recovered. Altheim is the subject of some promising analyses by Cornelia Hackler, a preliminary survey of which has been published (Hackler 1989). The assemblages have been examined in qualitative and numerical terms, and grave-construction, -size and -shape have been considered and related to chronological phases; Hackler has not yet published any detailed 94

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Limit of main "" ---.area sampled

112 CD

0 * 5

(3D

„ C2D <2D a (55) GD /77

C5D CD*!*

.Ffg. 3J^ Altheim 'am Knopp': site-plan (after Hackler 1989:184 fig.3)

analyses of associations between artefact-types and gender or age, or between these and the other variables noted. Hackler (1989:180) divided the graves into three subjectively determined qualitative groups, 1, 2 and 3 in ascending order of quality. Her groups 2 and 3 probably conform to different levels of A-, AB-, BC- and C-graves in the terms defined at Ennery. Be that as it may, Hackler concludes that male graves, as at Ennery, were typically more lavishly furnished than female burials (ibid.). One striking difference from the results at Ennery is the presence of a group of child graves at the centre of the site, often with gravegoods cabove the average' (ibid.ilSl). Such graves were rarely well furnished at Ennery. Without detailed publication of Altheim and analysis of the gender associations of the artefacts, we cannot be sure whether these children were buried with or without gender-specific artefact-kits. At present, no further information is available to help compare and contrast this cemetery with that at Ennery. The cemetery seems to have been organized into three groups (ibid.ilSO). It is also interesting to note that on the eastern side of the site, the earliest part, a group almost entirely of men, and one formed largely of women, can be discerned. In the rest of the cemetery the sexes are more evenly mixed, though there are clusters or rows of men and women. The graves are not neatly organized into rows; family plots may have been a more prominent consideration. 95

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Berthelming 'Alt Schloss' (fig. 3.15) After Ennery, the small, twenty-four-grave cemetery at Berthelming (Moselle) in the Sarre valley is probably the best known from the civitas of Metz.3 These seventh-century graves were placed in the ruins of a villa, abandoned in the early fifth century. No ceramics were found and gravegoods were scarce. An attempt was made, using the methods developed at Ennery, to separate the artefacts into male and female groups, but no discrete groupings emerged. No correlations could be drawn between gender and artefact-type. Information on other variables, such as grave-shape, skeletal position and artefact positioning was available only for a few graves, and there was no physical anthropological study. Nevertheless, even with these problems a number of features stood out: the absence of ceramics; the massive reduction in the number of grave-goods; the standardization of those which remained (six of nine intact furnished burials contained a buckle, in four cases the only artefact in the grave; a further three were buried with plaque-buckles). The only weapon-grave was that of an adult (judging from the length of the grave), which may lend support to the idea that such objects were not buried with children. Given that twenty-four graves (with about twenty-eight skeletons) is likely to represent at least 10% of the cemetery (on analogy with Audun-le-Tiche), these characteristics may be significant.

••• C=»

Roman wall. Grave. Edge of excavation. M Graves 23 & 24 do not appear on the plan.

Fig. 3.15 3

Berthelming 'Alt Schloss': site-plan - state of excavations in 1948 (after Gallia 1948:240)

Delort & Lutz 1948; Gallia 1948:239-41; Lutz 1950; Salin 1952:16; Lutz 1956:27-8.

96

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Interestingly, the subject of grave 11, containing a thirty-seven-bead necklace, a plaque-buckle and a knife (so well furnished for this site), was estimated to be a 'y o u n g woman'. Bettborn cBienenzaun3 (fig. 3.16) These points were underlined in examination of the site at Bettborn. This cemetery, well excavated and excellently published by Annette Laumon (1977; see also Lutz 1952:86), lies in the Sarre valley, in the commune to the south of Berthelming. It was similarly dated to the seventh century, lay on the site of a Roman villa and contained no ceramics. Only ten graves were excavated, however, to which could be added a further burial discovered in 1948. This small sample was somewhat better provided with grave-goods than the Berthelming graves but, even so, no patterning emerged. No weaponry was found. Necklaces, usually a female artefact, emerged in the middle of the seriation of artefact-types, even when all object-types present in the graves (including those not found in the requisite two graves containing two such artefact-types) were incorporated into the analysis. Nor did the apparent groups of associated artefacts seem to be linked with spatial zones of the cemetery (divided into sectors by walls of the old villa), age (where this could be ascertained), skeletal position, grave-shape or -size, or graveconstruction. The subject of grave 7, buried face-down, was nevertheless provided with grave-goods, suggesting that deviant skeletal positioning was not necessarily connected to the absence of artefacts. One feature to emerge

Fig. 3.16 Bettborn 'Bienenzaun': site-plan (after Laumon 1977). Grave 1, discovered in 1948, does not appear on the plan 97

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

was that the stone-lined graves in the north of the site were square-cut whilst those in the south had more rounded ends. Six graves contained iron nails, suggesting coffins or stretchers. Five out of nine intact graves contained knives. Since these included graves with jewellery, women could be interred with such objects, unlike the sixth-century females at Ennery. Bouzonville 'Au-dessus du four a chaux' Bouzonville, twenty or so kilometres north-east of Metz, is an enigmatic site. Excavated in the 1890s, it was published to a reasonable standard for its day (Scheneker 1899), but unfortunately no site-plan was given. The objects disappeared into private hands and no illustrations appeared until almost half a century later, (LB:22; Reusch 1941-2:55 and Taf.VIII-IX). They show that the site was, again, used in the seventh century. The thirty-two graves excavated (grave 20 is absent from the inventory) surely represent about 15% of the whole cemetery. No observations were made about the integrity of the graves, so we cannot be absolutely certain that the recorded assemblages were intact. Grave 14, containing necklace and spear, must surely have contained two burials, male and female, and grave 25, with its skull apparently displaced by some distance, seems to have been damaged. The absence of objects such as earrings, awls, hairpins and so on may lead us to suspect that Scheneker missed small objects, but the fact that he found necklacebeads in eight graves argues otherwise (and, in any case, earrings and hairpins were, as we shall see, less common in seventh-century burials). There were several similarities between this cemetery and those of the Sarre valley. Grave-goods were uncommon; fourteen graves seem not to have been furnished at all. No clear patterns of association could be found. There were only three weapon-graves; the burials with spear and scramasax contained only one other object, and that with an arrowhead contained no other artefacts. As at Bettborn, necklaces and knives were the most common objects, each found in eight graves. Knives (again as at Bettborn) were found with both weaponry and jewellery. Only one pot was found, pointing again to the abandonment of the deposition of ceramics with the dead. Weaponry seems to have been placed only in adult graves. Two of the three weapon-burials, graves 3 and 11, were those of adults, judging from skeleton- and grave-length respectively; no measurements were given for the other weapon-grave, grave 7. This gave some little support to the hypothesis that children would not be buried with weapons. Grave 21, the burial with the most jewellery and (by comparison with other seventh-century cemeteries of the region; see ch.4) other female artefacts (chatelaine, shoe-buckles), was that of an adult, also perhaps supporting the idea that such gender-specific artefact-kits were not buried with children. However, two of the cemetery's four children (graves 22 and 30) were buried with necklaces. This argues against the Ennery hypothesis, although, on anthropological analogy, it might not be unexpected for children to be 'artefactually feminine'. Nonetheless, this supports the notion that correlations between grave-goods and the age and sex of the deceased were far less clear-cut on seventh-century sites. 98

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Finally, the cemetery contained a pit, one metre in diameter, filled with ashes and burnt earth as well as a large number of small traces of wood. As with the Ennery pit, this seems to be associated with the cemetery and the activities which went on there. Giidingen 'Fronfeld* Giidingen lies in the Bliesgau area of the Saarland and seems to have been an important site.4 Another, Gersheim, used in the sixth and seventh centuries, contained a large number of burials, including some which were lavishly furnished.5 Most were destroyed in the construction of a railway station, however, and the six recorded assemblages date from both sixth and seventh centuries, leaving too few in each period for us to be able to draw any conclusions. At Giidingen, similarly, only eight burials were recovered, dating from the sixth and seventh centuries, and seven of these were damaged by the house-building works which led to their discovery. Fortunately, the one more or less intact grave was that of a sixth-century man of clear high prestige in the area (grave 4). In addition to sword, scramasax and spears, two or three knives, a belt-set, comb and shears, tweezers and so on, the burial contained a shield-boss, horse-bit, balances, a bronze bowl and a bucket, all prestige items in the region. The man was about forty years old. Even allowing for the obvious lavishness of the burial, this grave conformed to the patterns presented at Ennery. He was an adult; a child would not be buried with such a numerous and strongly male-specific artefact-kit. Secondly, he had not yet reached old age, at which, according to the Ennery itiodel, such an artefact-kit would largely have been abandoned. There were two associated graves of definite sixth-century date. The sixteen- to eighteen-year-old of grave 1 wore a necklace and an antler pendant, her dress was fastened by a bronze pin and she was interred with a breadcutter (a rare object, marking the burial out as a prestige grave; Stein 1989a: 154), a pitcher and a glass vase. The upper half of the body was lost, so we cannot judge the presence or absence of brooches, hairpins, earrings and so forth. A possible challenge to the hypothesis proposed at Ennery came with the forty- to forty-five-year-old woman of grave 2. She wore three brooches and a necklace. She also had a crystal amulet. In addition to this, the grave contained comb, knife and decorated carinated vase, as well as prestige items: a bronze bowl and a bucket. At Ennery, such a lavish artefact-kit, especially the jewellery, would have been rare at this age. On the other hand, the Giidingen woman was perhaps only just past the age where such assemblages were common (about fourteen to forty years of age at Ennery). The presence of a larger number of artefacts not relating to dress and physical adornment would be expected in the grave of a woman at the older end of this age group. 4

5

Schahle 1961; Ber.SDS 1963:17; Above all Stein 1992; Stein 1989a is a shorter version without notes or finds-lists; unpublished records of the SDS. I am grateful to Professor Stein for allowing me access to her notes about this site. MHVP 1871:132ff; Mehlis 1877:70 and 1879:61; Schahle 1965:107; Bertemes et al 1988:187-90.

99

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Stein (1992:125) has, not unreasonably, seen these three graves as a family group. A final probably sixth-century grave is grave 3, an adult male buried simply with a belt-buckle, though, as everywhere else, the grave was disturbed. There were four seventh-century graves. The sixteen-year-old of grave 7 wore three brooches and a necklace as well as a belt-set. Once again we see the graves of adolescent women being well furnished. The slightly older occupant of grave 8 (twenty-five to thirty years old) wore a necklace only. The lower half of the grave was lost, however. The other, seventh-century, weapon-graves (graves 5 and 6) were, as expected, all of adult males, though no more precise ageing was given. It must be said that no child graves were found on this site to confirm or deny the hypothesis. Giidingen was an important site containing clearly prestigious burials. It lends some support to the Ennery hypotheses, but the absence of graves of young children or of old people, the damaged nature of the burials and the lavish character of the ensemble make it difficult to draw definite conclusions, either supporting or refuting them. Hayange 'Foret d'Hamevillers3 (fig. 3.17) Hayange (Moselle), to the north-west of Metz, is again a seventh-century site. Sixty-four graves were excavated here in the early years of this century, but only seventeen assemblages have survived.6 The cemetery was covered by a forest, and, with the root-damage which is likely on such a site (cp. Audun-le-Tiche), it is possible that the graves which yielded these assemblages were not intact. No excavation records have survived except for a plan, on which the burials yielding the artefacts cannot be located, so we can never check this. Nicolay (1937:42) mentions that some graves contained more than one skeleton, though none of his examples tallies with the surviving assemblages. As at Berthelming, Bettborn and most of the Bouzonville graves, no pottery was found. Grave-goods were sufficiently numerous for a reasonable seriation to be carried out (fig. 3.18). Two groups of artefacts emerged, one containing jewellery, the other scramasaxes and simple buckles (the site's one sword was associated with this group, as was an awl). A link between these groups and females and males respectively seemed certain. As at Bouzonville and Bettborn, knives were the most common artefacts, occurring in ten out of seventeen graves, of both sexes. Plaque-buckles (occurring in five graves) were similarly 'neutral', unlike those at Ennery. Given that we have no information on grave-shape or lay-out, or on the deceased's age or sex, it was not possible to check any of the Ennery hypotheses about associations between objects and these variables. However, given that ten of the assemblages contained only one or two objects, and five of the seventeen were 'neutral' (four containing knife alone), it would probably have been difficult to establish any clear patterning (fig. 3.19). 6

JGLGA 1910:529; LT:51; Nicolay 1937:41-3; Toussaint 1938d:24; Clermont-Joly 1978:24-5; Simmer 1987:346-9.

100

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

•

N «

5

10 5i

M

Grave with 2 skeletons. Grave with 3 skeletons.

Fig. 3.17

Hayange 'Foret de Hamevillers': site-plan - state of excavations in 1910 (after Clermont-Joly 1978:25)

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key)

31 12 30 33 17 2 3 4 6

do 9 3 1 3 3 1 1 2 0 3 7 2 3 4 6 • III 1 I I I

I Fig. 3.18

• = Artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types.

• I I • II Hayange 'Foret de Hamevillers': artefact associations

101

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key) o 9 3 1 3 3 1 1 2 0 3 7 2 3 4 6 d

2 4 16 15 6 13 3 9 10 12 5 17 7 8 14 1 11 1 2

I

I

1 1

•

•

I 1 • 1

I I I

1

1 1

• 1 1 11 I 1 1 I I I

I •

•

II

Type

Predicted sex

AB. 1 AB. 1 AB. 1 AB. 1 AB. 2 AB.2

d d d d d d

Bx Bx Bx Bx B BC BC BC BC X X

o o o o o

9 9 9 0

d* 92

Grave contained a spearhead and so was probably male. Grave contained an element of a chatelaine and so was probably female. Fig. 3.19 Hayange Toret de Hamevillers': grave seriation

We should also note the group of burials at the west of the site, which are both separated and oriented differently from the remainder of the graves. Without better excavation it is impossible to draw valid conclusions, but this may have been a group of prestigious burials physically removed from the remainder of the graves, though not from the cemetery itself, as attested on other sites in other regions at this period. Moyeuvre-Grande 'Kleiner Vogesenberg' (fig. 3.20) Moyeuvre-Grande (Moselle) forms a pair with Hayange. It similarly lies to the north-west of Metz, and was excavated in the early years of this century.7 Twenty-three graves were excavated but only fifteen grave-goods were retrieved, from six or seven graves; the others contained no objects. The cemetery has been dated to the last decades of the seventh century. As at several seventh-century sites discussed here, knives were the most common objects, found in five furnished graves. Once again, no pottery was found. Artefacts were too few for any seriation to be possible. From the plan of the cemetery, the site's single weapon-grave and lone jewellery-burial 7

Keune 1901; JGLGA 1901:409; Keune 1902; LT:13; Toussaint 1938d:25; Clermont-Joly 1978:36-7; Simmer 1987:350 and 352, pl.VIII.

102

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

9

19

„ D 0

B

20 21 22

D00

12 3

i i i—•

DD D D

CZD I 1 • D

Sarcophagus. Simple trench grave. Grave-goods. Reused grave.

16

D Fig. 3.20

Moyeuvre-Grande 'Kleiner Vogesenberg': site-plan Clermont-Joly 1978:37 and Simmer 1987:353)

(after

were both graves of adults, as might have been expected. That apart, this cemetery underlines several points made about the other seventh-century sites of the civitas: massive reduction in grave-goods; reduction in the numbers of graves with strongly gender-specific artefact-kits; increasing standardization and subsequent reduction in the specific gender/age symbolism of individual artefacts (hence the knife and the plaque-buckle, strongly male at Ennery, become 'neutral'); and abandonment of ceramics. The graves are divided into small groups which may correspond to family plots, particularly the group of three sarcophagi at the south-west edge of the site, and another group of three graves placed some distance to the north of the other burials. The use of sarcophagi, including for a child's grave (grave 11), is itself worthy of note. Walsheim cam Dorf\ and Wittersheim cvor dem langen Zaun' (fig. 3.22) The final pair of sites is in the Bliesgau. At the seventh-century cemetery of Walsheim we cannot be certain that the published assemblages are intact (Germania 1937:197; Schahle 1965). The artefacts from the site had a complex post-excavation history, and a number remain unprovenanced. Two 103

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key) do

9

4 3 3 2 1 3 1 3 5 12 6 7 0 0 3 6 2 5 9 3 45 O D D C] a 31 • I I 32 0 1 II i a • 26 o i l • i a • 17 a • • • 1D I 30 a • • • • a • • aa D aa 10 a aaa • aa 33 • • • • i a • a aaa 6 a a 2 C] a C] a aa 5 aa a 9 a aa 3 I = Artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types . D = As above, but at least one of the artefact-types involved occurred in only one grave (and thus would usually have been excluded from the sedation).

Fig. 3.21 Walsheim 'am Dorfy: artefact associations

swords appear to have been lost. No site-plan was preserved and we have no information on the variables of grave-shape, -size or -construction, skeletal positioning, or of the deceased's age or sex. Similarly, no note seems to have been made concerning the integrity or otherwise of the grave. Nonetheless, it may be significant that no pottery seems to have been found. Taking these problems into account, the seriation produced in figure 3.21 must be viewed with the utmost caution. Nevertheless, the ordering of the artefacts is hardly surprising, with distinct groups emerging, one containing weapons and knives (as at Ennery), the other jewellery. These surely correspond to gender differences. As at other seventh-century sites, the plaquebuckle, strongly male at Ennery, has become 'neutral', though most of the examples, especially the elaborate ones, were found in male graves. Walsheim is similar to Hayange in many respects. Given the absence of information about age or sex we cannot test the ideas established at Ennery about the links between artefact-types, and types of assemblage, and these variables. At Wittersheim, only six graves were found, though these were well excavated and planned (Germania 1930:256-7; Klein 1932; Bertemes et al. 1988: 191-4). Four were weapon-burials, one was that of a woman buried with a buckle, a brooch, four rings, a necklace and bead waist-band, as well as, judging from the plan, some form of dress pin. The other grave was unfurnished. The site dates to the seventh century. Although the excavated graves surely represent only a very small sample of the whole cemetery, the Wittersheim burials are very different from the other seventh-century graves of the civitas of Metz. Unusually, four out of six burials contained weapons, 104

Fig. 3.22

Wittersheim 'vor dem langen 2auny: site-plan (after Klein 1932yTaf 17)

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

one with a shield-boss (rare in this period), and three different weapon-types were represented. Nevertheless, the graves showed striking uniformity. Four graves contained knife, scramasax and belt-fittings; three of these contained a plaque-buckle as well. This standardization had been suggested, albeit in different ways, at other sites, and was to be underlined more strongly in examination of selected cemeteries from the wider region of Metz (ch.4). Other sites The sites discussed above represent the bulk of the published graveassemblages of the Merovingian civitas of Metz. There are other isolated graves of which the contents and occasionally other variables are known, but they can tell us little by themselves. Not much can be gleaned from the fragmentary data to confirm or deny the hypothesis put forward above about the associations between grave-goods and the age and sex of the deceased. At Dolving 'St-Ulrich' (Moselle; Lutz 1972:61) only two graves were excavated. The subject of one, containing no grave-goods, was a cquite old' woman, supporting the notion that the chances of furnished burial declined with old age. The other burial was of a ten-year-old child, and contained pottery and an iron ring of uncertain function. If this came, as Lutz suggested, from a spear, this would argue against the theory that children were not buried with weaponry. However, since no spearhead was found, this remains unlikely. At Basse-Ham (Simmer 1987:357-8 and pl.X) a young woman's grave was found to contain a strongly feminine artefact-kit (earrings, necklace, chatelaine, spindlewhorl), in line with the Ennery hypothesis, as was the adolescent burial recently excavated at Florange Tortier Ste-Agathe' (Arch. Med. 1991: 385-6), containing, inter alia, necklace, brooches and spindlewhorl. A similar point could be made for the adolescent woman's grave found at Varize 'Heiligenbronn' (Moselle; Clermont-Joly 1978:41), which contained a knife, a necklace, a coin, two iron buckles, a pitcher and two other pots. Most graves with weapons or jewellery are those of adults, where grave-dimensions and other information are recorded. The graves of children from Angevillers (Moselle; Simmer 1987:337), the 1888 discoveries at Homecourt (Meurthe-et-Moselle; Wiener 1888; Salin 1937:214; Toussaint 1938a:39), and Dieulouard (Meurthe-et-Moselle;/S;4L 1878:110; Toussaint 1938a:35), were furnished sparsely (pottery alone at Angevillers and Homecourt; a comb at Dieulouard), without typically gender-specific items, as expected. There are several other instances of unfurnished child burials. However, two child graves containing jewellery were recorded, one at the seventh-century site of Bebing cLa Hutte' (Moselle),8 with earrings and a brooch, and one at the probably sixth-century site of Juvelize (Moselle;/S,4Z, 1861:170; WG:map 6; Toussaint 1938d:l 1), containing a necklace. As will be seen in chapter 4, necklaces in child graves are, though rare at Ennery, not uncommon across the region. The Bebing grave's jewellery is less typical, but again suggests a break-down in the patterns of artefact-age associations in the seventh century. 8

Lepage 1843:56; LS:19; Toussaint 1938d:17; Lutz 1952:86; Lutz 1956:26 and 1978:38.

106

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

The distribution of various object-types is interesting. Figure 3.23 shows the distribution of bosses, spurs and items of horse-harness in the region of Metz. As can be seen, beyond finds in Metz itself, a zone is revealed, extending for about thirty kilometres around the city, where only two such artefacts have been found. Adding bronze bowls, buckets, balances, angones and horse-burials to this map (fig. 3.24) makes this zone slightly less striking but its presence is definitely established. This is further supported by the fact that these artefacts have usually come from chance discoveries, rather than from systematic excavations. The zone around Metz shown in figure 3.24 contains over eighty possible Merovingian cemeteries and almost all the intact assemblages of the civitas; if those of hitherto unpublished sites are included, the latter total over 500 graves. Yet none of the latter produced a shield-boss or a spur. Outside this zone, in the area illustrated in figures 3.23 and 3.24, over forty sites have produced such objects, only fourteen of which were the subject of controlled excavation. The conclusion must be drawn that these objects and their distribution are of social significance, which will be discussed in Part III. Some other points can be made from the civitas' cemeteries. Another possible cemetery pit was discovered at Koenigsmacker (Moselle; LT:70-l; Delort 1935; Toussaint 1938d:20-l; Simmer 1987:362-8), which contained a

Fig. 3.23

Lavish burials (1): graves with shield-boss, spur or item of horse-harness 107

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

• Certain. O Possible.

Fig. 3.24

Lavish burials (2): graves with shield-boss, spur, item of horseharness, bronze bowl, bucket, ango or balances and horse-burials

pitcher, fish and animal remains, a knife, a spindlewhorl and many pieces of charcoal, all in a very dark layer. The pit, however, may be later than the cemetery and associated with a slightly later settlement, as Simmer (1987:362) suggests. The presence of pits on cemetery sites is far from uncommon, though, and this refuse deposit is possibly associated with funerary feasts. Since Koenigsmacker was not properly excavated we will never be certain of this pit's function. Some mention must be made of deviant rites, to which we will return in the next chapter. At Koenigsmacker, Emile Linckenheld claimed that there were a number of burials in a sitting position (LT: 70-1). Unfortunately, since the site was destroyed without any archaeological recording worthy of the name, we cannot draw any information from this fact. Face-down burials were apparently located at Marsal,9 but various post-depositional processes can make a normal supine burial appear prone to the untrained eye. Again it is impossible, from the surviving data, to know for sure even whether the graves were accompanied by grave-goods, though it is probable that they were. Other such burials were seemingly (with the same reservations) discovered at Blemerey (Meurthe-et-Moselle; Toussaint 1938a:44; Hurstel 1984, vol.II:36), and at Koenigsmacker (Simmer 1987:362), where the deceased was 9

JSAL 1883:15-16; Toussaint 1938d:12; Clermont-Joly 1978: nos. 417, 424 and 829; Hurstel 1984, vol.11: 172-3.

108

CEMETERIES IN THE CIVITAS OF METZ

interred wearing a necklace. If these cases are genuine, there was no apparent correlation between burial in an unusual position and the presence or absence of grave-goods. Other unusual customs include the burial of animals. A probable double grave at Gondrexange 'Haut-Desseponck' (Moselle)10 contained the skull of a dog. An entire skeleton of a horse was found at Bettviller 'Guising' (Moselle; LFS: 156-7; Toussaint 1938d:18) near Merovingian burials. The skull of a horse was found in the much disturbed cemetery at Tarquimpol (Moselle).11 Little information can be drawn from these examples, beyond the fact that the killing of a horse must have been an important display of prestige.

A provisional descriptive model of funerary practice within the civitas of Metz A provisional model can now be established, containing two general propositions, relating to the sixth and seventh centuries in turn. 1 In the sixth century, grave-goods had distinct associations with sex and age, though in detail these may well have changed from site to site. In particular, gender-specific assemblages such as those including weapons or jewellery were not associated with children or old people. The gender of the deceased could be accurately predicted from grave-goods, and even age could be predicted within reasonable limits. Wealth, class and rank distinctions seem to be rather more subtle and not easily traceable from the grave-goods without analysis of other variables. 2 In the seventh century these associations broke down. There was widespread abandonment of pottery deposits in burials. The number and range of grave-goods diminished. In particular, artefacts, other than jewellery or weaponry, previously specific to one or other gender, often became 'neutral3 and the range of gender-specific artefacts became smaller. Artefactually 'neutral' and unfurnished graves increased in numbers and the assemblages appear to have become much more standardized. These propositions must now be tested against selected cemeteries outside the civitas but within the general region of Metz. 10 11

Linckenheld 1932b:132-3 and 1932-3; Toussaint 1938d:17; Salin 1952:18-19. Wichmann 1892; Hoffmann 1893:179; Schaudel 1894; Toussaint 1938d:10-ll; Stein 1974:583-4; Clermont-Joly 1978:39-40; Guillaume et al. 1988:104-5 and fig.73.

109

Testing the model: cemeteries outside the civitas of Metz

Introduction As should have become clear in the previous chapter, the data from the civitas of Metz are too fragmentary and of too uncertain reliability for the conclusions drawn from them to stand alone. Consequently, four cemeteries from outside the civitas but within the general region of Metz were chosen for analysis. Figure 4.2 repeats the definition of the various classifications of graves, from A to X.

Audun-le-Tiche^^/ \

«0 Saarbriicken

c

^Verdun

J

(

) • Sarreguemines

/*• Metz

[•Dieue-sur-Meuse/

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so

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Fig. 4.1 Places mentioned in chapter 4

110

N

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Chaouilley\

0 >^

10 20 Km

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ Grave-tvpes A A grave containing masculine gender-specific artefact-types only. AB.l A grave containing masculine gender-specific and 'neutral' artefact-types, including weapons. AB.2 A grave containing masculine gender-specific and * neutral' artefact-types, including no weaponry. B A grave containing * neutral' artefact-types only. BC A grave containing feminine gender-specific and 'neutral' artefact-types. C A grave containing feminine gender-specific artefact-types only. D A disturbed grave (excluded from analyses). E.I An unfurnished grave of an adult. E.2 An unfurnished grave of a child. Ax A grave containing only one artefact-type, a masculine artefact-type. Bx A grave containing only one artefact-type, a 'neutral' artefact-type. Cx A grave containing only one artefact-type, a feminine artefact-type. X A grave containing only artefacts excluded from the analyses (because never found in more than one grave with more than one artefact-type). Number code for ageing of skeletons and for age predictions 1 Child (in general, 14 yrs or less). 2 Child 1 (0-7 yrs). 3 Child 2 (7-14 yrs). 4 Juvenile (in general, C.14-C.20 yrs). 5 General adult (of unspecified age, but over 20 yrs). 6 Young adult (in general, 20-40 yrs). 7 Mature adult (in general, 40-60 yrs). 8 Old (in general, 60 yrs or more). 9 Category 1 (above) or category 8 (above). 10 1, 4 or 8. 11 If female, 1 or 8; if male 1, 4 or 8. 12 6 or 7. 13 4 or 6. 14 4, 6 or 7. 15 7 or 8. 16 1, 7 or 8.

Fig. 4.2

Classification of grave-types and number code for the ageing of skeletons

Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles' (fig. 4.3) The first site we shall consider is the sixth-century cemetery of Chaouilley (Voinot 1904). Lying on the edge of a plateau near the village, it was discovered in 1902 when a local man, collecting stones from a field, found a sword. He notified a M. Parisot of the Societe d'Archeologie Lorraine. Parisot excavated twelve graves, the news of which led Dr Joseph Voinot and his brother Leo to the site, where they excavated a further twenty-eight. Parisot recovered little information beyond the individual inventories, and even the integrity of the graves is not always secure. However, the Voinots were excellent excavators and recovered not only inventories but also the dimensions of the graves, skeletal position and the positioning of the gravegoods. They also recognized disturbed graves. Voinot used his medical knowledge to estimate the sex and age of the deceased from the bones. Whilst old people are probably underrepresented, as is often the case, his study, as we shall see, tallies quite well with the information of the grave-goods. Ill

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

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Chaouilley caux Ecailles3: site-plan (after Voinot 1904: map opposite p. 72)

The publication gives all of this information and, apart from the absence of grave-plans and of detailed finds illustrations (the Voinots preferred photography but not all of the objects they illustrated can be linked with individual graves), its quality remains, for the most part, unsurpassed in cemetery reports from the region to this day. The site-plan (fig. 4.3) is somewhat suspicious, however, and is not, pace Voinot's claims, to scale. More recently, a seventh-century grave was found, suggesting that a later phase of the cemetery remains unexcavated (Guillaume et al. 1988:74). Nonetheless, the excavated area, centring on an important young man and woman, must form a high proportion of the sixth-century phase, if not of the whole cemetery. The object-types could be divided into three groups and, as at Ennery, the masculine group contained more types than the feminine (fig. 4.4). Again, weapons and belt-fittings formed part of the male group, and jewellery the bulk of the female. Shears were masculine (the only pair of shears found at Ennery was found in a male grave, grave 28), and all three sets were found in lavishly furnished burials of adult males. Similarly, the only pair of tweezers found at Ennery was found in a male burial, and this object was masculine at Chaouilley. One difference occurred with the knife. At Ennery this had been a strongly masculine artefact but at Chaouilley, though seven out of ten examples came from male burials, the other three were found in the 112

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Artefact-types (for key, see fig. 3.4) 4 4 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 6 5 5 1 2 6 3 9 0 46 45 15 31 32 26 23 29 30 22 13 47 20 19 18 17 12 34 25 4 5 6 3 41

2 14 2 1 1 1 1 3 2 2 3 7 0 9 8 7 2 4 5 4

4 5 6 3 1

• I I I I 1 1 1 • I I I

1

1 1 1 I 1

I

II

III

| = Artefact-type X is certainly associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.4

Chaouilley 'aux Ecailles3: artefact associations

graves of women, all teen-age or older and all containing a necklace and one or more brooches. The remainder of the /neutral3 group was composed much as at Ennery; in this group six out of eight types found at both cemeteries were 'neutral3 at both. With perhaps one exception, it was always possible to predict the deceased's sex correctly (fig. 4.5). The exception was grave 25, marked on Voinot3s plan as female. No information on sex is given in the text, and since two of the three grave-goods placed with the body were otherwise only found in male graves, it seems certain that the occupant of this grave was male. One problem occurred with children. Three were buried with feminine artefacts. Two had identical assemblages: a necklace and a vase. As at Bouzonville, this could mean that children were considered feminine, as extensions of their mothers, rather than that there were more female than male children. This is supported by examination of the pottery (see below). The age of the deceased was estimated from the bone evidence in only nine graves containing artefacts, and two unfurnished graves (though we 113

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key)

Grave

A B C D

o

6

9

4 4 4 1 3 3 2 2 2 3 2 1 4 2 1 1. 1 1 3 2 6 5 5 1 2 6 3 9 0 2 3 7 0 9 i! 7 2 4 5 4 5 6 3 1 20c | | 27 28 14 17 34 35 33 13 16 25 8 24 3

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A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Voinot; C = predicted age (seefig.4.2 for key); D = age according to Voinot (seefig.4.2 for key). Fig. 4.5 Chaouilley caux Ecailles': grave seriation

cannot be certain that these are intact). A further eight furnished graves could be identified as of either adults or children (four children, four adults) from the dimensions of the grave, dental evidence and skeletal size. Similar trends as occurred at Ennery were suggested. Age predictions were accurate in 55% of cases (fig. 4.5). Of the three B-graves (containing 'neutral' items only), one was a child, one a fifty- to sixty-year-old woman and one an unsexed forty- to fifty-year-old. If these ages (and sexes) are correct they support the Ennery hypothesis well, with children and women over forty receiving burial without gender-specific grave-goods.

114

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Of the E-graves, all those which Voinot felt able to sex were male. The five bodies pitched into multiple grave 4 seem to represent a disturbed grave. Four of the six others were excavated by Parisot, and no information was retrieved beyond the fact that there were no grave-goods (the integrity of the grave is not above suspicion). The others (20a and 20b) were adult males, one aged between thirty and forty, the other between fifty and sixty. If there was an intact grave in grave 4 it was of a forty- to sixty-year-old man. Little could be suggested from this data, except that it seemed that, as at Ennery, one stood a greater chance of unfurnished burial or burial without genderrelated grave-goods after the age of forty. All the AB.l-burials (with masculine artefacts including weapons) were of adult males, supporting the conclusions reached at Ennery. Of these, no age was recorded in five cases. Of the remaining five, three were under forty (two being aged between twenty and thirty), one was aged between fifty and sixty and one was simply cun vieillard', without further precision. The old man's grave contained the lowest number of grave-goods. This did not contradict the Ennery results and appeared to support the idea that they might have more general application. Apart from the three children discussed above, the BC-graves and Cxgraves were all of adults. One of the most lavishly furnished (grave 21) was probably of a girl in her early teens. Grave 1, containing a bracelet, was not aged, but the teeth were not very worn, and so did not suggest a subject of much beyond young adult age. As at Ennery, such things as hairpins, earrings, bracelets, brooches and dress pins were found in the graves of women aged between puberty and about forty. The richest female burial, grave 19, was not aged anthropologically. The striking similarities which it bore to its neighbour, grave 20c, which will be discussed below, suggest that the subject died quite close in time to that of 20c, and that she was related to him, perhaps a sister or wife. This would suggest an age of not much more than twenty-five to thirty (though this remains unverifiable). Although there were insufficient anthropologically-aged skeletons for any hard and fast conclusions, there was enough in the data to suggest that people were buried with the most artefact-types when aged between twenty and forty, as at Ennery. When the two sexes were added together it could be shown that, again, the average number of object-types placed with the dead rose as one approached c y o u n g adult' age (twenty to forty) and then fell gradually as one reached old age (fig. 4.6). In examining the forms of artefacts and any associations these had, analyses focused upon ceramics. It was noticed that shallow red-ware bowls were placed in the graves of adult females three times (graves 3, 6 and 19), in an adult male's burial only once (grave 20c) and in child graves twice (graves 24 and 40). Other forms of red-ware pottery such as pitchers were found in other male graves, however. Black vases and grey vases with black glaze were found in eight men's graves (14, 16, 20c, 25, 27, 28, 34 and 35), in two child's burials and in only one adult female's grave (grave 19). In three graves red bowls and grey/black vases were found together: the child grave 24, and the lavishly furnished graves 19 and 20c. This might suggest that the red

115

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Average no. of artefact-types

0 10 14 20

30

40

(General adult)

50

60

70

80

Age Shaded areas of bars represent minimum averages. Unshaded areas of bars represent maximum averages. Fig. 4.6

Chaouilley age group

c

aux Ecailles3: average numbers of artefact-types, by

bowl was usually a feminine artefact and the black vase a masculine item. Child grave 36 (and possibly 37), however, contained necklaces as well as supposedly 'male' black vases. This evidence might be used to suggest that jewellery in child graves does indeed have no real weight as an index of sex. With one feminine and one usually masculine object, these graves must remain 'neutral'. We will return to the cases of graves 19 and 20c. The dead were buried with dress where they would have been worn. Pottery was almost exclusively placed by the feet. Again, the only exception was the pot in grave 20c placed by the deceased's head. The cemetery's organization deserves some attention (fig. 4.7). As at Ennery, women were grouped at one end of the site, in this case the south. Certain artefact-types were grouped in specific areas. All three bronze bowls came from graves 18, 19 and 20c, located side-by-side in the westernmost row of burials. Graves 34, 35 and 36, similarly situated next to each other, all contained black-glazed 116

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

a.

Distribution of adult males and females

b.

38 39 40

10

Key_to_a

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• Black-glazed grey vase.

flAJL

24 23 22 21 20 19 18 15 9

D D D

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n

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•< •18 •15 A9 17

ABC

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Fig. 4.7 plans

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30 29 28

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17 14

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Distribution of grave-types 38 39 40

5

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w Bronze bowl. c.

4

D 0 0

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7

38 39 40

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32

A Male.

A

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Female

Distribution of artefact-types

8

18 15 9

2

DD

Prestige graves 38 39 40

10

D D

D

a

33 34 35 36 37

11 4

D D D D D

a

D

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D

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D D • 122[~ :•] • 21 20 19 1

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D D D!1 D D D

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c

aux Ecailles': cemetery organization - schematic

vases. With the possible exception of 20c, all intact AB.l-graves were located in clusters. As at Ennery there is a surprisingly low number of adult women. Ten subjects could be anthropologically or artefactually sexed as women to nineteen males. To reach an adult population of a normal sexual structure, one would need to assume that six out of every seven remaining unsexed burials, excluding children, (disturbed, unfurnished or artefactually 'neutral') were of women. It must be said, though, that, unlike at Ennery, none of the cemetery's edges were reached. When looking for special graves at Chaouilley we are immediately struck by graves 19 and 20c. These two burials are the most lavishly furnished on the site, and show striking resemblances to each other. Both have very similar bronze bowls placed on a wooden board by the left foot. They also appear to break community rules; 19 is the only adult female with a black-glazed vase and 20c the only man interred with a red bowl. Two later burials were placed in the latter grave, albeit very carefully; neither appears to have disturbed the original burial, interred a remarkable 2.2 metres below the 1902 ground level. When added to the fact that the grave was carefully stone-lined, this original burial must have required an unusual expenditure of labour. Like the special graves 70 and 71 at Ennery, graves 19 and 20c at Chaouilley are situated on (apparently) the edge of the site. This prestige group may 117

a

181 15 9 1

D

D

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

perhaps be extended to graves 18 and 21. Grave 18 contained a grey pot of a similar shape to the grey/black pitcher in grave 19, and a bronze bowl like those in graves 19 and 20c, similarly placed by the feet. Grave 21 is, with graves 19 and 20c, the only one to contain a comb, which, like the others, was placed by the feet.

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches' (fig. 4.8) The largest cemetery analysed was Lavoye (Meuse; Joffroy 1974). The cemetery lay 300m from Lavoye parish church, and was also discovered in 1902 and excavated by a doctor, Meunier. He was excavating the large villa which lies next to and under the south-western edges of the cemetery, when he found the unfurnished burial of what he thought was a Roman slave. The excavation of the cemetery, by Meunier, his nephew, M. Mouton, and G. Chenet, continued sporadically between 1905 and 1914. The course of the excavation was erratic, being constrained by agricultural activity. Like the Voinots, Meunier's team were excellent archaeologists for their day. Infrequent observations of skeletal position were made, the positioning of the grave-goods was noted far more often and complete inventories were kept. No grave dimensions were given except for the depth, which might suggest that the edges of features were not noted. This is corni-

g. 4.8

118

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vraches': site-plan (after Joffroy 1974: plan 1 and Guillaume et al. 1988:92)

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

tered by the facts that the graves were generally stone-lined and that the only published grave-plan, that of grave 319, does show an edge to the burial. The excavators were able to judge the graves' integrity. After the very first excavations, Meunier began to use his medical knowledge to estimate the sex of the dead, and, later on, the age as well. The same comments apply here as applied to the work of the Voinots, except that Meunier evidently did not estimate age except where he felt sufficiently confident to do so, and, apart from the children and one or two adults, only used very broad age groupings, young or old, probably representing the extremes of adulthood. All of this information was noted and a good plan kept, so that much later R. Joffroy (1974) could publish the site to as high a standard as that of the reports of much more recent excavations (see below). The edges of the cemetery appear to have been located, judging from the excavation of the villa to the south-west and the large empty spaces along the cemetery's eastern edge. The chronological phasing of the site was based on Perin's (1980) study and some refinement of this, dividing the graves of Bohner-Perin period III (Ament's AM III; Ament 1977) from those of period IV (Ament's JM I). This has been discussed, generally, in terms of dividing sixth- from seventhcentury graves though it must be acknowledged that the dividing line between these two phases spreads across the decades around 600. One group of about twenty burials between sixth-century group 2 and seventh-century group 1 (see below), to the south-west of the former, straddle this broad dividing line and could not, it was felt, be placed in either group. They were thus left undated and excluded from analysis, as were a number of unfurnished graves around the eastern edges of the site. There were thirteen late fifth-/early sixth-century graves (fig. 4.9). In this phase there were clear masculine, feminine and 'neutral' groups of artefacttypes, with possible further divisions into strongly masculine and strongly feminine, feminine/'neutraP and masculine/'neutraF (fig. 4.10). Sex was always accurately predicted and the trends put forward from Ennery seemed to be supported (fig. 4.11). All burials in this phase (except one E.l-grave, of an adult woman) had gender-specific artefact-types, which is perhaps why there were clear indications of strongly masculine or feminine artefacts. Again, one of the most strongly feminine graves was a young adult. With one exception, no ageing was given for the male AB-graves, but all were apparently adult. The earliest grave was the celebrated ctombe de chef (grave 319). He had a complete set of male-specific artefact-types and was separated from the other graves by a large zone free of burials. The dead man was about fifty years old, roughly the same age as the subject of the lavishly furnished grave 4 at Giidingen. As there, this did not refute the Ennery hypothesis. The man was neither a child nor aged above sixty, and the wide range of masculine objects other than weapons were not untypically placed with men of his age group at Ennery. The two female child burials appear to break away from the expected pattern. The six-year-old of grave 307 bis was buried with a larger than normal number of grave-goods, but the presence of a necklace and a bracelet as feminine artefacts was not unusual. Grave 189, of a 'fillette' (a five- to ten-year-old, to judge from Meunier's other 119

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Fig. 4.9

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches\ phase 1: late fifth and early sixth centuries

usage of the word), was buried with a very heavily feminine artefact-kit. It might be that she had just entered puberty, but the nature of the assemblage is probably to be linked to the position of the grave within the cemetery (see below). There are good reasons for seeing both of these graves as atypical. Grave 319 is clearly a prestige grave, but it is marked out not simply by its artefacts (which were both numerous and of high quality) but by its extraordinary length (3.5m) and depth (1.6m), and by the large area devoid of burials, roughly four and a half metres in radius, which surrounds it. There are, however, other graves of note in this initial phase. Several zones occupied by later graves, in the centre and south-west of the site, seem to have been 'founded' at this time. One such 'founder grave' (grave 110) is not, in artefactual terms, remarkable. Grave 241, 120

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Artefact-types (for key, see fig. 3.4)

32 28 27 26 24 22 20 19 17 12 11 10 9

o 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 8 7 6 4 2 0 9 7 2 1 0 9

;i iI

II

II I

I

3 6 4 2

I

ffl 1III

\

I = Artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.10

Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches\ phase 1: artefact associations

however, had a complete assemblage of masculine artefact-types (several artefact-types found in grave 319 were not discovered in any other contemporary burial and so were excluded from seriation). This burial lay near the centre of a zone densely occupied by later burials, but was separated from its contemporaries by a gap of about five metres. The two graves of probably female children also deserve attention. One (grave 307 bis), lies four metres or so north of grave 319 and is the earliest of the clutch of burials usually identified, reasonably enough, as the 'chiefs' family. Grave 189 was unusually well furnished with feminine artefacts (see above), but lay in the middle of an area later occupied by clearly prestigious masculine burials (see below). These other possible prestige burials, rather more subtly distinguished than grave 319 (with the possible exception of grave 189), have not been remarked upon before. After this initial group, 198 graves dated to between c. 525 and c. 600, of which 181 were suitable for analysis (fig. 4.12). These constituted an excellent sample for comparison with the contemporaneous cemeteries of Ennery and Chaouilley. As at those sites, two large groups of associated artefact-types were apparent (fig. 4.13). The feminine group was again smaller than the masculine, containing only eight object-types to eleven masculine. In the 'neutral' group, flints, plaque-buckles and purse-fasteners gravitated very 121

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-type (for key, see fig. 3.4)

Grave 317

319 241 303

110 313 307b

314 206 295 312 189

8 o 9 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 8 7 6 4 2 0 9 7 2 1 0 9 3 6 4 2 A

II 1 1 1 •• 1 1 i1 • l 11 1 1 1 Ml I1 I

1| 1 1 I I l1 | 1 I II | |

$

8 8 6

6 8

h

9 9 9 9 9 9

B (j

(J 6

12

c

D 5

12 12

7 6

6

5

S 6

6 5

5 5

9 9 9 9 9 9

16 16 6 6 13 13

2 5 5 6 5 3

A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Meunier; C = predicted age (see fig. 4.2 for key); D = age according to Meunier (see fig. 4.2 for key). Fig. 4.11

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vacbes3, phase 1: grave seriation

strongly to the masculine side. Only one female burial contained flints; plaque-buckles and purse-fasteners were each found in only two graves of women. Shears too were more often found in male than female burials. Knives were found in five times as many male as female graves. When the large size of the sample was taken into account, this supported the idea that these object-types were generally associated with males in the sixth century. Interestingly, the two female graves with plaque-buckles were both dated to the last phase of the sixth century (Perin's phase DEF; Perin 1980:388, table 143). This lends support to the hypothesis of a changing structure of the groups of masculine and feminine artefact-types by 600. 'Neutral' objects which fell towards the feminine end of the scale were shoe-buckles (in five female graves to three male), iron belt-buckles (fourteen to four, showing a similar female bias for this artefact as was revealed at Chaouilley) and disc brooches (twelve to three). The presence of disc brooches in male graves is at first sight surprising but is known from more recent excavations in Lorraine (cp. Toul 'St-Evre', grave 1; Lieger, Marguet & Guillaume 1984:304). The possibility that they are residual is ruled out by the consistent location of the brooches between the knee and pelvis, close to other items such as strike-a-lights, flints, coins and so on, in short to typical pouch-contents. None of these graves produced a true purse-fastener, though grave 188's pouch was associated with a small buckle which probably served to fasten it. These three disc brooches were probably used in a secondary context (grave 92's had lost its cloisons) as purse-fasteners. The sex of the deceased, predicted from grave-goods, did not tally with Meunier's physical anthropological observations in only two cases (fig. 4.14), 122

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.12

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches3, Phase 2: mid- to late sixth century

and one of these (grave 90, stated to be female but containing belt-fittings, otherwise exclusively male) possibly represents an error on Meunier's part. The next stage was to predict the age of the deceased from the gravegoods. Depending on the point-system used (fig. 4.15), this showed between 62% and 72% accuracy (fig. 4.14), giving strong support to the descriptive model established at Ennery. Twenty-seven out of thirty-four children were B- or E.2-graves. Of the others, one was an AB.2-grave, and one a Cx-grave (containing a necklace only). The other five were BC-burials but, leaving aside disc brooches, which the seriation counted as 'neutral3, all except one contained only a single feminine object-type. Of thirteen 'old' (which presumably could mean anything over forty) people identified by Meunier, nine were artefactually 'neutral' B- or Bxgraves, or unfurnished E.I-burials. There were three AB-graves. Two of these contained no weapons, and there was never more than a single malespecific item. In all three graves there was an average of only three artefacttypes and of only 3.33 grave-goods in all (this compared with an average of well over four artefact-types or over six grave-goods for all adult males). There was one BC-grave, but this was similarly poorly furnished, with only three grave-goods, including two object-types, one of which, a dress pin, was gender-specific. 123

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Artefact-types (for key, see fig. 3.4)

6

O 9 1 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 4 1 3 7 2 0 9 8 3 2 7 4 5 4 7 0 9 6 5 3 2 6 1 3

3 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 2 3 2 8 9 1 4 5 3 1 4 6 0

28 29 21 24 25 23 31 34 26 30 11 33 27 22 20 19 18 13 12 17 14 15 4 7 10 9 6 35 3 2 16 1 43

I •

I

I

I

!

I I

I

I I 1 1

I

• I

I

I I I II

•

II

I

I I I

• I I I • I • • • • I I I • I I I • •

II III I I

I

II

| = Artefact-type X is certainly associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.13

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 2: artefact associations

Six out of eight subjects identified as female adolescents (only one instance, leaving aside unspecified 'fillettes') or young adult women were BC-burials. Surprisingly, the other two were E.I-graves (though these were located in an area where E-graves predominated). However, even including these, the eight burials averaged 5.25 grave-goods, compared with an overall female average of 4.76. The six furnished burials all fell in the more lavishly furnished half of all female burials (fig. 4.16). It must be remembered that no ageing information was given for any of the other adult females in this more lavishly furnished group. We cannot tell how many of them fell into the age group below forty years of age. Seven subjects were described as < y o u n g men', though, as with c y o u n g women', it is difficult to know exactly what Meunier meant by the term c young'; it presumably excluded adolescents. Nevertheless, all were ABgraves, five with weapons. They contained an average of almost nine gravegoods, well above the overall male average of 6.2. However, when gender-

124

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ Grave Type A B C D 94 A 8 8 5 5 194 A B . 247 248 166 249 280 243 288 191 355 359 309 329 104 235 102 289 184 176 298

AB. AB. AB.; AB.l AB.: AB. AB.2 AB. AB. AB. AB. AB. AB. AB. AB. AB. AB.: AB.: AB.:

340 255 162

AB.2 AB.2

157 19 155 172 159 208 123b. 297 92 351 179 332 187 122 188 196 253

AB. AB. AB.l AB.

Grave Type 178 AB.l AB.l AB.l LB.2 164 B.2 100 AB.2 B.2 8 B.2 8 8 8

290 360 95

AB.: AB.2 AB.

AB. AB. AB.: AB. AB.

225 97 276 279 304 151 282

6 8

362 89 183 258 167 158 353 356 256 277 182

BC BC BC BC BC BC BC BC BC BC BC

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

9 9 9 9 9 $ 9 9 9 9 9

204 201 307 236 227 223

BC BC BC BC BC BC

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 ? 9 9 9 9

98

BC

9 9

354 330 240 175 205

BC BC BC BC BC

9 9 9 9 9

17

Ax

8 7

105 169 202 237 265 266 267 261

Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx

13 3/' 13

9 9 13 9 13 9 1 9

331 284

252 254

A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Meunier; C = predicted age (see fig. 4.2 for key); D = age according to Meunier (see fig. 4.2 for key).

311 335

BC BC BC BC BC BC BC

Graves from 94 to 205 are arranged in order of the strength of the gender associations of their assemblages, from masculine to feminine.

Fig. 4.14

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches\ phase 2: grave types, and age and sex predictions

specific items only were taken into account, these graves, unlike those of young adult females, did not show a pattern very different from that of adults in general. These analyses supported the hypothesis established at Ennery and backed up to some extent at Chaouilley. Children were rarely buried with genderspecific artefacts, never with weaponry, and with few gender-specific gravegoods in general. Young adults, where identified, were well provided with artefacts and, in the female case, with gender-specific objects in particular. Old people were buried with few grave-goods and were usually artefactually 'neutral'. As at the other cemeteries, adult males were buried with a higher average number of grave-goods (6.2 to 4.76) than adult females, but with a very similar average number of object-types (4.45 to 4.32). As at Ennery, males were more likely than females to keep some gender-specific objects into old age, though they rarely had weapons and were generally badly provided with grave-goods (though better than old women). The grave-goods were almost entirely placed where they would have been worn, with small objects placed in pouches hung from the belt (frequently suspended on chatelaines in the case of women). Pottery was nearly always positioned by the feet or lower legs. There were a few instances of 'Charon's oboP (graves 177, 191 and ?268, to which we may add grave 272, where the 125

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

See fig. 4.2 for key to age group number code. Predicted age Age according to report Scoring system 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 0 1 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 0 4 1, 2 or 3 1 4 4 0 4 5, 6, 7 or 8 0 5 1, 2, 3 or 4 1 5 5 1 5 6 1 5 7 1 5 8 0 6 1, 2, 3 or 4 1 6 5 1 6 6 0 6 7 0 6 8 0 7 1, 2, 3 or 4 1 7 5 0 7 6 1 7 7 0 7 8 0 S 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 or 7 0.5 8 5 1 8 8 1 9 1, 2 or 3 0 9 4, 6 or 7 0.5 9 5 1 9 8 0 12 1, 2, 3 or 4 0.5 12 5 1 12 6 1 12 7 0 12 8 0 13 1, 2 or 3 1 13 4 or 6 0.5 13 5 0 13 7 or 8 16 16 16 Fig. 4.15

126

1, 2, 3, 7 or 8 4 or 6 5

1 0 0.5

Scoring system 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0.5 1 0 0 0 0.5 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0.5 1 1 0 0 0 0.5 0 1 0 0.5

Lavoye (Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: 'points systems' for age predictions

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Total grave-goods

10 11 12 Feminine-specific grave-goods

Feminine-specific artefact-types

H = Adolescent or young adult female. X = No. of grave-goods or artefact-types. Y = No. of graves containing X grave-goods or artefact-types.

Fig. 4.16

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vraches', phase 2: young adult and adolescent female burials

coin was held in the left hand), and a few more where objects were placed by the head (graves 94, 97, 167, 178, 181 and 224). Scramasaxes were sometimes placed point-upwards and more rarely on the deceased's torso, and swords were always placed with the hilt by the upper arm and the point by the thigh or knee. In grave 166, the right arm was crooked around the sword. In the other three sword-burials, the sword was to the left of the corpse. The main sixth-century phase of Lavoye is organized into four groups (fig. 4.17). Group 1 comprised the southern, somewhat rambling group of seventy-two graves. Group 2 contained the central group of ninety-one burials. This group was, apart from a disorderly cluster at its eastern edge, neatly organized into rows. Group 3 contained thirty-one burials in the north of the site. These too were reasonably neatly arrayed in rows. Finally, Group 4 consisted of the four graves to the north of grave 319, identified in the past, plausibly enough, as the family of the cchief' himself. Interestingly, although group 4 was set well away from grave 319, which retained the empty zone around it throughout the cemetery's history, the sixth-century phase seems to have been laid out with respect to group 4 rather than to the ctombe de chef itself. Groups 1, 2 and 3 seem to be arranged so as to leave a zone about twelve metres wide around this group. The other possible special grave of the cemetery's initial phase, grave 241, was the subject of quite the opposite phenomenon, being the centre of the northern half of group 2, with burials clustered around it. The cemetery was organized into distinct rows, the central and northern groups (2 and 3) being particularly neatly arranged. When the division into groups is taken into account, the distribution of adult females (fig. 4.17) begins to reveal a similar pattern to that at Ennery. The bulk of the women 127

SOCIAL O R G A N I Z A T I O N

4 #00

Group 4

Fig. 4.17

• Male.

• Female.

A Artefactually masculine.

Q Artefactually feminine.

Lavoye 'Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: cemetery organization, and distribution of adult males and females

of groups 1 and 2 are buried in the north of their respective groups. Group 3 differs by containing a very large number of men and by being composed largely of unfurnished burials. In this group there are, moreover, no BCgraves (fig. 4.18). This might suggest that these groups correspond to different communities using the cemetery, something backed up by the study of the seventh-century phase (see below). Alternatively, the high number of unfurnished burials, of subjects of all ages and both sexes, in group 3 (this is the part of the site where most of the E.I-graves of adults of unspecified age, and of young adult women, are to be found) might lead us to suspect that this was perhaps an area used during a period of crisis mortality (due to plague, disease, famine or war), when abnormal circumstances did not allow the usual care to be taken over the furnishing of burials. A further possibility is that the people who used this area of the cemetery were, for some reason, excluded from the 'discourse' of the deposition of grave-goods; perhaps, though this is untestable, they were slaves. The identification of prestige graves again required some subtlety. Beginning with male graves, the analyses took the form of counting both artefacttypes and total grave-goods (above, p. 79, for the distinction). Separate tallies were made of the number of gender-specific artefact-types and grave-goods, of the number of 'neutral' artefact-types and grave-goods, and of the total number of artefact-types or grave-goods (fig. 4.19). For the reasons outlined 128

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.18

i\

*B

IC

A Ax

O Bx

A Cx

• AB.I

OX

• E.I

DAB.2

ABC

O E.2

Lavoye (Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: distribution of grave-types

earlier, that they were habitually buried with fewer grave-goods and with only one or two gender-specific artefact-types at most, children and old people were excluded from the analyses. Tests A and B, examining genderspecific grave-furnishings most clearly separated a small group of graves from the rest. Test F was slightly less convincing, and tests C and D still less so. Test E produced no clear group of special burials. The facts that old people are almost certainly underrepresented and that many are therefore doubtless included in the unspecified 'adult' group are cause for caution about the results. If the indications of Ennery and of the known graves of old people at Lavoye are anything to go by, however, these people would have less grave-goods overall and fewer gender-specific artefacts. If such old people could be excluded from the analyses, this would probably make tests C, D and E even less conclusive, whilst not affecting the results of tests A, B and possibly F. The lack of specific ageing information for most adults means that we do not know how many were aged above forty and how many below. Considering the results of the Ennery analyses and the indications at Lavoye, where young adult males were buried with higher numbers of grave-goods and of male-specific items, this is far more serious, meaning that the results of these tests should be used with care. So many graves were found to be separated from the others in more than one test that the six tests produced only nineteen graves in some way 'special', and, of these, fifteen were marked out in two or more tests (fig. 4.20). 129

X = no. of artefacttypes (A, C & E) or grave-goods (B, D & F). Y = no. of graves with X artefacttypes/grave-goods .

0

f

]Vlasculine-specific

1 2

3

4

5 6

'Neutral'

Total

30-

The thin line encloses the area of the graph held to show prestige graves, in some cases defined as the top 10%.

25-

20-

15-

—

10-

5-

0-

Fig. 4.19

fflnr, (

rrnh 10

15

nl: 10

15

Lavoye Le Haie des Vaches\ phase 2: numbers of artefact-types and grave-goods in masculine graves

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

00 0 00

D ooo ODO

oa» ooo

Wo D oo°o

DDDO

Fig. 4.20

D Distinguished in Test A.

• Distinguished in Test D.

A Distinguished in Test B.

• Distinguished in Test E.

4 Distinguished in Test C.

• Distinguished in Test F.

Lavoye (Le Haie des Vaches\ phase 2: distribution of male 'prestige graves'

Some conclusions could be drawn. The lavishly furnished grave 194 stood out in all of the tests. It had the highest number of grave-goods or artefacttypes and by far the most complete set of male-specific artefact-types (nine in all, out of a possible eleven). This burial also lay close to the middle of the sixth-century phase at Lavoye. If, however, any grave lies at the centre of this phase it is grave 191, containing the highest actual number of masculine grave-goods (eleven) and signified as special in four of the six tests. Grave 191 lies in a small group of mainly male burials, four out of six of which are weapon-graves (AB.l), at the north of group 1, clustered around an early grave (grave 189). There is also a zone extending for about four metres to the north, west and north-east of grave 191 which is free from burials. This burial had been clearly marked out from its contemporaries. Other noteworthy burials were spread across the major groups of graves (graves 19, 92, 104, 188, 355 and 359 in group 1; graves 155, 157, 164, 166, 229 and 243 in group 2; grave 289 in group 3). Some of these graves were interesting for other reasons. Grave 243 lies close to the earlier special grave, grave 241, in the centre of the northern half of group 2. Grave 92 was one of the few graves recognized to have been provided with a coffin. Grave 94, its neighbour to the east, also had a coffin and was the only A-grave in this phase of the cemetery. These graves seemed to be distinguished within the southern section of the site. 131

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Returning to group 2, graves 155, 157, 164 and 166 were arranged in a rectangle in the west of the site, perhaps indicating a lost funerary enclosure. It is interesting to note that the graves distinguished from the rest in three or four tests, especially those concerning masculine grave-goods or artefacttypes, lie closer to the centre of the site, in the first part of this phase of the cemetery's use (Perin's phase BCD; Perin 1980:388, fig. 143). Those marked out only by higher numbers of grave-goods and the highest numbers of 'neutral' grave-goods lie further away from the centre and, in four out of five cases in the final phase of the sixth century (Perin's phase DEF; ibid.). This may suggest a change in the means of demonstrating prestige around 600. Performing these analyses on the female graves produced very different patterns (fig. 4.21). Age factors probably distorted the pattern even more than with male graves. The most lavishly furnished burials were not as clearly differentiated from the others as their male counterparts had been. Taking the top 10% in each test produced ten graves more richly furnished than the others in some way. That two of these were 'young women' and another was aged about thirty, that is to say in the age group one would expect to be best supplied with grave-goods, is strong grounds for caution. Nevertheless, some patterns emerged (fig. 4.22). Grave 307 was probably the most remarkable, having the most genderspecific grave-goods and artefact-types (jointly with three other graves), the most 'neutral' artefact-types, and was in the top 10% tests C and D. This grave was the closest sixth-century burial to the 'tombe de chef, grave 319, and the subject seems to have been buried in a sitting posture. The other distinguished burials were distributed across groups 1 and 2, often located by 'special' male graves. Grave 354 lay between male burials 355 and 359. Grave 89 was near the similarly special male grave 92. In group 2, graves 175 and 227 were close to male special graves 194 and 229 respectively, whilst burial 240 lay near to the distinguished male grave 243, on the other side of the early prestige burial, grave 241. The four distinguished male graves at the west of group 2 similarly had their accompanying female burials, graves 158 and 161. As with the male burials, the graves distinguished by their gender-specific grave-goods lay close to the cemetery's core in the earlier phases, while those marked out only in overall numerical terms or by their numbers of 'neutral' grave-goods lay further away in the later phases of the sixth century. Of all these possible special graves, only grave 194 has so far been remarked upon (Young 1986a:74), probably because previous analyses have concentrated only upon the obvious variables and markers - numbers and subjectively defined 'quality' of artefacts, and exceptional grave-size. Grave 191 has gone unnoticed. The last phase of the cemetery's use, between c. 600 and c. 675, comprised 110 graves but only ninety-six were suitable for analysis. Most were spread around the site's edges, but one or two filled in gaps in the sixth-century area (fig. 4.23). In this period, the expected changes occurred. The range of object-types fell from thirty-four to twenty-one, and the number of maleand female-specific artefact-types fell, from eleven to eight and from eight 132

X = no. of artefacttypes (A, C & E) or grave-goods (B, D & F).

Y

15-.

Y

Y = no. of graves with X artefacttypes/grave-goods.

lO-i

10-

5-

0

1 2

3

5-

5-

h

0

4

Feminine-specific

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Total

' Neutral'

The thin line encloses the area of the graph held to show prestige graves, in some cases defined as the top 10%.

Y 15-.

10-

10-

5-

hi 0

Fig. 4.21

1

2

3

4

5 l

6

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

1 01 11 2

x 00

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Lavoye Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: numbers of artefact-types and grave-goods in feminine

8

9

graves

10 11

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

mSoaS£ ^ O D D ' D DIL^ DO

m

rr

]° DC )Of°°

D DOO l6iQQO0^ nn O U

0"TJDQD

0

5

D

D

Q

%

M

D Distinguished in Test A . •

Distinguished in Test B

-4 Distinguished in Test C. • Distinguished iil Test D.

Fig. 4.22

D D

DDDDDDQD D DD

Suggested grouping of prestige graves.

• Distinguished in Test E. • Distinguished in Test F.

HPhase 2 male prestige grave. • Phase 1 prestige grave.

c

Lavoye Le Haie des Vaches', phase 2: distribution of female 'prestige graves'

to four respectively (fig. 4.24). Flint became exclusively, and strongly, masculine, but the knife remained 'neutral'. The plaque-buckle also became a 'neutral' artefact, occurring in graves of all types. Where predictions were felt to be possible, the sex was correctly predicted in all but two cases (grave 216, an Ax-grave thus predicted to be male, was sexed as female; grave 48, a B-grave, was thought to lean towards the feminine end of the scale but was instead a young man; fig. 4.25). However, the increased standardization and higher number of 'neutral' graves meant that predictions were possible in a smaller number of cases (53% as opposed to 60% of sixth-century burials). Predicting age was more difficult (fig. 4.25). In this phase, predictions showed between 58% and 68% accuracy, only slightly lower than for the sixth century, but predictions were rarely accurate to narrow age groups. Usually the only thing which could be predicted was whether or not the deceased had reached adulthood. The general features of the sixth century were still in evidence but the previous age distinctions seemed to have been breaking down. Certainly the grave-goods' striking uniformity means that differentiation between various age groups will have less clear than before. Three-quarters of adult males were AB-graves (half of them were AB.l), the remainder being 'neutral' or unfurnished. This compared with only 57.5% of sixth-century adult males, this increased standardization probably adding to a break-down in age distinctions. Meunier only noted three 'young 134

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.23

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: seventh century

men' (the low number of observations of age in this phase of the cemetery resulted from the fact that the seventh-century phase was excavated before the sixth-century). Two were AB.l-graves but the other was a cneutraP B-grave. As will be remembered, all sixth-century c y o u n g men' had been AB-graves, so this possibly represented a change in practice. A more important change came with adult women. Only four were buried with genderspecific grave-goods, the remainder being 'neutral'. Two of the three observed c y o u n g women' were BC-burials and represented the most lavish female graves in this phase, this tallying with the sixth-century custom. The other was an X-grave. Only three old people were observed; one was an AB.l-grave, one an E-grave and one a B-grave. This did not in itself suggest a real change from the sixth century but, as mentioned, the far higher percentage of adult burials with masculine items intimated that old males were more likely than before to have been buried with such grave-goods. Seven out of nine children's graves were, as in the sixth century, artefactually 'neutral' or unfurnished. The other two were an AB.2-grave and a BC-burial (graves 64 and 70 respectively). A change was represented here by the fact that these two graves were well furnished, particularly the BC-grave (grave 70); they were better provided with grave-goods than the majority of adults. The break-down in the previous age distinctions partly resulted from the end of frequent female burial with feminine grave-goods but also from the 135

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Artefact-type s (for key, see fig. 3.4\) 6 o 9

3 12 2 13 3 9 15 6 5 18 39 I 1 11 25 26 15 II I 31 38 I 13 30 22 18 33 17 I 1 I 12 I I I I 10 14 19 2 3 6 35

3 1 3 2 13 1 1 1 1 1 3 0 2 8 3 7 2 0 4 9 2 3 6 1 I 1 1 1 I

I

EMM

I

I I 1 1 I

1

I I 1 I I B M M ME I

I

U MM M

I I I

I

•

1 III

I 1 I 1 1 1 I 11 1 B MI I 11

| = Artefact-type X is certainly associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.24

Lavoye

Q

Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: artefact associations

composition of the 'neutral' B-, Bx- and E-grave groups. This seems to have been more heterogeneous. Old people and children formed less than one fifth of these groups (nine out of forty-eight graves), though, in the case of the old people, this is possibly a simple function of the reduction in the number of age observations. As mentioned, a key feature of the seventh century was the striking uniformity of the rite. Four object-types - plaque-buckle, knife, grey vase and scramasax - were found in a quarter or more of the burials, the first in over half of the graves of the sample (and in 70.6% of furnished graves). Beltfittings, coins and awls were each found in over twenty graves (over 20% of intact graves, and over a quarter of furnished burials). More than a third of the graves had both plaque-buckle and grey vase. The presence of pottery was one place where Lavoye departed from the expected model. It had been predicted that ceramics would be abandoned in the seventh century. There were further important changes in the seventh century. The subjects of AB-burials were no longer usually buried dressed, but had their gravegoods piled up neatly by their lower legs, with the pot placed by the opposite foot. The subjects of B-graves and female burials were usually, though not

136

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Grave 55 69 73 131 85 65 59 118 48

Type B B B B B B B B B

A o o o o o o o o 9

B C D 9 9 o 9 o o o 9 8

5 9 9 9

8 6

114 62 70 66 21 210

BC BC BC BC BC BC

9 9 9 9 9 9

9 9 o 9 9 o

13 13 13 13 13 13

5 5 2 6 6 ?

8 12 5 8 12 5 8 12 5

60 216

Ax Ax

8 8

9

5 5

5

8 12 5 8 12 5 8 12 5 9 5 3 8 12 5 8 5 5 8 5 8 8 12 5 8 5 5 8 5 6 8 5 5 8 5 5 8 5 5 8 5 5 8 5 5 8 5 6 8 5 '5 8 5 5 8 5 9

141 115 146 85bis 45 78 82 132 134 215

Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx Bx

o o o o o o o o o o

117 50

X X

o o

113 112 111 145 147 149 1 2

E E E E E E E E E E E E

Grave Type 53 A

A 8

B 8

AB.:I AB.:I AB.:I AB. i AB.:I AB. L AB. I AB.:I AB. L AB.:I AB.]L AB.;I AB.;I AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.]L AB.;I AB.]L AB.;I AB.]L ABJL AB.lI AB.lL ABJL AB.lL AB.lL AB.lL AB.l[ AB.l[ ABJ\ ABJ\ AB.:\

8 8 8 8 8 S 6 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

138 139 230 4 160 51 54 186 143 56 214 3 217 58 49 68 47 263 84 44 72 64 281 83 127 24 77 126 135 207 63 74 76 130 75 25 328 67 212 •133 81 41 71 33 42

B B B B B B B B

Fig. 4.25

8 8 8 8 8 8 o 8 o o o

8 8 o 8 8 9 8 o

C 5

D 5

5 5 5 5 5 5 12 5 5 5 12 5 12 5 5 5 12 5 5 5 12 5 5 5 5 5 12 5 12 5

5 5 5 9 5 9 5 ?

5 5 ? 5 5 5 5 3

i 61

46 128 129

9

9

9

9

9 9

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

9 9 8 9 9

o

9 9

o o o o o o o o

9

8 9

9 9 9 9

? 9 9

9

5

9 8

9

5 5

9 9

9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

c* 9

b

o o

9

1 9

9

5 4 9

5 5 5

Grave Type 264 E 269 E 270 E 222 E 231 E 232 E 233 E 234 E 211 E

A o o o o o o o o o

B 9 9

9 ? 8 8 9

8 9

D 5 2 5 2 5 5 2 5 1

C 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Meunier; C = predicted age (see fig 4.2 for key) D = age according to Meunier (see fig. 4.2 for key) •

9 9

5 5 9

? 9 9 9

5 9

5 9 9 9

2 •

8

• = 'Sujetjeune'.

Lavoye (Le Haie des VTaches', phase 3: grave-types, and age and sex predictions

137

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Lou m Group3

0

Group 2

0»o

Hg. 4.26

A Male.

•Female.

A Artefactually masculine.

O Artefactually feminine.

Lavoye (Le Haie des Vaches', phase 3: cemetery and distribution of sexes

organization,

always, buried with their grave-goods in the position in which they would have been worn. There was enough in the data to suggest that burial with arms crossed on the pelvis was slightly more common among AB-graves. The cemetery's organization continued the sixth-century division into three main areas (fig. 4.26). The most important group of burials, group 1, lay to the west and south-west of the sixth-century group 2 and contained seventy-seven graves; group 2 (twelve graves) extended the southern end of the earlier group 1; group 3 (twenty-one graves) filled in a gap between the north of the sixth-century group 2 and the west of the earlier group 3. Whether it was a western extension of the latter or a northern extension of the former is unclear. The large number of unfurnished burials gives it strong similarities with the sixth-century group 3 (fig. 4.27). On the other hand, the position of the most lavishly furnished grave of this group, grave 214, close to the special graves of the earlier group 2, implies the second option. Perin's chronological study (Perin 1980:391,fig.149) also seems to suggest the latter possibility but since he left most of the group undated his analyses cannot clarify the issue completely. With the exception of the northern half of group 1 and perhaps group 3, the seventh-century burials are less clearly arranged into rows than their sixth-century precursors. The groups showed some distinctions from each other. Group 2, besides consisting mainly of adult males, with only two women and no children 138

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.27

Lavoye (Le Haie des Vaches\ phase 3: distribution of grave-types

(fig. 4.26), contained five burials with arms crossed on the pelvis (out of only fifteen such graves observed in this phase). When the lavishness of grave-furnishings was investigated, very different patterns emerged from those of the sixth-century analyses. Tests C, D, E and F, carried out on male burials (fig. 4.28), produced a normal curve; a few graves with no, or few, grave-goods, many with a median number, and a few with more grave-goods or object-types than was usual. Tests A and B, however, revealed a pattern closer to that of the sixth century. The female graves produced results similar to this and to the sixth-century patterns (fig. 4.29), but the fact that the two most lavishly furnished burials were of young adults meant that age may still have played an important part in blurring the issue, and the fact that so few women were buried with feminine artefacts confused things still further. A small number of graves emerged which fell in the top 10% in more than one test. In spite of the usual reservations about this methodology, it seemed reasonable to identify these as in some way special, particularly in view of the fact that some of these graves were grouped in small clusters (fig. 4.30). Graves 83 and 84, side-by-side in the north of group 1, represented one such cluster. They may represent a continuation of the group of later sixth-century special graves located nearby (male graves 155, 157, 164 and 166, and female graves 158 and 161). Further south, graves 51, 54 and 44 form another group. In group 2, grave 139 was one of the burials most 139

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION X = no. of artefacttypes (A, C & E) or grave-goods (B, D & F).

Y

Y 15-

15-

Y = no. of graves with X artefacttypes/grave-goods.

0

1 2

3

0

4

Masculine-specific

Total

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

0

1 2

3

4

5

6

' Neutral'

Y 15

The thin line encloses the area of the graph held to show prestige graves, in some cases defined as the top 10%.

-

1 I 1 I II Fig. 4.28

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: numbers of artefact-types and grave-goods in masculine graves

lavishly furnished overall and also contained a high number of male-specific artefact-types, as did its neighbour, grave 138, though the latter was not distinguished in any other way. The most distinguished grave in group 3, grave 214, lay quite close to the earlier special graves 240, 241 and 243. The two child graves already mentioned, buried with unusually high numbers of artefacts (graves 64 and 70), also deserve attention. These so clearly break the rules that they must be considered as in some way prestigious. Clearly none of these graves compares with the classic 'tombes de chef of the late fifth and earlier sixth centuries, but writers have been wrong to discount the existence of seventh-century special burials for this reason alone (cp. Young 1986a:74). It is a futile exercise to compare seventh-century graves with their late fifth- and sixth-century precursors. Burials were more lavishly furnished throughout in these early periods. If, however, like is compared with like, and only contemporaneous graves are considered, then certain graves do emerge as unusual. Grave 214 contained fourteen grave-goods compared with an overall male average of just under five. Over ten sixthcentury graves contained numbers of grave-goods similar to, or higher than, this, but this was far and away the most lavishly furnished seventh-century male burial and may thus be considered unusual. Similarly, burial with three or more masculine artefact-types was almost commonplace in the sixth cen-

140

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ X = no. of artefacttypes (A, C & E) or grave-goods (B, D & F). Y = no. of graves with X artefacttypes/grave-goods . Y 5-

5-

I 0

1

1

3 4

0

Feminine-specific

Total

1 2

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

7

1 2

3 4

' Neutral'

10-

Y

5-1

5-

0

1

2

3

Fig. 4.29

4

5

n

_n

0

1

2

3

4

Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches', phase 3: numbers of artefact-types and grave-goods in feminine graves

tury (over one quarter of sixth-century male burials). In the seventh century, however, only six males (one in eight) took three or four male-specific object-types to their graves, and so deserve to be thought of as in some way distinguished from their contemporaries. As at Ennery there were, overall, significantly fewer women than men (figs. 4.17 and 4.26). In the sixth century only fifty-one out of 181 graves could be sexed as female, and in the seventh-century phase a mere eighteen out of ninety-six were artefactually or anthropologically feminine. The seventh-century phase at Lavoye was substantially smaller than the sixth-century. This may well result from communities which had hitherto used this central cemetery creating their own grave-yard nearer their settlement and ceasing to bury their dead at Lavoye. The fact that only one large seventh-century group of burials exists, as compared with two or three sixthcentury groups, lends support to this notion. This is also suggested by the fact that the numbers of children buried in the cemetery fell from just under 20% of the total (thirty-six out of 181) in the sixth century to under 10% (nine out of ninety-six) in the seventh. This permits the suspicion that mainly adult males were being brought from some communities for burial in the old cemetery, and that other elements of the population were now being interred elsewhere. This idea is also supported by the fact, discussed below

141

5

6

_• 7

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

D Distinguished in Test A. • Distinguished in Test B. 4 Distinguished in Test C. • Distinguished in Test D.

ODD

go

• Distinguished in Test F.

^^~h

••

00 • Prestige grave of phase 1 or 2.

M

j Suggested edge of group of prestige graves.

Fig. 4.30 Lavoye cLe Haie des Vaches\ phase 3: distribution of 'prestige graves3

(ch.5), that seventh-century cemeteries are more numerous than sixthcentury, and suggest a settlement-to-cemetery ratio closer to 1:1. The results of the analyses at Lavoye provided confirmation of the general points of the model proposed from the data from the diocese of Metz.

Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence* (fig. 4.31) One of several cemeteries in the commune of Dieue-sur-Meuse, and one of two excavated in the late sixties and early seventies (Guillaume 1974-5; the other, Thumelou', is not discussed here), 'La Potence' also presented the possibility of testing this model since it too was used in the sixth and seventh centuries. Located less than 100m south of the modern village, the cemetery was known in the nineteenth century and a grave was reported by G. Chenet in 1941. Chenet dated this to the fourth century because of the Argonne ware vessels it contained. The comb and bone amulet accompanying these give rise to the suspicion that, given the unusual frequency of such objects on this site, the grave could have been Merovingian. In 1968, A. Janot reported the discovery of several graves during surface survey, which were destroyed the same evening, probably by local children. 142

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.31 Dieue-sur-Meuse (La Potence3: site-plan. The published plans of this site (Guillaume 1974-5:216 fig. 4; Gallia 1970:288; Perin 1980:272 fig. 84) are confusing and contradictory. This plan (after Guillaume et al. 1988:79 and Perin 1980:272 fig. 84) attempts to resolve some of the problems whilst drawing attention to the difficulties involved in studying this site

Though Guillaume states that a rescue excavation was necessary, it is difficult to see what threat the site was under. The digging up of the site on a large scale by local children cannot seriously be envisaged! Excavation nevertheless proceeded, under the direction of Guillaume and Janot for the first fifty-five graves, and of Janot alone for graves 56 to 186. The excavators noted the graves' dimensions and, usually, the positioning of artefacts and skeleton. No physical anthropological notes were made (though the bones evidently survived reasonably well), apart from the obvious distinction between child and adult. The site's late Roman origin was confirmed but much of the site had been damaged by reuse and violation of graves, as well as by agriculture. The edges of the site appear to have been located. 143

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

The publication of the site (Guillaume 1974-5) leaves much to be desired and these shortfalls cannot be put down to having to excavate in 'rescue' conditions. The site-plan (ibid., fig. 4) is too small; many graves are not numbered whilst some have the same numbers as others. This poses serious problems, which have not always been able to be resolved. The illustration of finds is excellent but there are only a few grave-plans and no detailed account of the Ottonian settlement which overlay part of the cemetery. This bias reflects the artefact-based, descriptive archaeology, obsessed with chronology which Merovingian archaeology was in the seventies and still is today. The phasing of the site is based upon Guillaume's work and Perin's more detailed study (Perin 1980). Only fifty sixth-century graves (fig. 4.32) were suitable for analysis (only forty-five contained more than one artefact-type). Dieue-sur-Meuse proved to be unusual in several ways. Unlike all the other sites examined, there were more feminine artefact-types than masculine: nine feminine to five masculine (fig. 4.33). Consequently, among intact burials, there were three times as many BC-graves as AB-burials (figs. 4.34 and 4.35). This was compensated for by the fact that many more of the disturbed graves were artefactually masculine. The high frequency of disturbance of male graves may also account for the unusually low number of male genderspecific items.

Fig. 4.32

144

Dieue-sur-Meuse

c

La Potence\ phase 1: sixth century

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Artefact-types (for key, see fig. 3.4) 1 3 1 2 2 2 13 3 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 9 6 7 13 0 5 9 3 2 0 7 3 0 2 8 4 6 2 3 6 5 1 5 5 29 26 27 11 33 • 30 25 19 23 12 20 17 13 10 22 18 4 6 2 3 16 35 1 5 15

• I • • • • I •

•

•

• • • • •

•

• •

• I

•

• •

• I • •

• • • n

•

I

II• •

I I I

•

•

| = Artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.33 Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence', phase 1: artefact associations

The composition of the groups did not differ greatly from that on the other sites (fig. 4.33). Weapons, plaque-buckles, flints and purse-fasteners were masculine; items of jewellery and chatelaines were feminine. Shears, however, were feminine at Dieue. The disturbed graves seemed to suggest that, as elsewhere, tweezers were a masculine object. In the 'neutral' group were knives, belt-fittings, bronze and iron buckles, ceramics and glassware, coins, combs, bronze needles and awls. As elsewhere, knives, awls, and beltfittings gravitated towards the masculine side. One reason for the preponderance of feminine burials was the fact that children were frequently considered to be feminine. This seems to be a similar practice to that noted at Bouzonville, Chaouilley and Lavoye. Twelve out of seventeen intact child-burials were artefactually feminine (40% of all BC-graves). As a result, necklaces and bronze rings, which frequently accompanied children, were almost 'neutral'. As at the other sites, the only female-specific artefact-type in four child BC-graves was a necklace. The child BC-burials contained an average of 1.9 feminine object-types, compared with 2.68 for adult BC-graves. This reflected usual practice. The average number of artefact-types placed in child graves was 3.05, slightly higher than at Lavoye, Chaouilley and Ennery. There also seemed to be a slight increase in the numbers of grave-goods placed with children as the length of their graves increased, with two of the three most lavishly furnished child 145

Artefact-types (see fig. 3.4 for key)

Grave 2 2 2 9 6 7

105 128 161 129 144

i

13 3 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 13 0 5 9 3 2 0 7 3 0 2 8

1

1 3 4 6 2 3 6 5 1 5 5

Gravetype

Age

AB.l

Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad.

AB.2

Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad.

• •••••

155 103 69 119 126 133

Ad. Ad. Ad. Ch. Ch. Ch.

172 96 71 81 162 131 176 175 113 89 147 127 146 142 114 171 156 91 165 169 166 141 66 164 84 143 167 168

Ad. Ad. Ad. ?Ch Ch. Ch. Ch. Ch. Ch. Ad. Ad. Ch. Ad. Ad. Ch. Ad. Ad. Ch. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ad. Ch. Ad. Ch. Ad. Ch. Ad.

BC

III

I

118 95 Fig. 4.34

146

••:•

•i

Ad. Ad.

Dieue-sur-Meuse cLa Potence\ phase 1: grave seriation, and age and sex predictions

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Fig. 4.35 Dieue-sur-Meuse grave-types

c

La Potence\

phase

1: distribution

of

graves being 1.6m long (apart from grave 132, which was 1.8m long, 1.6m was the longest recorded child burial). Three child burials between 1.0 and 1.2m long contained an average of 2.0 object-types; seven graves between 1.3 and 1.5m long contained an average of 3.57 types, and six graves 1.6m or more in length contained 3.8 artefact-types on average. Numbers of femalespecific artefact-types rose similarly. This might suggest that, as puberty was reached, female children came of age and began to receive more 'adult' numbers and types of grave-goods. Too much weight should not be attached to this, however, as the evidence is very insecure. No testing of grave-goods against age was possible but, judging from grave-dimensions, all AB-graves were of adults, as before. Of the children not classed as BC-graves, three were 'neutral' B-graves, one was a 'neutral3 Bx-burial and the other an unfurnished E.2-grave. As would have been expected, there was no child AB-burial. The men of Dieue-sur-Meuse, like those of Ennery, Chaouilley and Lavoye, were buried with more object-types on average than the women (6 to 4.1), although because of the lack of physical anthropology, only AB-, BC- and C-graves were compared. As at all of the other cemeteries exam-

147

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

ined, these figures were substantially higher than the average number of object-types buried with children. Interestingly, the dimensions of the grave corresponded in some ways to the artefact-types (fig. 4.36). The adult graves were arranged in the same order as in the seriation shown in figure 4.34, but E.I-graves were inserted into this seriation next to the B-graves (since E-graves are similarly artefactually 'neutral'). Then the size of the grave was plotted as a bar against this. Comparing the results with the pattern expected if large graves corresponded with strongly gender-specific artefact assemblages showed that the former followed the latter in some ways. B- and E-graves were generally smaller than AB- and BC-burials and the most strongly masculine grave (grave 115) was also that which required the greatest effort in its construction, necessitating the removal of almost six cubic metres of earth. Three of the six largest burials were amongst the five most feminine adult graves, and another two were also BC- or AB-graves. But the pattern was by no means straightforward and there were many discrepancies. No link between the overall number of artefact-types and grave-dimensions was revealed (fig. 4.37). This underlined one of the results of Lavoye analyses; as a variable which should be analysed, the number of gender-specific grave-goods was independent of the total number of grave-goods. Because of widespread damage and robbing, the sample of intact burials formed less than half of the sixth-century graves at Dieue. Analyses such as were performed at Lavoye, aimed at finding prestige burials, could not therefore be significant, especially given that some clearly quite lavishly furnished

General pattern expected if grave-size corresponded directly with the strength of the gender-related message of the grave-goods assemblage.

Grave The sample comprised all intact burials. These were arranged in a series from the most strongly masculine to the most strongly feminine, as in fig. 4.34. E-graves, as 'neutral' burials, were inserted into the series after the B-graves.

Fig. 4.36

148

Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence\ phase 1: comparison of grave-size and gender-specific grave-goods

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Sample = all intact adult graves.

3 a2 §2 « 3 a Ss 3 2 a 2 *S 5 2 S I S I 2 2 S § E 5 ^ s ® S

D

Grave Size of grave.

No. of artefact-types.

Fig. 4.37 Dieue-sur-Meuse cLa Potence\ phase 1: comparison of grave-size and number of artefact-types

graves had been robbed. It must be pointed out, however, that grave 143 appears to be the focus of the sixth-century phase of occupation. Like Lavoye 319, it had a large empty zone around it; unlike Lavoye 319 it was a woman's grave. It also lay quite centrally within the cemetery. Child grave 84 was very unusual. It was only 1.3m long and thus presumably that of a small child. It contained, however, eight object-types, five of them femalespecific. Not only was this the most lavishly furnished child burial, it also went strongly against what appeared to be the custom at Dieue, where children received an average of only just over three artefact-types and just over one female-specific item. Furthermore, as suggested, there was enough in the data to propose that younger children were usually buried with even less object-types. Beyond that, it is difficult to find any grave which might be that of someone with prestige or privilege. The sixth-century phase at Dieue-sur-Meuse underlines particularly strongly James' dictum that the individual cemetery is the largest possible unit for social analysis: 'regional and even local differences must surely make any attempt at an overall theory a fruitless task' (James 1979:78). Apart from peculiarities in the choice of artefact, the preponderance of combs for example, we have noted the abnormal lavishness of children's burials and the unusually high frequency with which children were buried as females. The attention given to the burials of women is also atypical. Jewellery was more varied even than among the larger sample at Lavoye, leading to an unusually high number of female-specific items. As was noted, the adult burial most likely to represent the high-prestige focus of the cemetery is that of a woman. On the other hand, more general rules still apply. Children were still buried with less artefact-types than adults, and women with less than men. No children were buried with weapons and adult females took more female-specific objects to their graves than artefactually feminine children. The site data hinted that, as elsewhere, females could be buried with 149

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Fig. 4.38

Dieue-sur-Meuse

c

La Potence\ phase 2: seventh century

larger numbers of artefacts, including female-specific ones, from about puberty onwards. Although it contained only thirty-three burials suitable for analysis, the seventh-century phase (fig. 4.38) corresponded to the expected pattern. The choice of artefacts was reduced dramatically from twenty-five artefact-types to thirteen. No items of jewellery occurred in more than one grave, and only two burials had any such items, one containing a ring, the other a possible necklace. As in the sixth-century phase, the comb was a popular item, but this was now superseded by grey pottery as the most common item, again going against the pattern suggested in the diocese of Metz, where the burial of pottery was uncommon in the seventh century. More importantly, there was no clear patterning in the gender-related artefact associations. This break-down in the significance of grave-goods in the seventh century supported the hypothesis proposed from the data from the diocese of Metz.

150

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Audun-le-Tiche cBois de Butte' (fig. 4.39) Like Dieue-sur-Meuse, the seventh-century cemetery at Audun-le-Tiche had been known for many years before systematic excavation began (above all Simmer 1988). This lasted for a few weeks each year between 1970 and 1984, Alain Simmer taking over sole direction in 1979. The excavations were of uneven quality, for which Simmer cannot be blamed, but usually recovered information on grave lay-out and skeletal position, and the integrity of the grave contexts seems to have been assessed fairly well. However, the fact that the few simple trench graves have no given dimensions leads one to wonder whether the edges of the feature could be recognized where the grave was not stone-lined. The site was, like Dieue, much damaged by violation and reuse. The cemetery was very fully published, and Simmer deserves high praise for the regular appearance of interim reports in Gallia and Archeologie Medievale, occasional more detailed accounts (including full inventories) in ASHAL and Cahiers Lorrains, and studies of individual features of the site (cp. Simmer 1982; 1983). This is an example which could be followed more

©*%* bO

% A

N 10 M I = Sarcophagus

Fig. 4.39 Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte3: site-plan (after Guillaume et al 1988:69 and Simmer 1988:158-9). Graves a-f were discovered before 1968

151

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

often in Lorraine. Only the excavations at Chatel-Saint-Germain1 have reached a similar level of interim publication. The final report (Simmer 1988) gives all the information recorded. The physical anthropological report has, at the time of writing, not yet appeared, apparently much to Simmer's annoyance; some information is given in the site-report. Plans of the graves and of any surviving features are given, albeit in much reduced scale, on the general site-plan. The quality of illustrations is poor, though clear enough, and no detailed recording is given for the Roman fana. Furthermore, only twelve grave-plans are given: those which Simmer considered to be interesting. This is something of a drawback. Simmer makes more detailed attempts to extract information on society than is common in such reports, and deserves credit for doing so, although, as outlined here, his analyses are highly flawed. Extensive violation, reuse and disturbance reduced the 200 excavated graves to fifty-four definitely intact graves with grave-goods, and of these only thirtyone had more than one artefact-type. A further fifteen graves had been disturbed but one burial may have been left intact. This group of graves (designated 'D?') was excluded from analyses of artefact associations but examined when looking at other aspects of the site. A range of only twentythree artefact-types (more or less standard for a seventh-century site though, as expected, less than is typical on a sixth-century cemetery) revealed seven exclusively masculine artefact-types and eight feminine (fig. 4.40). Again, the weaponry/jewellery:male/female contrast was apparent. Once more, male artefacts also included flints, strike-a-lights and awls. As well as jewellery, iron buckles appeared to be female oriented, and bronze buckles and the few grey ceramics also gravitated strongly to the feminine end of the scale. Knives and plaque-buckles, as elsewhere in the seventh century, were decidedly 'neutral'. As at Ennery, Chaouilley and Lavoye, shears showed a strong masculine bias, with three out of four examples being found in male graves. Though placed at the female end of the 'neutral' group, physical anthropology showed that bronze buckles were only found in female graves. This would make flints 'neutral' (because one grave, sexed anthropologically as female, contained flint and bronze buckle), and thus make a total of nine feminine object-types and six masculine. Perhaps the fact that the burial with both types (grave 171) was apparently of an old person supports the idea that gender divisions broke down at old age; there are no other possibly gender-specific artefact-types in the grave to help us decide whether or not the physical anthropology was incorrect, or whether flint genuinely was a 'neutral' object-type. Though there are female graves with flints on the other sites examined, flints are very strongly masculine items, especially in the seventh-century phase at Lavoye, possibly the best analogy for Audun. Some artefactual peculiarities were noted. Pitch-forks were found in three male graves, in every case associated with a scramasax and a knife. These are 1

Arch. Med. 1982:369; 1983:263-4; 1984:315-16; 1985:234-5; 1986:182-3; 1987:266-7; 1988:317-18; 1990: 434-5; 1991:383-4; CAHCG 1978; 1980; 1982; 1989; DAHL 'Rapport administratif' 1987; Gallia 1984: 344-6; 1986:292-3; Guillaume et al. 1988:74-5; Guillaume, Lefebvre & Wieczorek 1989; Lefebvre & Pargny 1981.

152

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

Artefact-types (for key, see fig. 3.4) o

9

.•I | = Artefact-type X is associated with artefact-type Y in one or more intact graves containing two or more artefact-types. Fig. 4.40 Audun-le-Tiche

'Bois de Butte': artefact associations

surely substitute spears; the positioning within the grave was as would be expected for a spear. As predicted from the data of the civitas of Metz, pottery was extremely rare. Excluding probably residual sherds of GalloRoman wares, ceramics only occurred in seven burials, in a particular area of the site. As well as the reduction in grave-goods, the seventh century is, as at Lavoye, characterized by standardization. Knives were found in twenty-five intact graves (46% of intact graves), and in a further seven D?-graves (retaining more or less the same overall percentage). Plaque-buckles and beltfittings were each discovered in twenty intact burials (37%). Ten intact graves (18.5%) contained all three of these types. Scramasaxes were found in twelve intact burials, sixteen if D?-graves are included, making 22-3% of graves in the sample and between 85 and 92% of intact adult male burials (though many 'neutral' burials were unsexed). This standardization, as at Lavoye, would have serious repercussions in predicting the deceased's age. The sex of the deceased was accurately predicted in every case except one (as noted above) but, as at Lavoye and Dieue-sur-Meuse, the higher numbers 153

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

of 'neutral5 burials (twenty-two graves, or 47% of all definitely intact burials) reduced the number of possible predictions (figs. 4.41-2). Examination of age brought further problems. As mentioned, at the time of writing, we still await the physical anthropological report. Age predictions from artefacts were shown to be only 40% accurate (fig. 4.41), the lowest accuracy on any of the sites examined except for the seventh-century phase at Dieue, where the almost random-looking nature of the custom prevented any predictions. Of nine intact child burials, four were artefactually 'neutral' B- or Bx-graves. Four of the others were artefactually feminine Cx- and BC-

Grave

o

Artefac t-types (for key, se<ef ig. 3.4) o

9

A B C

D

2 3 2 13 l 1 2 3 3 1 1 1 13 1 1 5 4 6 9 1 l 5 2 0 3 7 3 8 2 6 0 5 4 3 2 4 6 106 69 43 198 72 178 103a 148 145 168 92 103b 31 86 171

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1

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6 9

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156 75

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A = predicted sex; B = sex according to Simmer; C = predicted age (see fig. 4.2 for key); D = age according to Simmer (see fig. 4.2 for key). Fig. 4.41 Audun-le-Tiche

154

c

Bois de Butte': grave seriation

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

1 • • •

A

OBx

0D

Ax

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AB.l

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o E.2

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E.I

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1

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N 10 M Sarcophagus

/7g. 4.42 Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte3: distribution of grave-types

graves, but the other was an AB-grave. The latter grave (168) was, like many other child graves, accompanied only by ceramics, one red and one grey vessel. However, at Audun, the only other item of red pottery was found in the strongly masculine grave 145, making it a masculine artefact type. The average number of artefact-types buried with children was 2.2. On the whole, the burials of children were not untypical, though the high percentage of artefactually feminine graves was reminiscent of Dieue. There were three burials of adolescent males (graves 103a and 103b, and 178) as well as one which, from the length of the body, may have been of similar age (grave 198). All were AB.l-graves, representing a radical difference from usual practice, and may suggest that males came of age at Audunle-Tiche earlier than they did at other, sixth-century sites, such as Ennery, or that weaponry was losing some of its symbolic significance, and coming to signify 'male' rather than 'adult male'. Another possibility, examined below, is that these graves are of people from families of local prestige, and thus deliberately contradict the norms. Including grave 198, adolescent male graves contained an average of 6.25 artefact-types. Two graves were said to be of young adult males (graves 145 and 148). Both were AB.l-graves, containing an average of 8.5 artefact-types. This high tally may result from the fact that these graves were found in what

155

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

appeared to be a high-prestige area of the site. The other adult male burials, of unspecified age, were all AB.l-graves, containing an average of five artefact-types each. There were, in Simmer's publication, no recorded adolescent women. There was, however, one young adult and one pregnant woman (graves 160 and 88 respectively). These were, as expected, both BC-graves, and contained 4.5 object-types on average. The nine adult female burials of unspecified age were made up of one C-grave, two BC-burials, four Cx-graves and two Bx-graves. These contained an average of only 1.66 artefact-types. The graves of old women were startlingly different (no old men were reported). Five were recorded (graves 147,150,156,171 and 182). Of these at least three (graves 147, 150 and 182) were BC-graves, and lavishly furnished too, averaging no less than 8.66 artefact-types each. The other two were, if bronze buckles were 'neutral5 (see above) a B-grave and an AB.2-burial, but if the bronze buckle was feminine then they were both BC-graves. Overall these burials contained 6.4 object-types on average. Clearly this pattern was very different from that at Ennery, Chaouilley and Lavoye, and is difficult to interpret. It is possible that a different system was in operation at Audun, which venerated old women, or that, as has been suggested elsewhere, the age/gender significance of gravegoods had collapsed, leaving a much more straightforward correlation between numbers of grave-goods and wealth. In connection with the latter alternative, we must look at the location of the three more lavish burials of old women. Graves 147, 150 and 182 all lie in a confined area of the site, around the Gallo-Roman fana which appear to form the focus of the site (fig. 4.39); indeed grave 147 is the only definitely Merovingian burial to lie inside one of these buildings (grave 164 seems to be Roman). These graves, especially grave 147, are all also quite large. It seems reasonable to suppose that they represent members of a family of some local prestige. Overall, Audun-le-Tiche presents some similarities with the other cemeteries analysed. Men received more attention in their burials than women, and children took fewer grave-goods to their final resting place than adults. On the other hand, there were striking dissimilarities. The attention lavished upon certain old women and adolescent males has been mentioned, but can perhaps be accounted for. The uniformity of the weapon-burial rite for males of teen-age onwards is reminiscent of the similar phenomenon at seventhcentury Lavoye. It is difficult to see how Simmer (1988:135) arrived at the conclusion that the scramasax was a symbol of high social rank. This suggests a reduction in the specific symbolism of funerary artefacts. Again, as at other seventh-century sites (Lavoye above all) the burial practice at Audun-leTiche is characterized by uniformity across the community. Another variable to be analysed was that of grave-shape and size. There did not appear to be very significant changes in the shape of graves across the site (judging from the overall site-plan, the only representation of this; ibid.:158-9). Unfortunately, Simmer did not record the dimensions of simple trench graves, of which there were only two among the intact burials. Nevertheless, as at Dieue-sur-Meuse, some relationship was suggested between grave-size and the extent to which the deceased was interred with gender156

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

specific objects (fig. 4.43). Out of ten intact graves requiring the removal of over one cubic metre of earth (the Audun graves were very shallow on the whole), eight (or nine, if the bronze buckle is a feminine artefact-type) were AB- or BC-burials. Analysis also revealed an overall decrease in the size of the grave as the grave-goods became fewer (as above, only adult burials were considered; fig. 4.44). The relationship was not straightforward, however, and sufficient anomalies occurred for the size of the grave to be retained as a variable independent of the grave-goods. Grave 167, for example, was the ninth largest intact grave, yet contained only one artefact. Perhaps prestige in the community could be demonstrated in the expenditure of labour upon the construction of the burial, where lavish grave-goods were not appropriate. In this connection, it is interesting to note that more children were buried in sarcophagi than adults, whilst, as has been outlined, the interment of children rarely involved much expenditure in terms of grave-goods. When looking for prestige burials, numerical analyses of the type performed at Ennery and Lavoye are not possible for the same reasons as at Dieue-sur-Meuse; even including the D?-graves, only one third of graves (and a quarter of all burials) were intact. Nonetheless, some clear points emerged. The cemetery was divided into two halves, separated by the 'Chemin des Cerceuils' (fig. 4.45). Although this is a modern intrusion, the cemetery plan suggests a genuine absence, or at least a thinning-out, of burials between the two zones. Area 1, in the south-west of the cemetery, lay around the fana (Simmer's zones IV and V; ibid.:15$-9). Area 2 comprises Simmer's zones I, II and III (ibid.), in the north-east of the cemetery. The graves with 2 or more artefact-types were arranged into a series as in fig. 4.41, from the most strongly masculine to the most strongly feminine. As ' neutral' burials, the seven E.I graves were inserted into the series after the B-graves. Sample = all intact adult graves. 1.6 1.5

-if General pattern expected if grave-size corresponded directly with the strength of the gender-related message of the grave-goods assemblage.

fi

-

-

0.5

AB

B

E.I

J BC

-

C

Grave l

Fig. 4.43 Audun-le-Tiche Bois de Butte3: comparison of grave-size and gender-specific grave-goods

157

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION Sample = all intact adult graves.

10

145 147 198 150 69 178 182 103b 148160 03a 72'43 31 106 86 11 159 156 171 92 88 12 Grave 20 I

| = No. of grave-goods 1 1 = No. of artefact-types [ ( Y 3X1S A )m Q = Size of the grave in M3 (Y-axis 'B')

10

0

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'137' 18 70 10 1771 71 195'l67 87 17 63 53'73 '1491 8 123 16 27'33'19\Tri7i 136 Grave

Fig. 4.44 Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte3: comparison of grave-size, gravegoods and artefact-types

The intact graves of area 2 were more uniformly and less lavishly furnished than those of area 1, which still showed a certain uniformity. This may be related to chronology. Simmer {ibid.: 111) suggests plausibly that the cemetery began around the fana and then spread to the east. However, as he notes (ibid.), and as becomes clear from study of the report, the establishment of chronology at Audun is difficult and at times idiosyncratic with, for example, dates assigned to unfurnished burials. Nevertheless, Simmer's cautious suggestion supports the hypothesis proposed here, of progressive reduction and standardization of grave-goods through the seventh century. Area l's assemblages resemble those of a sixth-century cemetery far more closely than those of area 2. The graves around the fana deserve closer attention. They include a number of very well-furnished graves: to the west, graves 145, 147 (in the northern fanum itself), 148 and 150 (these graves average 8.75 artefact-types each), and, to the east, graves 178 and 192 (averaging 8.0 each). The graves to the west are, as mentioned, frequently of very large dimensions; grave 160 is the largest intact grave on the site, grave 145 the second largest, grave 147 the fourth largest and grave 150 the fifth. This should be seen as showing a greater effort expended on their construction, rather than that they were intended to be double graves, which is Simmer's (1983:171) strictly functional interpretation. These two groups also include graves which breach the usual funerary customs, of the sixth century at least: the three lavishly furnished graves of old women containing numerous female-specific objects

158

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

\ \

\

D

XhemindesCerceuils' \ \ \

M C3= Sarcophagus — = Stone wall H = Prestige grave

Hg. 4.45 Audun-le-Tiche tige graves

c

Bois de Buttey: cemetery organization, and pres-

(graves 147, 150 and 182), and two of the four lavishly furnished weaponburials of adolescent males (graves 178 and 198). If Simmer's chronology is accurate, we can perhaps see some of these lavish burials (especially grave 147, the most obvious prestige burial) as those of the founders of the cemetery (fig. 4.45). In area 2, the most obviously prestigious burial is grave 103, the double burial. This contained two adolescent males, with linked arms as in the Ennery double grave, but with the heads removed, apparently after death and before burial (Simmer 1982). In addition to this obvious distinction in rite, the graves were surrounded by a small wall. It is interesting to note in area 2 how common are these walls around graves or small groups of graves. Besides that surrounding grave 103 and its neighbour, grave 104, there are similar enclosures around graves 42 and 43, graves 109, 110 and 116, around grave 113 and around grave 31. Similar walls separate grave 17 from grave 15, and 93 from 102. Also in this sector was found the justly famous small cross, which seems to have stood in an empty zone between graves 33, 39 and 41 (Simmer 1988:132). Fragments of Gallo-Roman sculpture, apparently reused as grave-markers are more common in this zone (ibid.:\7, 19), as are stone sarcophagi and intact stone coverings for tombs. These features seem

159

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

to suggest that in this, probably later, part of the cemetery, other factors than the deposition of grave-goods could be of importance in the demonstration of family status. Audun is renowned for being a somewhat unusual site, and the features which give it this reputation deserve comment. First we must consider the deposition, in graves or in their fills, of nails, pot-sherds, animal bones and ashes. The nails seem (pace Simmer 1988:103) to represent wooden funerary structures, although only three graves (in area 1) revealed traces of wood. Many seem to represent wooden coverings of stone-lined graves, which have later collapsed into the burial, leading to the sometimes bizarre location of the nails within the burial (in a pot, for example, in grave 157). These graves do not have stone coverings, and grave 103, as Simmer (ibid.:53) states, did indeed suggest a wooden covering supported by two flagstones. Simmer's suggestion (ibid.:103) that there was a ritual of throwing nails into burials for phylacteric purposes is surely not to be taken seriously. The presence of numerous Gallo-Roman pot-sherds is interpreted by Simmer (ibid.:145) as another funerary ritual, with the community wandering the ruins of the nearby Roman settlement, collecting pot-sherds to throw into graves. The fact that these graves cut into an area very close to zones of Roman occupation does not appear to have occurred to Simmer as a reason for the presence of small pieces of Roman pottery. The notion of residuality is notable in Merovingian archaeology by its absence. Like the animal bones, shells and ashes, the pot-sherds do not show any pattern of association with graves of any particular area, age, gender or type (fig. 4.46). Animal bones and ashes can perhaps be seen plausibly as the results of funerary feasts around the graves, though, for the bones, residuality cannot be ruled out. In two of the four intact graves with animal bones, ashes were also located. Another feature which should be mentioned here is the pit ('grave' 181). This, as Simmer (ibid.:8) states, seems to be Roman. It contains several Roman coins, fragments of Roman tile and pottery, and a Roman knife. It also contains animal bones which Simmer says are to be seen as the remains of a meal. However, as Simmer also says, the construction of the pit is identical to that of the Merovingian graves, and Roman coins, pottery and tile fragments are, of course, found in Merovingian burials too. Only the knife really allows us to doubt that this is another refuse-pit associated with funerary feasting, as at Ennery and elsewhere. A more satisfactory publication of the data, especially stratigraphic relationships, would have been desirable. Snail shells show no clear patterns of association, but, as has been made clear from Salin's day onwards, and is underlined strongly in Simmer's report (ibid.:139ff) these cannot result from chance. Snails of the types represented are aquatic. They also show signs of deliberate placing in the burial. Similar shells are found on many other sites throughout the region, and the conclusion cannot be avoided that we are in the presence of a funerary ritual, of which the meaning will probably always remain unknown. We now turn to the question of mutilation of the body. We must remain dubious of many of Simmer's supposed mutilations, proposed simply from the absence of bones, but some seem incontestable. As noted, the subjects 160

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

g Ashes.

• Shells.

• Pot-sherds.

T Nails.

M = Sarcophagus

i*ig. 4.46 Audun-le-Tiche 'Bois de Butte': distribution of nails, pot-sherds, animal bones, shells and ashes

of grave 103 were headless, and there were a number of other burials like this on the site (intact graves 8, 10 and 11, the latter only mentioned at Simmer 1988:149; several other disturbed graves without skulls should be discounted). The case of grave 103 shows that bodies without skulls could still be interred with numerous grave-goods. Grave 11 also has grave-goods, but graves 8 and 10 are E-burials. Other 'rites of immobilization' are noted, such as the nailing of skulls (graves 48 and 120), face-down burial (grave 19 is the only certain case) and immobilization by weighing down the body with stones. Many cases of the latter should be viewed with extreme caution, since they are either disturbed or the stones could originally have been placed on top of a wooden covering which subsequently collapsed. Two cases seem genuine, however (graves 123 and 160). Grave 123 is an E-grave but grave 160, where the deceased had a veritable wall constructed across the upper half of her torso, was not only lavishly furnished but was, as mentioned, the largest intact grave on the site (the wall could, therefore, have simply been intended to support a wooden covering). The other immobilized burials were all D-graves with the exception of grave 19, which was an E-grave. Thus though several of the graves showing clearly deviant rites were unfurnished, there was no correlation between abnormal burial and interment without grave-goods. The two must therefore remain independent variables, 161

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

probably demonstrating different facets of social status. Perhaps the former is to be seen as a manifestation of the individual's status, and the latter as a demonstration of that of his or her family. Something should be said about Simmer's religious interpretation of the site (Simmer 1988:130ff) and its funerary practices. He argues that the northeastern part of area 2 was reserved for Christians because of the presence of many sarcophagi there, the existence of the stone cross, and so on. The flaws of the 'religious' argument, especially that drawn from sarcophagi, will be discussed in chapter 8. The remainder of the argument mistakes the change from short-term, transient displays of status (in the form of grave-goods) to long-term, more permanent displays (in the form of aboveground burial markers) to wider audiences. This is surely related to social changes, which will be discussed further below.

Postscript: Royaumeix/Menil-la-Tour 'Fond de VEnfer' The cemetery at Royaumeix/Menil-la-Tour (Meurthe-et-Moselle), excavated in the 1940s and 60s, has recently been published (Lieger & Marguet 1992). This report appeared as this book was nearing completion, and so it was not possible to analyse the site in detail. The data are not of especially high quality. No real anthropological observations were made and the integrity of the grave was not noted systematically. The site's excavated section was largely seventh century in date, though a few late sixth-century burials were located, showing that an earlier phase had been destroyed. The data support the hypotheses established above. The seventh-century grave-goods are very standardized (plaque-buckles, knives). The handful of csujets ages' are largely 'neutral' and not well furnished, and the same seems to be true of the children.

A descriptive model At this stage we can propose a modified descriptive model thus: 1. Sixth-century grave-goods were clearly divided into those with masculine, feminine and 'neuter' associations. 2. Grave-goods in the sixth century are also commonly associated with age-groups so that: (a) Children were usually 'neutral' in artefactual terms, though on some sites they were seen as female. (b) Weaponry was almost always associated with adult males. Exceptions to this rule are noteworthy. The bulk of the weapon-bearing group may have been young men. (c) There seems to have been a distinction between young and mature adult males. (d) Burials with lavish jewellery were frequently those of young adult women, and commonly of those in their teens. 162

TESTING THE MODEL: CEMETERIES OUTSIDE THE CIVITAS OF METZ

(e) Once beyond about forty, women seem rarely to have been buried with female-specific goods. (f) Old people were usually artefactually 'neutral' or were buried without grave-goods. 3. Whilst obvious displays of prestige in grave-goods were common in the sixth century, it is more usual to have to look for more subtle manifestations (as at Ennery, Lavoye and Dieue-sur-Meuse). 4. The associations between artefacts and age groups and even gender broke down in the seventh century, making it more difficult to predict age and sex from such evidence. 5. In the seventh century, the choice of grave-goods usually became both more limited and more uniform. Sometimes (as at Dieue) it looks almost random. 6. The number of gender-specific artefact-types is reduced in the seventh century. 7. In the seventh century, the deposition of weaponry was limited to a narrower range of weapons, usually the scramasax and the spear. 8. The deposition of pottery was frequently abandoned in the seventh century, especially on sites which seem to have been founded in that century. 9. In the seventh century, artefacts placed with the dead are more commonly dress adjuncts. 10. Many sites were abandoned and replaced by churchyard cemeteries in the last quarter of the seventh century.

163

Part II Settlement

Introduction

The relationships between various social groupings may be further examined by studying the settlements in which they lived. Like Part I, Part II must begin with some kind of theorization, with an attempt to establish a methodological agenda and to create a heuristic system. This part has to open with much longer descriptive exercises. Whereas the identification of cemeteries and thus the discussion of their location has often proved straightforward, and even the problems of chronology can be readily confronted, the study of the settlement pattern must begin with lengthy attempts simply to identify settlements; to establish a broad pattern of where settlements are, or are likely to be; to date these sites, and to discuss the many attendant problems. Archaeologists have devoted much time and effort to the definition of settlement types. In particular, they have followed geographers in establishing lists of criteria (Kriterienbundels) which define a town (Hodges 1982, ch.l, usefully discusses past attempts). These are helpful in part, but in practice cloud the issue. The problems are twofold. 1. Testing archaeological remains against preconceived notions of what constitutes a town is likely to produce misleading results. For example, if we think a town is defined by a certain high quality of dwelling, or the presence of monumental vernacular architecture, we may dismiss most early medieval Gallic towns as non-urban settlements. Ideas such as these are, of course, modelled upon what made a Roman town: well-kept roads, fora, baths and other monumental civic architecture, well-built houses, and so on. Such an approach ignores the mentalities of the time. If what people expected of a town was no longer the provision of theatre entertainments, baths or public meeting-places, then it is not very helpful to say that town life ceased on a site when the forum, baths and theatre were abandoned or covered by lesser buildings. People's expectations need to be taken into account. Making this statement does not involve 'moving the goal-posts', but it does raise the important, and difficult, question of whether we study the past on its own terms or in modern terms of analysis. The two are not entirely mutually exclusive, however. It is proposed here that contemporary distinctions and conceptions be considered, but that these be related to modern theories of settlement geography. Can what contemporaries regarded as a town be regarded as having fulfilled urban functions in general terms? Given that contemporary terminology for a particular settlement might remain the same whilst archaeology and textual analysis suggest that there were profound changes in the nature of that settlement, we cannot 167

SETTLEMENT

allow ourselves to be completely guided by the ideology or vocabulary of the past. We are left with an historical high-wire act, trying, on the one hand, always to bear in mind the mentalities of the time, whilst simultaneously trying to see past contemporary ideology. 2. More importantly, even if we take contemporary attitudes into account, the question remains as to where the debate proceeds once we have decided whether a settlement is, for instance, a town or a village. As before, we need to recognize that the establishment of definitive criteria amounts only to a c way of seeing'; it is only the first stage of analysis. We must still explain the existence of particular forms or settlement patterns. We must tie the nature of settlement to the nature of the society which produced it.

Descriptive criteria for settlements It is, nevertheless, still useful to establish some criteria with which to describe settlements, before moving on to more explanatory concerns. In the first instance descriptive criteria might be as follows. Size The size of the settlement must be measured in the number of social units which live there. A family will usually be the basic social unit but need not always be. A small group of monks or, perhaps, a single-sex group of slaves may be regarded as a similar basic social unit. At this stage we can establish the two primary 'building blocks' in the analysis of a settlement pattern: Homestead: a settlement based upon a single family unit (or equivalent) and its immediate dependants. Hamlet: a nucleated group of homesteads. Theoretically this could be of any size. It might be desirable to use terms such as Village' or 'town' to describe larger nucleated settlements, but these terms will be reserved for the description of settlements which are more than large hamlets; they are functionally different. Permanence A second basic criterion is the permanence with which a homestead or hamlet is occupied. Permanent: the settlement is occupied all year round. Seasonal: the settlement is occupied for particular spells in a yearly cycle. This means primarily the sites used in transhumant societies, for instance lowland winter residences and upland summer pasturing sites. Periodic: a periodic settlement is occupied briefly at periodic intervals. The site of a fair or market held at a particular time of year might be a periodic settlement. Occasional: seasonal and periodic settlements are similar in that the cycle of occupation is regular, depending upon the changing of the seasons or 168

INTRODUCTION

upon well-defined market-days or periods. In both cases we see cyclical occupation and abandonment. In occasional settlements, however, occupation is dependent upon particular circumstances, and is therefore irregular. Refuges are one example. During prolonged periods of warfare or repeated raiding they may frequently be occupied, perhaps for long spells of time. On the other hand, if such threats do not materialize, such a site may be deserted for years. Fortification

Whether or not a site is fortified is a further descriptive criterion. Economic basis

Rather more important than fortification is the differentiation of settlements through their economic basis. (i) Subsistence: this implies a settlement which produces and processes foodstuffs for its own survival. It may be entirely self-sufficient or it may exchange surplus in one area for foodstuffs or items which it does not produce. Subsistence food-producing activities can be agriculture, horticulture, fixed or transhumant pastoral farming, or even fishing. Some manufacture of utilitarian items for the settlement's own use, or for very local exchange with neighbouring settlements, may take place but this will be secondary to food production and processing. (ii) Manufacture: a settlement based upon manufacture, although it may be involved secondarily in some subsistence activity, is primarily engaged in the production of some specific range of items which it can exchange not only for foodstuffs essential for its own survival, but also for more of the necessary raw materials, where it does not have access to them. The items are specifically produced for exchange and will not necessarily be utilitarian in character. (iii) Exchange: this implies that a settlement is involved in the acquisition of objects which it then exchanges for foodstuffs to feed itself, for utilitarian items, and for items (tradable foodstuffs, manufactured goods, raw materials) which it might use to acquire more tradable objects. (iv) Voluntary supply: a settlement which exists on voluntary supply, although it may be involved in subsistence activity, acquires what it needs to survive through the voluntary supply of foodstuffs and other items from surrounding settlements. This will be based upon the settlement's ability to provide some non-material service. A religious settlement may exist on voluntary supply either out of reverence for its involvement with the supernatural, or more specifically in exchange for its intercession with the gods on behalf of the donors. (v) Compulsory supply: in the case of compulsory supply, a settlement which does not produce foodstuffs to survive, is not involved in sufficient manufacture or processing to survive through barter or exchange, and provides no services which might lead surrounding settlements to provide it 169

SETTLEMENT

with voluntary supplies, takes what it needs through the compulsory appropriation of produce from other settlements. Categories ii-v are not mutually exclusive. Population We need to consider the permanence of a settlement's population, which might be characterized as follows. Stable: whether the settlement be permanent, seasonal, periodic or occasional, it is occupied by the same groups of people and, within the general limits of demographic variability, the population remains more or less the same when the site is in use. Fluctuating: the population changes from one period of occupation to another on impermanent sites. In a fluctuating population on permanent sites, different elements are constantly coming or going. Fluctuating populations may be: Homogenous: in spite of its fluctuating nature, the population of a site is still drawn from the same catchment area, and the same groups of people. Heterogeneous: in a heterogeneous fluctuating population, the groups from which the population is drawn vary from one phase of occupation to another on impermanent sites, and are constantly changing on permanent ones.

Intersite relationships Community We have so far established a series of descriptive criteria which are recognizable archaeologically. Analysis of an excavated settlement site might decide whether it was a homestead or a hamlet, and establish its permanence of occupation, whether or not it was fortified, its economic basis, and perhaps even the nature of its population. Although people might have lived in individual homesteads rather than larger settlements, the inhabitants of all the homesteads within a particular area may yet have considered themselves as a single social group. It is likely that written sources reveal these contemporary attitudes, and therefore mask 'physical' differences between nucleation and dispersion. Settlement organization should therefore be discussed in terms of communities. This must be seen as the best way of relating the archaeological settlement evidence to that of the written sources and the cemeteries just discussed. If inhabitants of one or several settlements consider themselves to be one community, this creates another form of identity. Service We also need to discuss the concept of 'service'. Settlement hierarchies are often discussed in terms of the services provided by the occupants of each 170

INTRODUCTION

order of habitation. Here a service will imply a non-subsistence commodity. Thus, for example, the provision of cattle by the people of one farming settlement in return for grain from those of another will not be considered as a service. On the other hand, religious, legal, administrative, defensive, exchange and manufacturing provision for an area will be held to constitute services. To serve an area implies a dominant position in the settlement hierarchy and a one-to-many ratio between serving and served. We must also distinguish between services directly related to the settlement and those which relate more to the people who happen to live there. It is often forgotten that it is the people who live in a settlement who provide services. It is people who create the social context for a given settlement to gain prestige and thus for other people to grant it administrative or legal status. We must always see settlement geography as human geography, and that settlement organization and hierarchy is but an aspect of social organization. Nonetheless, at its most basic, geographical features such as springs, mineral resources and so on relate directly to the settlement site, and so might other services. It might be laid down, for example, in law that legal cases be held at a particular site, or that the centre of administration be located there. Legal or administrative privileges given to a site might attract people such as manufacturers and traders. These services are thus directly linked to a particular site. If, however, manufacture takes place at a site solely because a particular craftsman happens to live there, or if the law states that courts be held wherever a particular officer may be, then the services relate more to the people who carry them out than to the site where they take place. The issue is blurred where social factors lead to these people being expected to reside at particular sites, although there is no legal requirement for this. This distinction is best expressed as the difference between prestige and privilege (see below). We might expect, over time, to see a progression from a state of affairs where 'personalized' services are carried on at a site (the site, of itself, is irrelevant to their provision), to one where this social context leads to legal or administrative privileges being given to the site, giving importance to the site itself in service provision. We must, nevertheless, bear these distinctions in mind. Related to this is the question of what kind of area a settlement serves. How far does a serving settlement's 'zone of influence' extend before inhabitants of lesser settlements begin to turn to another settlement of the same order for such services? Physical geographical factors need to be taken into account here. This is linked to the 'order' of the service in question. A higher order service is one which cannot be provided by other settlements in the region which would otherwise occupy a similar place in the hierarchy. Settlement or community status Settlement status is often discussed in the literature. When we talk of settlement status we are normally, of course, talking of the status of the people who live there, vis-a-vis the inhabitants of other settlements. This, more than anything else, brings home the interrelationship of settlement and social organization. We now look at the forms of intercommunal status. 171

SETTLEMENT

Privilege: privilege (as in Part I, defined as a legally recognized form of positive status) takes three main forms. There may be dominant-subordinate relationships between settlements. The surplus produced by one may be required to be yielded up to another. Needless to say, this usually relates to interpersonal status. Where such relationships exist, they are usually the result of social ties of dependence or lordship, or the fact that the inhabitants of one settlement own the land farmed by those of another. Nevertheless, we may, as a form of short-hand, transfer the inhabitants' status to their settlements, and speak of privileged and dependent settlements. The second form of settlement privilege concerns the exceptions to the general rule just expressed, that dominant-subordinate relationships between settlements relate directly to dominant-subordinate human relationships. Some forms of privilege belong primarily to the settlement and are then transferred to individuals who live there, rather than vice versa. Institutions such as the church might be granted ownership of, and thus the rights to the surplus from, particular lands and settlements. Here, privilege is tied to the specified institution, and not to an individual or his/her family. The church or monastery may move, it is true, but the privileges of the priest or monks come from the fact that they serve God at a specified church or monastery, and are not related to individual people. The third form of privilege comes where particular services are legally required to be provided at specified settlements. If the administration of all the settlements in a defined area is required to be carried out at a particular site then that gives the settlement legally-defined high status: privilege. Privilege is, however, not transferred from the site to its inhabitants; it is the legal requirement that specified privileged people exercise their functions at a site which gives the settlement privilege. Prestige: prestige, the de facto form of high status, may be acquired by a settlement through the presence there of prestigious or privileged people. As intimated, prestige can be acquired through the provision of 'personalized' services (those connected with the human agent rather than the specific site). It can also be obtained through social differentiation. It may, for example, be expected socially, if not legally or administratively, that certain classes of people reside at a particular site. As long as this is not legally instituted, this remains in the field of prestige, and may change with social developments. Other forms of socio-cultural differentiation Finally, sites might be further differentiated in socio-cultural terms. This covers the use of different words to describe differing types of site. This is very important. If sites previously described in different terms begin to be called by the same descriptive name, then this is obviously significant. Other cultural differences include distinctions in the forms of dwelling and in the kinds of land allotment. If they can be traced, these too must be important. Higher-order settlements: a typology Taking such features into account, we can propose a typology of higherorder settlements. 172

INTRODUCTION

Village: a village is a prestigious form of hamlet. Its economic base will not be subsistence. Higher level services will be provided, many of which cannot be found in lower-level settlements. A village will usually serve a geographically fairly restricted area. Town: a town differs from villages by its possession of all of the following features. 1. Permanent occupation. 2. A larger population than in other settlements. 3. Its economic base will be founded other than on subsistence, voluntary supply or compulsory supply. 4. Provision of 'highest order' services, and more services than are provided by other settlements. The area served by a town will also be larger than that served by other orders of settlement. These services must also be specifically connected with the town, as a settlement, rather than with particular people who might happen to be there. 5. Social differentiation from other settlements. The specification that the highest order services be site-linked rather than personalized is critical. If the status of a site is exclusively determined by the presence of a few high-level service providing individuals, who might move elsewhere and take their services with them, and where it can be shown that such a move would remove all high status from the site, we cannot in all seriousness call that site urban. For the nature of occupation to be classed as urbanism, it must be dependent upon more than the vagaries of a few individuals. An advantage of this classification is that where we can identify as in progress the shift from personalized to site-linked service-provision outlined above, we can recognize what we might term cproto-urbanism\ The definition of a town given above allows us to take into account contemporary ideology and changes therein. Most other Kriterienbundels can also be explained in these terms. Let us take as an example that of Heighway in The Erosion of History (Heighway (ed.) 1972): Criterion 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Defences. A planned street-system. A market(s). A mint. Legal autonomy. A role as a central place. A relatively large and dense population. 8. A diversified economic base. 9. Plots and house of urban types. 10. Social differentiation. 11. Complex religious organization. 12. A judicial centre.

Can be explained as falling into category 4. *

3 or 4. 3 or 4. 5. 4. 2. 3. * 5. 4. 4. 173

SETTLEMENT

The criteria marked * are too subjective and culture-specific to be useful. Kennedy's (1985) discussion of Syrian towns shows that the break-down of centrally imposed planning was a factor which led to urban resurgence. Tlots and houses of urban type' (my italics) is not only too ethnocentric, but circular. What constitutes an 'urban type'? Presumably a type found in towns! This is something which will change from one culture and period to another. The specification that the population be relatively dense is problematic. A town population need not be any more densely concentrated than that within a village. If it is larger, and engaged in the production of goods and services to supply the region, to a higher level than any other settlement in the area, then surely the settlement which houses it deserves to be called a town. A further advantage of such a loose definition is that it compels us to consider the regional context of the town, for it demands comparison with other forms of habitation within the area. It also enables us to examine the extent to which a settlement could be called a town, and perhaps ultimately even to establish a typology of different forms of town (though this will not be done in this survey). Having established these criteria for the discussion of settlement patterns, it should be possible to examine that within the Merovingian region of Metz, beginning with the lowest orders of rural settlement and working up through the via to Metz itself.

174

5 Rural settlement

Archaeological data Introduction A survey of Merovingian rural settlement in the region of Metz must begin with words of caution about the archaeological evidence upon which it is based. Only the middle Seille valley has been recently and thoroughly surveyed.1 Otherwise, evidence from the civitas takes the form of more or less chance discoveries of traces of villas or other Roman settlements, similar finds of Merovingian cemeteries (used as an indicator of permanent settlement) and early medieval churches, and excavations of Roman and, in recent years, medieval (though usually post-Merovingian) rural settlements. The excavations have hardly ever been satisfactorily published; many took place long ago, using 'trenching' and 'wall-following' techniques which, we can suspect, destroyed any ephemeral traces of post-Roman occupation on villa sites. We might, furthermore, suspect that less substantial settlements of the Roman period escaped such chance discovery. These are serious problems, but we may proceed cautiously nevertheless. The very visibility of Roman material culture (as revealed by well-dated pottery, coins and metalwork forms) makes Roman occupation easily detectable by chance. The sheer volume of Roman evidence across the civitas (see below), coupled with the fairly systematic recording of chance discoveries (cp. Toussaint 1950; Stein 1989b; Lutz 1991) allow us to view the picture so created as a reasonable approximation of the extent of Roman settlement in the region (remembering that this is an aggregation; not all of these settlements were occupied simultaneously; Stein 1989b usefully unravels early from later Roman). Similar points apply to the distribution map of Merovingian cemeteries (fig. 3.2). Furthermore, there are distinct forms of sixthand seventh-century artefacts which, even if traces of stake- and post-holes and their associated occupation levels have been lost, would have been found by early excavators (see the case of Erfweiler, below), who noted the presence of post-Roman burials on abandoned Roman sites. A picture can be built up from old, chance finds which accords with the smaller-scale picture of the Seille valley survey and other recent excavations. As stated earlier 1

Cuvelier 1988a; 1988b; 1988c; 1988d; 1990; Cuvelier & Delestre 1986; Cuvelier, Delestre & HeberSuffrin unpub.; Gallia 1980:426.

175

SETTLEMENT

(ch.3) it is our duty to establish this descriptive model, so that it may be tested against future, better quality data. Roman background A map of Roman rural settlement shows a high density of sites across the civitas of Metz (fig. 5.2). The Moselle, Seille and upper Sarre valleys seem to be the most heavily settled areas. The economic base was apparently diverse, ranging from agriculture and pastoral farming, through wine production to lead mining around Metz and in the Saarland. As for settlement types, villas are common in the territory of the Mediomatrici, unlike the rest of modern Lorraine. Those areas without villas are those where 'native' settlements are to be found (Percival 1976:79). As for the villas themselves, they fall into two types: small working villas and large palatial villas (such as St-Ulrich, Moselle; ibid.iSO).

As elsewhere in Gaul, the third century saw a radical change in the settlement pattern. Rural villas were severely affected, with, at best, only one in two sites surviving into the fourth century (Wightman 1985:259; Lefebvre & Demarolle 1986:39). Lefebvre and Demarolle claim that the eastern half of the civitas was less badly hit. Stein (1989b:103, Abb. 5) supports this to

176

RURAL SETTLEMENT

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41.

Albestroff. Altrippe. Amelecourt. Amneville. Ars-sur-Moselle. Asswiller. Berling. Berthelming. Bettborn. Biberkirch. Bockweiler. Boucheporn. Boulay. Bouxieres-aux-Dames. Brouviller. Cappel. Chatel-St-Germain. Cheminot. Clemery. Conflans. Corny-sur-Moselle. Coume. Cutting. Dabo. Donjeux. Donnelay. Einville-au-Jard. Ennery. Eply. Eply-Raucourt. Erfweiler. Falck. Fraquelfing. Fresnes-en-Saulnois. Frouard. Goerlingen. Gorze. Gremecey. Gueblange. Guerstling. Hadonville.

42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. 81.

Hanonville. Hoff. Jallaucourt. Kedange. Labry. Landrecourt. Marsal. Mars-la-Tour. Morsbach. Mousson. Nennig. Nomeny. Norroy-le-Sec. Oriocourt. Ottonville. Pange. Plappeville. Pont-a-Mousson. Puttigny. Quincy. Raucourt. Rembercourt. Remilly. Rimsdorf. St-Avold. St-Jean-de-Bassel. St-Julien-les-Gorze. Ste-Marie-aux-Chenes Sarraltroff. Sarreguemines. Sarre-Union. Tieffenbach. Vannecourt. Varize. Vaxy. Vic-sur-Seille. Waldhambach. Wiesviller. Woippy. Wuisse.

Fig. 5.1 Places mentioned in chapter 5

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SETTLEMENT

Fig. 5.2 Roman settlement in the civitas of Metz

some extent, showing concentrations of fourth-century settlements around Sarrebourg, along the Moselle and, to a lesser degree, Seille valleys, and in the north-east of the civitas. The centre of the civitas appears largely devoid of settlement. Almost all the region's rural settlements seem to have been abandoned by the early fifth century. We must express caveats concerning the drying up of our usual dating evidence, the coin supply, the archaeological 'invisibility' of much fifth-century material and the fact that settlement may have moved only a few dozen yards and so escaped archaeological detection. Nevertheless, the overall picture of gradual desertion of the actual sites of Roman settlements is, provisionally at least, to be taken seriously. Continuity from Roman to post-Roman Archaeological traces of Merovingian rural settlement are sparse. The villas alone of the early Roman period outnumber the most common indicator of Merovingian settlement, cemetery sites, even allowing for a settlement: cemetery ratio greater than 1:1 (cp. diags. 3.2 and 5.2). This picture is confirmed by the middle Seille valley survey. Here twenty-five Gallo-Roman settlements are known to nine early medieval, though, with cemeteries, this ratio is reversed: six Merovingian to three Roman (fig. 5.3; Cuvelier 1988c:54, 178

RURAL SETTLEMENT

R. Settle

Raucourt D


(U

Port- J sur-Seille^< — - J ^ ^ \ ^ Rouves
\

J

f

/

ameny^

rolingian settlement

(

I \

Key

a•

Gallo-Roman settlement.

•

Gallo-Roman cemetery. Merovingian settlement.

cemetery. i Merovingian Commune boundary.

0 Chateau.

TJ A

0

1

2

Modern village.

Km 5.3

777e 5ef//e valley survey (after Cuvelier

1988c:54)

fig. 25). While it is true that Gallo-Roman settlements could date to any time between the first and fourth centuries and were probably not all inhabited simultaneously, the date range of early medieval settlements similarly spans 300-400 years and again all were not in use at the same time. Nevertheless, there are similarities between the distribution maps of fourth- and fifth-century settlement, and of Merovingian cemeteries (Stein 179

SETTLEMENT

1989b: Abb. 5 and 6), suggesting that the major contraction of the settlement pattern took place in the late Roman period. We have also noted, however, that almost all the known Roman settlements show no trace of occupation after c. 400. Pierre Cuvelier's work around the Seille valley is a convenient place to begin. Although the publication leaves something to be desired,2 the Seille valley survey reveals some very interesting points. It confirms the abandonment of late Roman sites but suggests that settlements frequently did not move very far. At Nomeny the seventh-century site was located only 100m or so from the Roman vicus, which became the site of one or two cemeteries (Cuvelier & Delestre 1986; Cuvelier 1988a:68; 1988c:57 and 58, fig. 27). At Clemery, too, Merovingian buildings were sited close to the large villa of 'Terres Noires', and two other sites at 'Quatorze Jours' and Benicourt were similarly found near smaller Gallo-Roman habitations (Cuvelier 1988a:68; 1988c:57). However, several Roman sites were completely abandoned; at least fifteen sites in the survey area showed no corresponding trace of Merovingian occupation. Better discussion of the dating might reveal whether these sites were abandoned in the third or fifth centuries. Comparison with the overall ratio of third-century to fifth-century abandonment across the civitas would suggest that some at least were deserted around 400. At Nomeny the seventh-century site was abandoned when the settlement moved again, only a couple of hundred metres, and a larger, perhaps more nucleated settlement was created in the ninth century. Cuvelier claims that this too was deserted when a chateau was built in the twelfth century near the modern village of Nomeny. This is plausible but no consideration is given to the possibility that the modern settlement's site was occupied in the Merovingian or Carolingian periods. The idea of continuity is one to which we will return. Here it is particularly important. Why should the chateau of the bishops of Metz have been established a kilometre and a half away from an existing settlement? We must retain the possibility that the bishops built their castle near an extant rural settlement, perhaps a demesne farm. Nevertheless, Cuvelier's model of frequently shifting settlement must be borne in mind, not least for the fact that it is eloquent testimony against the view of unchanging, or only slowly changing, Merovingian society. An interesting trace of settlement was found at Erfweiler (Saar-Pfalz-Kreis). Here, on a Roman villa site, which otherwise appeared to have been abandoned in the late fourth century (Bertemes et al. 1988:151ff.) a bracteate brooch was found as a stray find (Ber.SDS 1953:24), as was a Merovingian gold triens possibly struck at Mainz (Kienast 1962:251-2). These were certainly not grave-finds but the existence of a cemetery on the villa's site, so common elsewhere (see below), is not to be excluded. It seems more likely that these finds represent ephemeral occupation of the villa, which could well be repeated on other sites. The well-known villa of Nennig in the diocese of Trier revealed, as well as a Merovingian cemetery, traces of irregular, roughly built, apparently early medieval houses (Bohner 1958, vol. 11:91). 2

Only Mousson has yet received anything like full publication (Cuvelier 1990). Halsall 1990:app.2.b summarized the then published information on the region's early medieval settlement sites.

180

RURAL SETTLEMENT

Further clues about the relationship between Roman and post-Roman settlements can be sought in Merovingian cemetery archaeology. Cemeteries are frequently located on, or by, Roman sites. Ennery 'Les Trois Arbres' is close to a Roman settlement, as are Raucourt 'Le PaturaP, Eply cLe Village', Clemery cLes Terres Noires', Bettborn 'Bienenzaun', Berthelming cAlt Schloss' and Wiesviller, to name but a few. Two provisional observations should be made concerning chronology. The first is that many of the Roman sites reused as cemeteries seem to have been occupied into the fourth century. This would support the suggestion of a continuity between the late Roman and Merovingian settlement patterns, in terms of general location of habitation. The second is that the practice of burial in rather than around Roman buildings seems to be significantly more common in the seventh century (Bettborn, Berthelming, Chatel-St-Germain, Clemery, Mousson, Raucourt, etc.) than in the sixth. At Lavoye, burials only occurred inside the villa in the seventh century, or at the very end of the sixth. The reasons for this process are complex. Leaving aside Lutz's (1950:184) argument that this was a cgeste de vainqueur', spurning the remains of the previous civilization, it is frequently argued that these sites were chosen because of the impossibility of using them for agriculture. This is not entirely acceptable. It implies a competition for land that was far greater than the extent and general location of the settlements and cemeteries would suggest. More satisfactory is the idea that the siting of a cemetery by a visible monument may have been an attempt to show a claim to the land, by connecting present inhabitants with 'ancestors', real or fictive. This was associated with a Veneration' of past civilizations, as attested by the deposition of GalloRoman and, indeed, prehistoric objects with the dead. The villa's ruins would also provide a focus for the communities which used the cemetery (Raucourt c Le PaturaP lies half-way between the settlement of Eply-Raucourt cHaut de Villers' and the modern village of Raucourt), as well as providing materials for the graves, where these were stone-lined, and perhaps giving shelter and a kind of proto-funerary chapel. Given the frequent seventh-century date of such graves, we are again faced with the idea of a significant restructuring of Merovingian society around c. 600. Churches, too, are often found on Roman settlement sites. Toussaint's (1950) survey noted at least eleven instances in the departement of the Moselle.3 The association of Roman villa and later church needs further consideration. In addition to Toussaint's examples, Bockweiler in the Saarland (Bertemes et al. 1988:147ff) is the best documented case of this phenomenon, which is occasionally explained solely as the result of the availability of building materials there. This fails to account for the fact that only a small proportion of villas, generally in valleys, were so used. Many others on uplands or similar 'marginal' land, including establishments such as Gremecey (Moselle; apparently, and perhaps significantly, abandoned in the third century), were not chosen as church sites. The conclusion must be drawn 3

Boulay (Toussaint 1950:11-12), Vaxy (?) (ibid.:35), Altrippe (ibid.:7% Ars-sur-Moselle (ibid.:95), Plappeville (ibid.-.lU), Remilly (ibid.illS), Bettborn (ibid.:132; Laumon 1973:56-7), Brouviller (Toussaint 1950:154; Laumon 1973:66-7), Varize (Toussaint 1950:15), Biberkirch (ibid.:170; Laumon 1973:58-9) and Donnelay (Toussaint 1950:51).

181

SETTLEMENT

that villa sites occupied by later churches, if probably not continuously inhabited, at least lay close to early medieval settlements. Occasionally the sequence villa-cemetery-church is found, as, just outside the civitas, at Bouxieres-aux-Dames (Meurthe-et-Moselle; Salin 1937:210; Gallia 1959:360; Percival 1976:192). A final hint might be provided by the location of Roman evidence on the site of 'deserted medieval villages'. Toussaint listed twelve examples.4 These sites are frequently said to have been destroyed in the Thirty Years War, but this is unlikely to be accurate; many old discoveries of cemeteries were associated with fictitious Thirty Years War battles. That these sites are not simply Roman settlements described as deserted villages in the popular imagination is shown by the fact that seven of them have toponyms with -ing or -court suffixes, and a further has the similarly medieval suffix -dorf. The latter is perhaps mentioned in a Wissembourg charter (in Altthorfphe; Wiss. 194, dated Asswiller, 13 Feb. 718), though the reference could be to Sarraltroff. Wuisse 'Bride' has yielded a probable Merovingian cemetery (Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:338). We can conclude by suggesting that, although there may have been a slight further contraction in the early fifth century, there was general continuity between the late Roman and Merovingian settlement patterns. Roman sites still in use by the later fourth century may themselves have been abandoned, but settlement often persisted in the immediate vicinity. Continuity from Merovingian to modern Related to the question of (at least general) Roman-Merovingian continuity is that of continuity of settlement from the Merovingian era into the succeeding medieval periods and beyond. This is important. Werner (1950) repeated the then common notion that the Roman settlement pattern contracted (by a process of nucleation) to the network of modern villages with the suffixes -y> -ing, -court and -ville. The realization that there are undoubtedly Merovingian rural settlements still to be discovered beside, if not on top of, Roman settlements, and elsewhere, should not lead us to abandon automatically the idea of continuous occupation on the sites of modern villages. We must, however, always remember that by 'continuity of occupation' we are allowing for, and even expecting, some short-distance movement of settlement within the zone now occupied by the village. This question can be answered with reference to the same forms of evidence as were examined in the previous section. We may turn first to the actual remains of Merovingian and early medieval habitation. Evidence of churches (see below) has all, to date, been found under modern villages. The settlement of Woippy (Arch. Med. 1990:370) also underlies its modern 4

Coume 'Bering' (Toussaint 1950:12), Falck 'Helle' (ibid.:17\ Ottonville 'Grafloch' (ibid.:14\ Fresnesen-Saulnois 'Psicourt' (ibid.:32), Puttigny 'Vertignecourt' (ibid.:34), Vannecourt 'Gossoncourt' (ibid.:35)y Wuisse 'Bride' (ibid.), Donjeux 'Brucourt' (ibid.:36), Oriocourt 'Bassoncourt' (ibid.:38), Vaxy 'Domevre (ibid.:35), Ste-Marie-aux-Chenes 'Harloncourt' (ibid.:113) and Dabo 'AltdorP (ibid.:\54).

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RURAL SETTLEMENT

successor. A recently discovered settlement of cearly medieval' (usually ninth- to twelfth-century) date at Labry (Arch. Med. 1989:337) was located under a modern village. The settlements of the Seille valley survey, however, lie up to two kilometres (though generally about one kilometre) from modern villages. This is to be expected since settlements under modern villages would be unlikely to be recovered in the survey. However, it is significant that these early medieval settlements do not have the same spread as Roman settlements. Out of nine early medieval settlement sites (of which at least one is post-Merovingian), six lie within 500m of a commune boundary, three within 200m. This may be significant; it could suggest that these bounds were drawn up when these settlements were abandoned or fissioned. The idea that modern settlements often overlie Roman ones finds more support in Gallo-Roman archaeology. The clearest example of the continuation of villa occupation into the fifth century is at Berthelming cAlt Schloss', where a coin of Theodosius II was found cemented into a wall (Percival 1976:169; Lutz 1991:175), though possible fifth-century occupation is suggested by pottery at Morsbach (Gallia 1986:301-2). The Berthelming villa lies, significantly, close to the modern village (Gallia 1948:239). Use can also be made of the region's Gallo-Roman archaeology. Villas and other forms of Roman evidence are often found under later settlements. Toussaint's (1950) archaeological repertoire of the departement of the Moselle reveals over fifty cases of traces of Roman occupation very close to, or underlying, modern villages or deserted post-Roman settlements (see above for instances of churches on Roman sites, and Roman evidence under 'deserted villages'). Twelve modern settlements overlay Roman evidence.5 The evidence of the far more numerous cemetery sites adds to that of the settlements themselves. We must first deal with certain preliminary questions. What was the ratio of settlements to cemeteries? Did cemeteries lie close by their accompanying settlement(s)? In the Seille valley survey, this was not always the case. Nomeny 'Malnoy A and B' and Clemery cLes Terres Noires' lay only 100m away from the associated habitations but in several other cases no attached settlement was revealed or this lay up to a kilometre away, as with Eply-Raucourt 'Haut de Villers' and the possibly associated cemetery of Raucourt 'Le PaturaP. Throughout the civitas there appears to be a close relationship between modern settlements and Merovingian cemeteries. Thirty-seven of 292 rural cemeteries were located within 500m of a modern settlement and a further sixty underlie modern villages or chateaux. In total these represent 33% of the sites, and, given that no detailed locational information was available for at least half of the civitas' cemeteries, this must be significant. A similar link between cemeteries and settlements has been demonstrated for the departement of the Aisne (Durand 1988). However, Durand does not address the problem of whether the settlement on the modern village site was the only one to use the cemetery. 5

Boucheporn (Toussaint 1950:11), Guerstling (ibid.:lS\ Amelecourt (ibid.:30), Jallaucourt {ibid.:2>7\ Cappel (ibid.'M), Corny (ibid.:96), Pange {ibid.\\\l\ St-Jean-de-Bassel (ibid.:14l), Sarraltroff (ibid.:141\ Fraquelfing (ibid.:H5), Berling (ibid.:153) and Hoff (ibid.:176).

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From the evidence just cited, and from the frequent association of Merovingian cemetery and modern settlement, we can propose that modern settlements be taken into account when considering the Merovingian settlement pattern. Further support for this hypothesis can be found across the Vosges in Alsace, at Furdenheim (Bas-Rhin), where an early medieval sunkenfeatured building was found between twenty and thirty metres from the village (Stieber 1954). This idea of general continuity is not new (cp. Percival 1976:ch.8) but it does not appear to have featured in Cuvelier's considerations. He appears to have assumed a 1:1 settlement to cemetery ratio, and that only those sites revealed archaeologically were inhabited in the Merovingian period. In the case of Nomeny his suggestion that the settlement moved progressively before ending up around the central medieval chateau seems plausible, but even here we must express reservations (see above). The essential point, often made, is that settlements located archaeologically by field survey or aerial photography, away from modern habitation, are by their nature 'failed settlements'. In Edith Wightman's phrase, cthe fact of continuity can destroy the evidence for it' (Wightman 1977:303). The conclusion must be drawn that a component of the early medieval settlement pattern underlies the network of modern villages (see also Willaume 1991:13). Given the close proximity of many cemeteries to settlements, we may propose that this particular element was of some importance within the settlement hierarchy. This receives support in the cases of vici such as Yutz, Corny-sur-Moselle and Ste-Ruffine (see ch.6). The spread of Merovingian rural settlement Some provisional propositions can be made about the extent of Merovingian settlement in the region. The key is obviously the distribution of Merovingian cemeteries, and one point confronts us immediately. As is common throughout Gaul, there are many more seventh- than sixth-century sites in the diocese (fig. 5.4). The former outnumber the latter by as much as two to one. Even given the chance nature of most discoveries, this must be significant, especially since, as we have seen, grave-goods are less numerous in the seventh century, and that there are many more distinctive sixth-century artefact-types (angonesy franciscas, S-brooches, bird-brooches, etc.), making sixth-century sites easier to spot from fragmentary records. Apart from being incorrectly interpreted as an indication of two ethnic groups (Stein 1974), this chronological change can be explained either as an expansion of settlement (cp. Simmer 1987:394) or in terms of a change in the settlement to cemetery ratio. Analyses of the cemeteries themselves, especially Lavoye (ch.4), suggest social changes around AD 600, leading to a reduced need to demonstrate social status to a wide audience at a funeral (for further discussion, see ch.8). This in turn probably led to more, smaller cemeteries being created to serve individual settlements. The hypothesis will be adopted here that the change in the number of cemeteries relates to social change leading to a settlement to cemetery ratio closer to 1:1. Fifth- and sixth-century cemeteries may thus have provided a focus for several communities and may not always have been located close to any 184

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a: Sixth-century sites

•

N 0

20 Km

b: Seventh-century sites

N 0

20 Km Fig. 5.4 Sixth-century and seventh-century cemeteries

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permanent habitation. We can nevertheless claim that the distribution of early medieval cemeteries gives a reasonable indication of where settlements existed, especially in the seventh century. A distribution map of cemeteries shows that settlement rarely seems to have spread more than 300m above sea level and that there were quite large tracts of land which were apparently abandoned in the late antique or early medieval periods. The Vosges remained unsettled until after the close of our period, though the Wissembourg charters (see below) indicate that the foothills were beginning to be recolonized by the end of the seventh century. Settlements do not seem to have been truly reestablished in the high Vosges until well into the Carolingian period (see Laumon 1973 for a discussion of the evidence from the Vosges communes). There is a significant gap in the 'Pays des Etangs', west of the Sarre valley between Sarre-Union and Sarreguemines. Except in the canton of Albestroff (Toussaint 1950:29), settlement here is not as scarce in the Roman period, and charter evidence indicates some settlement on the fringes of the area by c. 700. Given the generally flat and relatively low-lying nature of this area (there is no land higher than 300m above sea level) and the meandering water-courses which flow through it, is it likely that this area was too badly drained, and the soil too heavy, for permanent settlement (as witnessed by the presence of cemeteries) in the early middle ages, though it may have been the location of seasonal pasturing sites. The problem of waterlogging led to the creation of the large etangs on the southern edge of this zone in the early modern period. The archaeological data argue that whilst many more Merovingian settlements undoubtedly await discovery, the settlement pattern underwent radical contraction in the later Roman period and did not expand again until the end of the period reviewed here. The nature of Merovingian settlements The only site-plan so far published is that of Eply-Raucourt cHaut de Villers' (fig. 5.5). Gallo-Roman materials were used for the cblocage des poteaux de bois' of the main house. Whether this means that they were used to steady the posts in their post-holes, or that they were used as wall-footings between the wooden posts, is unclear, and will remain so until a satisfactory site plan appears. The only finds published are seventh-century buckles (Cuvelier 1988a:73; 1988c:56, fig. 26). The excavation has probably revealed a single 'modular building unit', to borrow David Clarke's phrase (1972): a main dwelling place with adjacent workshops, wells and storage huts. Cuvelier (1988a:68; 1988c:57) suggests that, although the excavation was limited in extent, the settlement probably did not comprise more than three or four such units, though without more detailed excavation we cannot tell how many were in use at the same time. The excavated portion of the site is dated to the seventh and eighth centuries. Recently a settlement of sixth- and seventh-century date has been located at Amneville {Arch. Med. 1992:395-7; BSL 1991:36-38). This site, as yet only excavated by trial trenches, seems to cover 7,500m2 and to comprise sunken-featured buildings, post-built struc186

RURAL SETTLEMENT

A N

Pr

^ ~ * Hearth

Sunken-featured building (S.F.B.)

Main, post-built house.

S.F.B.

Fig. 5.5 Eply-Raucourt,

c

Haut de Villers' (after Cuvelier 1988a:73)

tures and pits. The detailed publication of an interesting site, just outside the civitas of Metz, at Frouard 'Saule Gaillard', occupied between the seventh and ninth centuries (Henrotay & Lansival 1992; BSL 1991:26), appeared too late for detailed analysis here (see below, ch.9, for further discussion). In its early phases it is not dissimilar to Eply-Raucourt. Sunken-featured buildings have been located elsewhere in the region. Several Ottonian examples overlay part of the cemetery at Dieue-sur-Meuse 'La Potence' (above, ch.4), though these were not properly published. Longhouses dating to c. 1000 were found at Pont-a-Mousson in 1980, but the site remains unpublished (Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:261-3; Cuvelier 1990 for some detail). The settlements of the region of Metz do not seem to have differed dramatically from the norms (as far as these can be established) within the Merovingian world.6 Perhaps there were differences in detail but the general characteristics were the same. Archaeology has also revealed traces of early churches in the diocese of Metz. The existence of a church at Chatel-St-Germain is not impossible, 6

Cp.Demolon 1972; James 1979:57; 1988a:214; Lorren 1985; Perin & Feffer 1987, vol.II:205-9; Samson 1987b.

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but the excavations there have so far revealed no plausible evidence for it (Guillaume, Lefebvre & Wieczorek 1989:108)/ Better evidence has been unearthed at Mousson (above all Cuvelier 1990; see also Cuvelier 1988b; 1988d; Cuvelier, Delestre & Heber-Suffrin 1988), where structural evidence of the stone church associated with later seventh-century burials was found, and St-Avoid, where excavations located stone walls, perhaps associated with Bishop Sigibald's cell of St-Paul, later refounded by Chrodegang as St-Nabor (Cuvelier, Delestre & Heber-Suffrin 1988:45-6, with plan). Other evidence comprises the architectural fragments found at Cheminot (Morhain 1953). Originally thought to be part of a sarcophagus (cp. Salin 1952:153), they are clearly architectural, most recently interpreted as chancel fragments (Guillaume et al. 1988:76). The dating of these fragments, like that of those from Metz (see ch.7), has been controversial with some authorities claiming them to be late Merovingian, and others arguing for a Carolingian date (cp. Collot 1980). The argument for the latter revolves around the fact that Cheminot church was granted to St-Arnulf, Metz, in 783 (Dipl. Karol. 149; Parisse 1987), but this assumes that the church did not exist before that date, an assumption for which there is no basis beyond the fact that the Cheminot fragments originate in the same workshop as produced the stone fragments from Metz itself, including some at St-Arnulf. The most recent analysis, by Francois Heber-Suffrin, dates these fragments to the middle of the eighth century and associates them with Chrodegang's reforms (Cuvelier, Delestre & Heber-Suffrin 1988:51). This seems very plausible but we have to conclude that the question remains open until better quality data are found in context.

Documentary evidence* The Wissembourg charters Most Merovingian rural history has been concerned with the origins of the 'classic' 'Grand Domaine', with its bipartite division into demesne and dependent tenements, and has often hinged upon the meaning of various terms: villa, mansus, hoba and so on. When a diachronic, aggregating approach is adopted, because of semantic shifts and regional variations, these terms can be made to mean almost anything. The only way forward is to examine the documents themselves, on a regional basis. When this is done many traditional interpretations of Merovingian agrarian organization are revealed to be unsupported by the evidence. Historical records are vague about the region's Merovingian rural settlements, and, as will have become clear, only begin to survive in any numbers 7

8

The debate centres on several Merovingian sarcophagi which radiate out from the apse of the thirteenth-century church. These sarcophagi were, however, reused in the later middle ages as Lefebvre pointed out at the Conference of the AFAM in Metz, October 1988. The literature about written sources for early medieval rural estate management is enormous, and includes work by many great medieval historians: Bloch, Duby, etc. Morimoto 1988 surveys recent literature within the context of the study of polyptychs. See also Kuchenbuch 1988; 1991; and the papers in Janssen & Lohrmann (ed.) 1983 and Verhulst (ed.) 1985.

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in the late seventh century. Our best sources are the charters. These come primarily from the cartularies of Wissembourg and Gorze Abbeys, though there are one or two other isolated documents. It is useful to examine these cartularies in turn. Eighty-nine Wissembourg charters date to the period c. 656-864 and refer to lands between the western foothills of the Vosges and the middle Seille and middle Sanon valleys.9 The charters seem authentic, though minor problems arise here and there. The following donation by Weroald son of Audoin is a useful example of a Merovingian donation: That is in the villa of Haganbah which is called Disciacu[m] which my late father, Audoin, gave me; whatever he was seen to hold there at that time, between the Aculia [the river Eichel] and the Mittilibrunn [the Mittelbach] wholly and integrally from the present day, as we said above, together with farms (mansis), dwellings (domibus), slaves and tenants (mancipiis vel accolis) commanded there, and fields (campis), meadows (pratis), woods (silvis) and half a forest, and in the Vosges a quarter of my share which belongs to that villa between the Aculia and the Mittilibrunn and the via Bassoniaca or the lata Petra or Deubaci, waters and water-courses {aquis aquarumque decursibus), movable and immovable things, wholly to the above-said monastery of Wissembourg. (Wiss. 192, dated Sarrebourg, 1 Feb. 713)

A typical late seventh- or early eighth-century donation, it grants a large self-sufficient estate. The list of appurtenances looks generic. This list, or a similar variant of it, occurs in most charters. However, we cannot see such lists as purely formulaic. There are temporal and regional variations in what is, or is not, mentioned. The way the list was drawn up, the decision to include or omit various words, was a conscious process, and deserves attention. Yet Weroald was not the only landowner in this area: I [Chrodoin son of Petrus] give . . . in the villa of Chaganbach half of my share, in farms, houses (casts), churches (ecclesiis [sic]), buildings (aedificiis), fields, meadows, mills (farinariis), waters and water-courses, and a wood there. Of this wood on one side is the river Aculia, on the other runs the Mittilibrunn, and this side is the limit of Chaganbach which Weroald confirmed . . . to the above-named monastery. (Wiss. 227, dated Asswiller, 3 Feb. 718)

From these documents two points can be made. The first is the clear difference in detail between the two lists of appurtenances. The second point concerns the use of the word villa. Within the villa of [CJHaganbach there were at least two landowners holding large, self-sufficient estates. On this basis, the meaning of villa has changed somewhat since Roman times when it meant farm estate. Samson (1987b:287) has said that in examining previous interpretations of the post-Roman villa we have a choice between three alternatives: a continuation of the Roman-style villa, a nucleated settlement or village, or a cproto-castle\ Most work on early medieval agrarian history has in fact seen the villa as a single estate, a domaine or evenfundus. Clearly 9

It must be remembered that there are 190 or so 'Rhenish' Wissembourg charters relating to Alsace and the Rhineland, charters which often differ significantly from those for Lorraine, despite emanating from the same monastery. Here, references to 'the Wissembourg cartulary' must be taken as short-hand for 'the documents of the Wissembourg cartulary relating to Lorraine'! 189

SETTLEMENT

none of these applies here, and there is certainly nothing in these data to equate a villa with a 'classic' 'Grand Domaine'. Villa appears to denote a small region, within which several people might hold estates (Bange 1984 comes to very similar conclusions for tenth-century Burgundy). This 'regional' sense of the word villa is underlined by its use as a synonym for the word fines (limits, boundaries) and its Germanic equivalent, marca. Before 780 the three words rarely appear together in the description of a land-grant. It appears that, whatever subtle differences there may have been between them (perhaps between arable farmland and other resources), any one could nevertheless stand for the others. Villa is not often used in a sense which corresponds to its archaeological usage, as an estate centre. 'With that villa which I built recently (de novo) within those bounds (fines) [note, too, this distinction between the two terms] where the Theotbach flows into the Aquila' (Tieffenbach, Bas-Rhin; Wiss. 195, dated Rimsdorf, 18 May 718) is a rare instance, but could equally refer to a recently cleared area of land. Another might be Wiss. 256 (Wissembourg, 22 April 713) where Weroald refers to 'our villa of Waldhambach which is called Distiacus [sic]9. This, besides indicating the coexistence of Roman and German toponyms, might mean that within the (wider) villa of Waldhambach, Weroald's villa (in the narrower sense) was called Disciacum. There are occasional hints that villa and marca might be different. Wiss. 228 (Wissembourg, ?18 Aug. 705-6) refers to the grant of a curtilis in Audoneuillare (probably Einville-au-Jard, Meurthe-et-Moselle), and of fields, woods and so on in the fine Audoninse. This apparent distinction between the villa and surrounding fines, involving toponymic differences, will be shown clearly in the discussion of the later Gorze charters. Caution must be shown, however, as the accompanying charter (Wiss. 229) refers simply to the villa Auduninse, incorporating both elements. In the late eighth century the Wissembourg scribes changed their ways of discussing land-grants. In the 780s there is a sudden increase in the use of the formula in villa vel in marca [or vel in fines] to locate a settlement, which now becomes as common as the hitherto usual in villa. This cannot be explained in terms of a change of personnel; the scribe Kadual, for example, used in villa in the 770s, but changed to in villa vel in marca in the 780s. It may be that in this decade, for some reason, the writers of charters and their informants felt more obliged to specify that donated lands were located in the villa as well as the marca (orfines).Some cause for distinction had occurred. One might, alternatively, assume that before 780 villa and marca (or fines) meant clearly different things, whereas after 780 the distinction became blurred. However, the former interpretation is supported by other phrases in the charters. For example, Wiss. 217 (Wissembourg, 11 June 783) gives: 'in the fines which are known as in marca Horone [unidentifiable] and the marca Brandolues [south-east of Sarreguemines] that church of ours and the villa where the church stands.' Other charters of this date or later similarly specify villae within marca or fines (cp. Wiss. 82, dated Wissembourg, 16 Dec. 786). In the 780s the Wissembourg charters demonstrate a much greater concern to measure land-grants in terms of jornales (the amount of land which could 190

RURAL SETTLEMENT

be ploughed in a day) of arable and caradas ('cart-loads') of meadow (above, p. 55). The charters which mention these measured units of land, with perhaps two or three exceptions (cp. Wiss. 83; Wiss. 258), do not locate the grant in villa vel in marca. Instead the grant is located either in the villa or in the marca. It is general grants of landed property which are granted in villa vel in marca. Given that such grants were earlier simply described as in villa (as above), this must be a significant change. Taken with the statement of Wiss. 217 quoted above, we might postulate that the distinction between villa and marca was now clearly that between the settlement and its infield and more outlying parts of the attached agricultural zone. This compares interestingly with contemporary changes in the Gorze charters. It is worth stressing, however, that this terminology is not used consistently, and particular terms overlap in meaning. There are, nevertheless, no grounds at all for supposing that villa meant either a 'Grand Domaine' or, according to another interpretation, the demesne as opposed to dependent holdings. Boundary clauses are rare in the Wissembourg charters. Apart from the charters relating to Waldhambach, which repeatedly mention that the villa lies between Eichel and Mittelbach, there are only seven such clauses, five of which are Carolingian. Two refer to lands at the vicus of Marsal (Wiss. 213, of 682-3, and Wiss. 215, of 840-1), where we might expect that settlement was denser and that boundaries had to be defined. The others relate to the rare grants of single fields or woods (Wiss. 244, 206, 212, 230 and 263, the last four of which are Carolingian). However, it may still be significant that the grants are measured in area (jornales and carradas), rather than by the length of their sides, with their bounds described, as they are in the Gorze cartulary. Two of the boundary clauses relate to lands in the Pagus Salinensis (Cutting, Wiss. 230; Gueblange, Wiss. 206), in the west of the area covered by the cartulary and thus closest to the region of the Gorze estates. The basic unit of settlement was the mansus, or its Germanic synonym hoba (cp. Wiss. 248, dated Wissembourg, 6 March 737; Wiss. 236, dated Wissembourg, 8 April 801; Schlesinger 1976). In the documents of the region of Metz, there is no reason to assume any difference between the meanings of the two words; both appear to mean a self-sufficient farm. A hoba could be given with a long list of appurtenances, such as described above (cp. Wiss. 236; Wiss. 248). Judging from those run by mancipia, these were small, family farms, though the mansus' population might occasionally be larger.10 There is nothing in the documents to restrict the term mansus to dependent holdings. As we shall see, a demesne farm was also referred to by this word. Smaller settlements are mentioned. In addition to mills, there are later references to houses (casae; Wiss. 258, dated Wissembourg, 13 Jan. 787; Wiss. 249 [216], dated Wissembourg, 15 Oct. 787). This might reflect a change in the meaning of mansus, with it now referring only to an area of land, with or without attached buildings, which were now listed separately. Hence 10

Cp. three longer lists of mancipia (Wiss. 227, dated Asswiller, 3 Feb. 718; Wiss. 241, dated Wissembourg, 18 June 737; and Wiss. 193, dated Ungstein, 19 Nov. 764). However, we do not know how many farms the series of unfree families transferred in Wiss. 241 originally came from. This is true of the slaves named in Wiss. 227, though these all came from the wider villa of Waldhambach. Wiss. 193 mentions no mansi, only houses and buildings {domibus et edificiis), so these slaves might have come from the same (?demesne) farm.

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SETTLEMENT

Wiss. 249 refers to manso uno et casa super stability and Wiss. 258 is a gift of a house, a granary and all that pertains to the house. The Wissembourg Lorraine charters first mention 'demesne' land (dominica) in the ninth century (Wiss. 212, dated Sarrebourg, 7 March 818), but 'Rhenish' Wissembourg documents mention such land in the 730s. It is difficult to know what significance to attach to the term's absence from the records. It seems unlikely to result from the fact that grants of demesne were simply never made; the charters include gifts of paternal and maternal alod, as well as grants of 'everything I own'. It well may be that, in Lorraine, this kind of estate organization was still absent. The overall impression of Merovingian settlement given by the Wissembourg cartulary is of dispersed, self-contained farms {mansi or hobae), with lesser homesteads such as mills scattered amongst them, grouped into villae. The terms fines and marca were also used to describe these small geographical zones, possibly corresponding to modern communes. A landowner might own any number of mansi, scattered across many villae, but there is little explicit reference to concentrated, organized bipartite estates. The picture is of a patchwork of landholdings, with some people owning many, diverse and scattered mansi, whilst others owned only one or two, or even only a portion of one. This image fits well with more recent interpretations of the period's agrarian history. There may have been focal hamlets within villae, perhaps including churches. That charters were almost invariably issued at villae rather than in marca or fines might suggest that the former always referred to an area of habitation. This interpretation cannot be pushed too far; Wiss. 202 was actum publici in villa Haganbahc but we have already seen that the villa of Waldhambach was a geographical zone containing a number of estates and lesser villae. In the late eighth century, a number of changes seem to have occurred. These involved an increasing concern to distinguish the villa from the marca and to measure units of arable and meadow. This probably indicates some reorganization of settlement, perhaps with increasing nucleation around 'focal hamlets'. It might only be at this time in this region that the classic bipartite estate became common. Even if the villa were increasingly an area of more concentrated settlement, there is still little overt mention of nucleated settlements, which perhaps corresponds with the lack of boundary clauses. By the ninth century, churches were possibly associated with demesne farms. In Wiss. 212 the church land is by the demesne. The Gone charters The Gorze cartulary (d'Herbomez (ed) 1898) contains forty-eight authentic documents relating to lands east of the middle Meuse valley between 745 and 864 (a date chosen to tally with that of the latest Wissembourg charters). The foundation charter, Gorze 1 (Andernach, 20 May 745), has been included despite the problems associated with its authenticity. Whilst it clearly does not exist in its original form, and may well be a creation of the eleventh century or later, it is not unreasonable to suppose that it was compiled from a series of original charters, as d'Herbomez (ibid.:3G6-7) suggested. The language used in the individual grants is consistent with such a 192

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supposition. The charters discussed here range from the area of Verdun in the west to the middle Seille valley in the east, where, at Vic, Gorze held lands only six kilometres or so from Marsal and the westernmost reaches of Wissembourg's estates in Lorraine. They thus relate to both a different geographical zone to, and a later period than, many of the Wissembourg documents. The use of the word villa in the Gorze cartulary is particularly interesting. In the early documents it has the same sense as in the Wissembourg cartulary, that is as a unit of land within which a person or institution (most of the early grants to Gorze were made of the properties of Metz cathedral) could hold estates. Thus: we give our possessions . . . in Daulfi villa [?Hadonville] . .. farms, dwellings, buildings built there, houses, small houses (casulis), courtyards (curtilis), gardens {ortilis), cultivated infield (olcis), fields, meadows, pasture, rights of passage [? entrances?] (perviisi) and arable land, cultivated or uncultivated, little woods {silvulis\ waters and water-courses, whether of paternal or maternal inheritance or share, or that which Primigenia my wife obtained through her dower. (Gorze 7, dated ? 1 Jan. 761)

However, in 770 occurs one of the few instances where villa indisputably means a classic bipartite estate. This document gives a precious insight into the running of a later eighth-century villa: Let it be known by all the faithful of God's holy church that I gave to St Gorgonius a villa called Quinciacum in the Woevre {in finem Wavrinse) above the river Azenna [Quincy, on the river Loison, Meuse] in exchange for a precaria in Warangisi villa [Varangeville, Meurthe-et-Moselle] and in Wasatico, of which these are the aspects of the aforesaid villa of Quinciacum: One demesne farm {mansus unus indominicatus) with all buildings, meadows, woods, waters and water-courses, and one church in honour of St Martin, which pays ten solidi per year. Demesne vines from which forty modii of wine can be collected. Other demesne lands with 250 modii per sown field. Similarly on other [demesne lands?] two malthouses (cambas) which pay 200 modii of grain. Two millers. One pays forty-two modii of flour and ten of cereals for brewing (brasio); the other twenty modii of flour and ten of cereals for brewing. To each of these millers one fatted pig. In the third place (? in tercio loco) is one miller who yields two-thirds to the lord and keeps one third for himself {qui duas partes reddit ad seniori et unam secum retinet) concerning the wood where ?800 (cccc cccc) [scribal error for 400?] pigs can fatten. There are thirty-three free farms (mansi ingenuiles) [clearly corresponding to thirty-three free men]. Each pays ten denarii of victuals in May. Similarly each woman pays three denarii at Martinmas. And thirty of flax from each farm. Each farm pays three cartloads of wood, and one pig at Christmas and three chickens and fifteen eggs. Each farm is responsible for ten perches of enclosure wall {et unusquisque mansus ad clausurum faciendam perticas X), and in May each farm pays 100 shingles. (Gorze 19, dated Quincy, 770) 193

SETTLEMENT

Note that the church was associated with the demesne land, and that the entire, clearly very large, villa formed a single estate. An interesting change in the usage of villa came about soon after the issue of Gorze 19. From about 775 the villa is repeatedly distinguished from the fines. The former is usually referred to as 'X's villa' or 'X's court3 whilst the latter has a similar stem but a regional suffix, either -acum, the old Roman estate suffix, or the regional suffix -ensis or -insis (as in Pagus Scarponinsis). Thus cin Ragnulfiaga fine or in that villa [of] Ragnulf's villa' (Gorze 26, dated cIgmaro Curte' [?], 11 Aug. 786); 'in the fine Lagbriacensi [-acum plus -ensis here] or in Labrigia villa' (Labry; Gorze 28, dated Conflans, 788); c in the fine Ingariunse or in the villa called Hingarigo Curte' (Gorze 37, dated PLandrecourt, 795); 'in fine Raginbertiaga or in that villa [of] Raginber Curte' (Rembercourt; Gorze 51, dated Gorze, 848). The examples could be multiplied up to the 850s but thereafter the distinction continues in the formula cin the villa called 'X' or in those fines' or something similar {in villa cujus vocabulum est Retingas seu in ipsafine,'in the villa of which the name is Retingas [probably Kedange, Moselle] or in those fines'; Gorze 85, dated Metz, 898). Again, these grants are often general grants of £all I own'. This seems even more clearly to indicate that villa now meant a sort of hamlet as opposed to the small region within which it lay, the latter perhaps corresponding roughly to the modern commune (the ratio of villae or fines to communes is roughly 1:1). Such a conclusion reflects the trends suggested in the Wissembourg cartulary. In other Gorze charters the grants relate to much smaller areas of land, as far as can be ascertained. Instead of grants of 'all I possess', there are specific grants of meadows, fields and so on. These are usually defined as having two 'sides' (lateres) and two 'fronts' (frontes), these being measured in perches. One example (located in Hununega fine vel in ipsa villa que vocatur Hunone villa (Hanonville, Moselle)) is as follows: 'This meadow is six perches long on one side and six on the other and is seven perches across the middle. The meadow is measured in legal perches with twelve feet to the perch, . . . One side Sevirus holds; the other side Dodo holds. On both 'fronts' forest defines the meadow' (Gorze 23, dated 775). The great majority of documents in the Gorze cartulary contain such a clause, modelled on Marculf 11.20 (or 11.24), or something similar, after 771. This increased concern with clearly defined, smaller land-units is underlined by a change in the use of the word mansus. It still means farm, hence continued grants of mansi plus appurtenances, but it can now also mean a small piece of land, presumably with a house and lesser buildings. Thus we have an instance of a mansus forty perches by three and a half to four perches (480 feet by 42 to 48 feet) and the use of the word mansus to describe plots of land within towns and vici. This latter usage suggests that other cases of 'measured' mansi could be plots within nucleated settlements. Grants of individual houses (casae) also point to the nucleation of settlements suggested by the change in the use of the word villa. One example of a grant of a house is Gorze 33 (St-Julien-les-Gorze, 21 Dec. 795); 'I give my house with all the Psurroundings pertaining to it in Warbodi villa at St-Julian' (et dono casam meam cum omni acinctu ad ipsam casam pertinentem in Warbodi 194

RURAL SETTLEMENT

villa ad Sanctum Julianum). The translation of acinctus as 'surroundings' is suggested by the companion charter (Gorze 34) wherein the donor, Deodatus, receives back the usufruct of his gift as benefice; in this charter the phrase is 'the house with all its buildings' (casam cum omnibus edificiis suis). Other documents Other written sources for the rural settlement pattern are scarce, and almost non-existent for the sixth century. Gregory describes Berthefried's stronghold in the Woevre as a villa, thus employing the term in its 'archaeological' sense.11 For the early seventh century we can glean a little from hagiographical sources. The Vita Arnulfi (c. 9) says that Metz cathedral had estates in the Vosges (backed up by Wiss. 244, dated cSt George's church on the Briischbach', Feb., 713/14), and at Dondigny and Chaussy-sur-Nied, but that is all. One potentially interesting piece of information is contained in the Vita Romarici (VRAH 3) where villa denotes a single possession. Having defeated his brother Theudebert II, and killed him and his supporters, Theuderic II added their villae to the royal fisc (villae eorumfiscidicionibus redacte sunt). Lex Ribvaria stresses the importance of boundary fences around houses, and of markers between lands, but there is no indication of whether these houses were grouped into hamlets or were the foci of isolated homesteads. However, it is perhaps important that no distinction was drawn between types of settlement in seventh-century Frankish law. For the later seventh and early eighth centuries, the handful of royal and mayoral charters confirm the impression given by the Gorze and Wissembourg documents. The charter issued to St-Arnulf, Metz, by Chilperic II (Pertz, Royal, 89, dated Compiegne, 8 June 717) refers to Mars-la-Tour as villam nostram nuncupante Marte (our villa called Marte), another of the few cases where a villa is described as a single property (the fact of royal ownership is perhaps critical). The grant also mentions a church (lit. churches: teclesias). Since mansi are omitted from the list of appurtenances, this might be a grant of a single farm-estate. There is at least one authentic charter issued by the Arnulfings to StArnulf (Pertz, Mayoral 2, dated Nielsio, 20 Feb. 685; Gerberding 1987:124 n. 47, for the date). Some others may be genuine (e.g. Pertz, Spuria 7). Many more have surely been lost; this was an important Arnulfing family shrine (though see ch.l). This charter is a donation of Norroy-le-Sec in the Woevre, about four kilometres outside the civitas of Metz, again described as a single entity (villam proprietatis nomine vocabulo Nugaretum sitam in pago Wabrinse). The gift is of a demesne farm and its appurtenances: fields, meadows, woods, cultivated and uncultivated land, mancipia of both sexes, and 'whatever else I am seen to possess in the aforesaid villa'. The charter 11

It is interesting to note, however, that on at least one occasion, when talking of the Touraine, Gregory clearly used villa in the sense which it has in the early Wissembourg charters (L//VII.47). Here Chramnesind attacked the house (domus) of Sichar, and, whilst about it, sacked the domi of 'the others who held shares of that villa* (spoliatis .. . domus omnes tarn Sichari quam reliquorum qui participes huius villae erant). For exactly the same usage in Burgundy, see Liber Constitutionum 38.iv.

195

SETTLEMENT

confirms the existence of demesne land in the late seventh century, but it is difficult to know how much more of the classic 'Grand Domaine' one might postulate. The existence of 'demesne' is not improbably connected with the fact that Pippin could refer to the whole villa as of his property, and thus that he had concentrated lands here. However, note that mansi are again absent from the list of appurtenances. It could be that the villa is the demesne farm.

Other evidence: toponymic and numismatic Toponymic evidence is too fraught with problems to be of much use (see above, pp. 10-12). We need only say that, like Merovingian cemeteries, place-names with the early medieval suffixes -ing, -ange, -y> -court and -ville usually lie below 300m above sea level and are largely absent in the Vosges. This perhaps indicates the general spread of Merovingian settlement. The only point to be made from the numismatic evidence is StahFs (1982:134) plausible suggestion that the names of certain mints are not those of permanent settlements but of malli: legal gatherings. The names on the coins in question are MALLO MATERIACO, MALLO CAMPIONE and MALLO SATIVIVI. Stahl suggests that the first of these is a corruption of the regional component of the Roman name of Metz, Mediomatricorum, thus representing the mallus which met there. The other two, on the other hand, are rural malli, with CAMPIONE being a corruption of campaneo and SATIVIVI an error for sativo. Given that Metz had its own mint and was referred to as METTIS on coins, it may be that MALLO MATERIACO is another rural mallus, using the regional name for the civitas.12 This suggests some form of periodic settlement; the malli were probably peripatetic but, given the requirements of Frankish law, that a mallus be held for three days or more, some type of shelter would be required. That these malli were held at permanent settlements is unlikely given that (with the possible exception of MATERIACO) no settlement name appears on the coins. Some form of locational neutrality would, in any case, often be required. We can suggest, then, that the rural malli were periodic or occasional settlements away from permanent habitation, and were perhaps the occasion for local exchange as well as legal business. Hence coins were struck here, at an agreed value, perhaps for use in legal payments. Seventhcentury law, moreover, set out strict procedures and required legal witnesses in certain business transactions {Lex Ribv. 62).

Provisional descriptive model From the above survey of different forms of evidence, we can propose a series of provisional descriptive conclusions, which can be tested when more and better data become available. 12

It must also be admitted that Materiacum is a plausible original form for such modern place-names as Mairy and Metrich, both in Moselle, the latter of which is the site of a large sixth-century cemetery (JGLGA 1897:323 and 1900:388; Keune 1903; JGLGA 1910:529-30; Toussaint 1938d:20; ClermontJoly 1978; Simmer 1987:368-75). 196

RURAL SETTLEMENT

Settlement terminology Contrary to an often expressed belief (cp. Samson 1987b), the contemporary terminology for settlements was not always consistent. The use of the word villa demonstrates this. In the period covered by this survey, villa could mean several things: a single farm estate; a small district, within which might be several estates; a settlement, probably nucleated, distinguished from the district with which it was associated (the words fines or marca also describe the latter). Mansus too changes or varies its meaning between 'a farm' and 'a small parcel of land, perhaps containing buildings'. These conclusions are not new but it should be useful to have them demonstrated in detail, and a rough chronology for changes in usage given, for one region. Settlement population There is very little exact information on this, except that Gorze and Wissembourg charters agree in describing the population of dependent farms run by mancipia in terms of one or two families only, with few exceptions. It seems that the population of a dispersed group of homesteads within a small district (such as a marca) should be reckoned at well under 200, and probably frequently under 100. The archaeological evidence supports this idea. The settlements discovered so far appear to be very small, perhaps only sheltering a family or two. This at least is the impression given by the site at EplyRaucourt cHaut de Villers'. In our terms the population of rural settlements seems to have been stable. Settlement economy The charters agree in describing the economic base of most settlements as subsistence. Estates seem to be self-sufficient. Doubtless there was exchange of goods between estates, especially those with differing resources, but the impression is given that landowners tried to acquire lands with as many natural resources as possible; woods, meadows, arable, vineyards or orchards, and water-courses. Subsistence involved agriculture and pastoral farming; herds and flocks are mentioned occasionally, meadows more frequently. Pigs are often mentioned in the documents, probably more commonly than other kinds of animal (cp. Gorze 19); Mapinius' letter to Villicus (Ep. Aust. 15) underlines this importance. Vineyards are mentioned frequently in the Gorze cartulary, and orchards less commonly; these resources feature less prominently in the Traditiones Wizenburgenses. Mills are mentioned in both cartularies, but such homesteads were involved in farming (cp. the pig farming carried on by the farinarii in Gorze 19) as well as in the processing of 'raw material'. Archaeology has so far shed little light on this problem. The impression drawn from Eply-Raucourt cHaut de Villers' is of a settlement based upon subsistence agriculture, but evidence of manufacture has also come to light. The preponderance of bone combs and amulets at Dieue-sur-Meuse (see ch.4) may suggest that the community there was involved in some kind of bone working. 197

SETTLEMENT

The organization of settlement Within rural settlements, whether homesteads or hamlets, a consistent picture emerges of organization into central houses (casae; domi) and lesser buildings {edificia). The building unit at Eply-Raucourt cHaut de Villers' with its dependent sunken-featured buildings and central post-built house fits exactly the more or less contemporary descriptions of domi et edificia in the charters, and particularly the gift of casam cum omnibus edificiis suis in Gorze 34. Community The aspects of settlement just discussed can be further illuminated by consideration of the question of community. The settlements described in our written sources and revealed by archaeology seem very small, but excavated cemeteries, especially those of the sixth century, suggest a much larger cemetery-using population. At Ennery, a population of eighty might be suggested.13 Consequently, we must assume that a number of settlements are sharing a single burial-ground, as was suggested above. The sharing of a common ritual focus might well argue that these dispersed settlements considered themselves to be a single community. In written sources, such a community might be described as the inhabitants of a villa or, especially later, a marca orfines.Thus the vicini (neighbours) of the Pactus Legis Salicae (45; 102) live in villae; we should see them as such neighbours within a dispersed community (this interpretation does not contradict that of Murray 1983:ch.4). The frequent translation of the Pactus' villa as Village' (cp. Rivers (trans.) 1986:91-2; Drew (trans.) 1991:109-10) is thus perhaps a little misleading. The shared ritual site created a neutral location at which the inhabitants of different settlements could exchange surplus. The changes in the number of cemetery sites in the seventh century, which, it was suggested earlier, relate to a change in the settlement to cemetery ratio, would thus have important implications for the size of such rural communities, and perhaps suggest changes in the relationships between the inhabitants of settlements. This will be more fully examined in the concluding chapters. 13

This is estimated as follows: There were fifty-five excavated burials of adults (defined, using the gravegoods, as men of over twenty years of age, and females of over fourteen), spanning two or three generations. This would give each generational unit as about twenty-five individuals. Assuming there are one generational unit, plus half of the preceding and succeeding units, alive at any one time, this would give a population of about fifty. Allowing for undiscovered burials we could push this upwards, perhaps to eighty or so.

198

6 Intermediate settlements: castra, vici, palaces and monasteries

Introduction In the Roman period the settlements which occupied a hierarchical position between hamlets and the urban focus of the civitas were known as vici. There were more of these than is sometimes supposed. In the late third century, many of the vici were fortified, becoming castella or castra in contemporary terminology. This chapter will be concerned with the fate of these vici and castra^ particularly the most important fortified sites (Sarrebourg, Scarponne and Tarquimpol) and the salt-making centres on the upper Seille (Vic and

Saarbrucken

• Schwarzenacker

Fig. 6.1 Places mentioned in chapter 6 199

SETTLEMENT

Marsal). New sites such as Thionville will also be examined. We must consider whether there were any sites which were lifted above the general level of rural hamlet. If so, how many were there, and what factors distinguished them? Finally, could any of these sites be described as towns?

Lesser vici Most of the lesser Roman vici appear to have fallen into insignificance in the Merovingian period. Nomeny, as outlined in the previous chapter, was abandoned and replaced by a very much smaller Merovingian settlement, while the vicus-site was used for burials (Cuvelier & Delestre 1986; Cuvelier 1988a; 1988c). A similar picture emerges from almost all of the other lesser vici. That several possible Merovingian cemeteries were found around Mackwilier1 in the last century may hint at fission into a number of smaller settlements. The discovery of cemeteries at Bliesbruck cLe ferme Ruppert' (Lutz 1956:17-18; Gallia 1960:231-4; Guillaume et al. 1988:71-2) and Reinheim (Schroter 1852; Mehlis 1877:70; MHVP 1880:246; MHVP 1884:58), a small distance from the vicusy southern and northern edges respectively, suggests a similar fate. The commune of Delme has yielded an unremarkable Frankish cemetery (REL:204; WG:map 6; Toussaint 1938d:9; Clermont-Joly 1978:no.469; Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:74) but nothing else. The same is true of Noveant (Lutz 1956:29; Bellard 1957:157-8; Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:249-50). Though Hettange has revealed traces of a Merovingian cemetery (Salin 1949: map III; Simmer 1987:360), information is vague and the settlement is not mentioned in written sources until the eleventh century (Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:125-6). In all these cases, however, a connection with the vicus is uncertain and any conclusions about continuity or nature of occupation must be suspended until further data are gathered. Noveant and Mackwiller (if the identification with the Machoneuuilare of the Wissembourg charters is correct, which is problematic) are only described as villae in the charters, and this may be significant. Basse-Yutz hints at something slightly different in that the Merovingian cemetery there is probably an extension of the earlier Roman one2 and it is conceivable that the site was used without any hiatus. No indication of the cemetery's size was given, however. A ninth- to eleventh-century settlement at Yutz, near the Roman site, was recently discovered {Arch. Med. 1990:3701). This consisted entirely of post-built structures; there were no cSFBs\ Study suggests that after a contraction in the late Roman period, the site was displaced slightly at some point in the post-Roman period, though the Roman alignments of buildings persisted (Baudoux et al. 1990:198-9). By the Carolingian period, Yutz retained sufficient prestige to be chosen as a frequent royal residence (see below). 1

2

BSCMHA 1858-60:5ff; 1863-4:map facing (SC)73, (SC)102, (SC)lll, (SC)133; 1864-5:map opposite 88; 1881-4:105; Forrer 1934:map opp. 230; Morlet 1863-4; Salin 1949:map III. JGLGA 1900:388; 1904:515; 1910:516-17 and Taf.VIII no.69; LT:91-2; Toussaint 1938d:22; Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:22-3; Simmer 1987:358:pl.X.

200

CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

Florange-Daspich presents similar problems. The Roman cemetery there was certainly still used in the early fifth century; a grave was found, containing over 100 coins, of which the latest (of Arcadius and Honorius) dated to 400-25 (Clercx, Dufresne & D'Huart 1843-4). Certain writers (cp. Beaujard 1976:302) consider these graves to be those of late Roman laeti; more recent analysis would suggest that they were of local leaders (Halsall 1992a). The cemetery was (pace Simmer 1987:346) used into the Merovingian era.3 Roman settlement seems to have been denser in the early Roman period (Baudoux et al 1990:140-1) but occupation is traced into the second half of the fourth century, as at Yutz. Traces of Merovingian settlement were located in the form of early sixth-century rubbish pits (Legendre & Krausz 1989). The excavators (ibid.:\29) suggest that these pits bear witness to tanning carried on at the site, and that a certain craft specialization was attested. It might be proposed that manufacture was an element of FlorangeDaspich's economic base. The site might thus have been lifted above the general level of rural homestead or hamlet. Recently, the via at Ste-Ruffine (Gallia 1986:302-5; Baudoux et al 1990: 176-8) and Corny-sur-Moselle {Gallia 1986:294; Blouet et al 1983:110; Baudoux et al 1990:135-6) have been investigated archaeologically. At Cornysur-Moselle, Ottoman 'cabanes' and one stone-lined CSFB' were found immediately above fourth-century levels. At Ste-Ruffine vaguely dated 'early medieval' (ninth- to twelfth-century) occupation was located above a Roman site including a fanum. Both sites were located under modern villages. This might lend support to the proposition put forward in the last chapter, that the sites which suggest continuous occupation from the Roman to modern periods were those of some prestige within the settlement pattern. Nevertheless, it must be said that no Merovingian evidence was found at either site. The identification of a mint at Augny from the mint-name AVANACO VICO (cp. Heidrich 1974) is far from impossible (Augny is referred to as Auviniago and Aviniago in the mid-ninth century; Gorze 51, dated Gorze, 848, and Gorze 58, dated Gorze, 857). Stahl (1982) more prudently considers the site to be unidentifiable. In the charter evidence the site is only described as a villa, and not as a vicus, unlike the known via of Marsal and Vic. Apart from a possible Merovingian cemetery discovered in the 1840s (Simon 18345a), Augny has left no archaeological trace of occupation in the Frankish era. Another mint-site is BILACO VICO, which Heidrich (1974:84) identifies as Bellange. Stahl again rejects this identification and Bellange is certainly not described as a vicus in any written source. Nor has it yet revealed any 3

L'Austrasie 1840:337; 1842:240; Clercx, Dufresne & D'Huart 1843-4:272ff; LT:32-3; Toussaint 1938d: 24; Simmer 1987:346. The description of weapons in the 1827, 1828 and 1843 reports is hard to dismiss as testimony to Merovingian burials, as is the 1827 account of balances, brooches and jewellery, all of which are uncommon in late Roman graves in Lorraine. Clercx's description of a filigree brooch sounds like a Merovingian style, and his account of the graves seems to refer to Merovingian rather than Roman burials. The account of a circular brooch with glass incrustations tallies exactly with typical seventh-century disc brooches (cp. Perin's (1980) type 31; cp. Delestre (ed.) 1988:plates XXII and XXIV). This interpretation was confirmed by recent excavations at the Tortier Ste-Agathe* {Arch. Med. 1991:385-6) which showed the cemetery was used in the first to fourth, as well as the sixth and seventh centuries.

201

SETTLEMENT

trace of Merovingian settlement. Nevertheless, the possibility of mints in these places should not be excluded. The other vici have yielded absolutely no evidence of Merovingian occupation, not even a cemetery, and these sites include Schwarzenacker, Grostenquin and St-Marcel. St-Marcel is only referred to as a villa in 936 (Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:287-8). It seems safest, at present, to assume that these sites were completely abandoned, at the end of the third century in Schwarzenacker's case. As for the others, we cannot currently, except in the case of Nomeny, decide into which of the following categories the fate of the vici fell. 1. Complete abandonment of the site and fragmentation of the population into a number of smaller settlements throughout the area. This is suggested at Mackwiller and Bliesbruck. 2. Shift of settlement to a site close by (as at Nomeny and, possibly, Yutz). This, of course, could be taken as part of (1). 3. Continuation of occupation of the old site on whatever scale. No evidence can be accumulated at present about the position of such settlements within the settlement hierarchy. That none of these sites is referred to other than as a villa is strong evidence that they were no different from most other hamlets by the later Merovingian period. The possibility of mints at Augny and Bellange has been mentioned, and would give these sites prestige, as might the manufacturing at Florange-Daspich. Perhaps the sites continued as 'focal hamlets' within the dispersed settlement pattern discussed in chapter 5 (this leading to Yutz's later status as a royal residence, for example), but that none regrouped sufficient services for them to be thought of as vici by Merovingian people, or as villages by modern researchers.

The castra or castella Le Heraple (fig. 6.2) The fortified hill-top site of Le Heraple or Le Herapel lies in the north of the civitas of Metz, near modern Forbach, dominating the Roman road from Metz to Worms (Lutz 1991:95-104 and refs). The name has been plausibly derived from an antique Hieropolis, so that Beaujard (1976) and Altmayer (1828-9) call it Hieraple. It is worth mentioning, however, that in the 1850s one M. Gerhard, despite arguing that Hieropolis was the original name, called the site Heerapfel, suggesting a different, Germanic etymology (BSCMHA 1856-7:239). The site was an iron age hill-fort. Well-published early twentieth-century excavations took place there under Emile Huber, which indicated settlement within the enclosure, backed on to the walls, and weaponry and other Roman artefacts were uncovered (Huber 1907). The site served religious, commercial and production roles, as well as being a valuable staging-post (Georges 1988). 202

CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

Fig. 6.2

Castra.- Le Heraple (after Wightman 1985:228)

The coin sequence ended with Honorius, so occupation into the early fifth century can be postulated. Huber (1894:303) suggested rebuilding after 414. Weapon graves were found, arguing that the local elite had some connection with the site. Such fortified sites are not uncommonly associated with these more military demonstrations of the competition for local authority (Halsall 1992a); Scarponne revealed similar graves, and the apparently unfortified site at Florange-Daspich was seemingly also the site of lavish late Roman burials (see above), if not necessarily with weapons. Merovingian artefacts are catalogued as from Le Heraple (Clermont-Joly 1978:nos.ll9, 192, 429, 906, 910 and 918), but there is no evidence so far of actual settlement on the site. The chapel of St-Helen and its associated holy well have been claimed to date to late antiquity (Bergthol 1955) but there is little evidence to support this claim. The chapel, though certainly older (Beaujard 1976:300) is first mentioned in the fourteenth century. There is no written mention of this site, and no mint has been identified with it. At present it seems safe to assume that at some time in the fifth century the castrum at Le Heraple was abandoned for more low-lying sites and henceforth played no role in the Merovingian settlement pattern, except perhaps as an occasional settlement, a refuge. Saarbriicken (fig. 6.3) Possibly the Vicus Saravi of the Roman itineries (Kolling 1965), Saarbriicken lies on the Metz-Worms road about ten kilometres north-east of Le Heraple. A small circuit of walls was built quite late in the fourth century, perhaps in the period of recovery immediately following the Alamannic wars of the mid-century. A house demolished for the construction of the wall contained a coin of Magnentius (Schindler 1962:16). Merovingian cemeteries have been located in the modern city of Saarbriicken at Malstatt-Burbach (Ber.SDS 1963:43; Kienast 1962:135ff), three kilometres to the west of the castellum, and at the Halberg industrial centre just to the south of Vicus Saravi (Ber.SDS 1976:3Iff; SKS records). Since pots alone were found on the latter site, it is possible that they are evidence of settlement outside the walled area. Traces of Merovingian settlement were found in the market place of St-Arnual. Remains of wells made of oak trunks 203

SETTLEMENT

Extent of early Roman X >>N vicus Mainz

St-Arnual (evidence of settlement)

Halberg cemetery

M

Fig. 6.3

Castra; Saarbrucken

were found, containing very late Merovingian pottery (Germania 1927:166). St-Arnual lies, however, to the south-west, just across the Saar from the Roman castellum. No mint has so far been identified with Saarbriicken and no Merovingian documentary evidence refers to the site. At present the archaeological evidence seems to point to abandonment of the walled site in the late fourth or fifth century and fragmentation into smaller habitations at St-Arnual, Halberg and Burbach. It is difficult to see the castellum continuing in use as any kind of higher order settlement. Sarrebourg (fig. 6.4)

Known as Ports Saravi in the Roman era, Sarrebourg occupies a site of strategic importance, controlling a crossing of the upper Sarre and thus the entrance into the civitas of Metz. Once again the vicus was fortified, possibly in the late third or fourth century, though no certain trace of the walls has

Evidence of ^ fourth-century abandonment Cemetery

Fig. 6.4 204

Castra.* Sarrebourg

CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

ever been demonstrated (Baudoux et al. 1990:179 pace most plans of the site). Numerous finds of Roman material have taken place in the town (ibid.:\79-8l; Lutz 1991:232-44). The general distribution of these finds (Baudoux et al. 1990:180) does not make the usual reconstruction of the wall circuit unreasonable. Across the settlement, occupation seems to cease around the end of the fourth century. The most dramatic evidence is the violent destruction of the mithraeum, dated to c. 395 (von Fisenne 1896:161 and Taf. 1) by coins of Honorius. It has been suggested (Laumon 1973) that the Gallo-Roman rural population abandoned their countryside settlements to the incoming Germans and fled to the castrum for shelter from the invaders. This is based upon a very outmoded 'ethnic' interpretation of the cemeteries and need no longer be considered. There is as yet no evidence of Merovingian settlement as such, though this is at least partly the result of a clear lack of interest in postRoman levels (cp. Hatt & Lutz 1960). A large cemetery has, however, been found around the church and neighbouring streets (Benoit 1862:47 (special pagination); LS:106; Toussaint 1938d:18). Whether this means that the Roman site was abandoned to funerary use, as at Nomeny, or whether it indicates continuous occupation is unclear. That the former is perhaps the more likely is suggested by the fact that a religious building, a chapel, was also established by the Nomeny 'Malnoy' cemeteries, despite the abandonment of the vicus. The cemetery will have rendered a large part of the central, possibly intramural, area uninhabitable. Perhaps the putative walled area was abandoned except for use as a refuge, and settlement moved just outside the walls (as at Nomeny, again). It is unlikely that settlement, whether within or without the walls, ceased completely at Sarrebourg. The site is referred to as a castrum {in castro Saraburgo; Wiss. 192, 1 Feb. 713), and of course the -burg suffix is simply a translation of this. This in itself would indicate that Sarrebourg was held to be different from the usual type of settlement within the region. Laumon (1973) draws attention to the fact that Wiss. 192 is witnessed by a Count Willibert to suggest that Sarrebourg was the centre of a county as early as the eighth century, rather than the ninth or tenth, as was sometimes supposed. This seems very likely. We might suggest that Sarrebourg was the centre of at least the southern part, if not all, of the Pagus Sarroensis and that it had some administrative importance. This is underlined by the existence of a seventh-century mint (Stahl 1982: 156; it was active around 620-40 according to StahPs dating; ibid.:\42 and chs.6-7 for the chronological scheme). Bobo, who also minted coins at Dieuze, is the only known minter. Stahl argues that the mint's presence is connected to the site's status as a p^g^s-capital (ibid.:134) and this is very plausible. Whatever the precise form of settlement at Sarrebourg, it seems clear that the site retained some higher prestige within the Merovingian settlement hierarchy. Scarponne (fig. 6.5)

The only castrum in the western diocese of Metz, Scarponne, lies on its frontier with the civitas of Verdun (later, when the course of the Moselle 205

SETTLEMENT

Evidence of early medieval settlement

Enceinte du Chateau cemetery «- 500m

A

N Liegeot1,branch of the Moselle

Fig. 6J

Area of vicus sampled archaeologically

100

50 M

Castra: Scarponne

changed, Scarponne became part of the bishopric of Verdun). Like Sarrebourg, it guards an important river crossing and the entrance into the civitas. A large fourth-century cemetery has been located and excavated though never published (see above, p. 76). As at Le Heraple, this includes a late Roman weapon-burial (again usually attributed erroneously to laeti; Masson 1975:151 suggests, on the basis of a very bizarre argument from anthropological data, that the entire population may have been laeti) and so was sufficiently important for the local elite to demonstrate their prestige there. The site was fortified, probably in the fourth century, reusing much material, like the walls of Metz and Tarquimpol (Gallia 1972:349-54). Archaeological evidence of Merovingian occupation has been found in the form of a sunken-featured building (Gallia 1968:373-6). There are indications that habitation continued without hiatus on this site, but here too this lies outside the walled area, to the east. The extra-mural cemetery also appears to have continued in use.4 Contemporary terminology distinguishes the site, like Sarrebourg, as a castrum, though the source here is Paul the Deacon's Book of the Bishops of Metz (Lib.Ep.Mett.:262). Scarponne was certainly the capital of a pagus, 4

De Saulcy 1831-2; JSAL 1869:15-16 and 179-80; 1878:110; Beaupre 1897:52-5; BSAL 1908:144; Toussaint 1938a:34-5; Gallia 1978:336.

206

CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

the Pagus Scarponensis, which extended into the civitas of Toul, and Fredegar (Chron.TV.52) describes one Frankish aristocrat as homo Scarponiensis. By the Ottoman period there was a county of Scarponne (as attested by tenthcentury forgeries, such as Pertz, Spuria 6). A charter of 912 also attests the presence of a mallus (Stahl 1982:34) and Scarponne was the site of a mint, between at least 620 and 660 (ibid.:156-7), with three known minters striking there (Fainulf, Waregisel and Fati). As at Sarrebourg, the mint's presence was linked to the twofold functions of river-crossing and pagus-caphzl. Here, again, evidence suggests that the actual walled area was abandoned. However, settlement continued just outside, and the presence of a mint and possibly a count, as well as the defences, add to the contemporary distinction of the site as a castrum; at Scarponne we have the clearest evidence yet discussed of a Roman castrum maintaining its high prestige (and even privilege?) into the Merovingian period. Tarquimpol (fig. 6) Tarquimpol, the Ad Decempagos of the texts, lies on the Metz-Strasbourg road, the present village occupying a peninsula surrounded by an etang created in the modern era (Baudoux et al. 1990:190-3). Tarquimpol had its own amphitheatre (Gallia 1982:331-2; photo in Baudoux et al. 1990:212; Lutz 1991:86). The site was fortified in the fourth century, enclosing eight hectares and thus joining the group of abnormally large castra in the civitas of Metz (cp. Wightman 1985:227). Evidence of occupation well into the fourth century has been discovered, and coins of Constantine III were found outside the walls in an uncertain context, suggesting, if not habitation, at least that a possible cemetery

Fig. 6.6

Castra: Tarquimpol 207

SETTLEMENT

continued in use into the fifth century. Within the walls, the best known evidence of TarquimpoPs post-Roman fate was unearthed under St Stephen's church. A cemetery of thirty-nine stone coffins, but with about 200 skulls, was found.5 The graves reused material from the Roman fortifications (plans in Clermont-Joly 1978:40, and Guillaume et al 1988:104). One intact grave was that of a woman, buried with lavish grave-goods, dating the site firmly to the Merovingian period, although it certainly continued into the medieval era. This burial was probably a founder's grave. It is one of two intact stonelined graves, located in opposite corners of the church's south-west end, and aligned with the church (this demonstrating the antiquity of St-Stephen's plan and orientation). The seventh-century date of the ensemble, making the lavishness of the grave-goods unusual, further marks the grave out as that of someone of local importance. Beaujard's (1976:305) suggestion that many of these graves are of Christian Gallo-Romans as opposed to pagan Franks is probably not now to be taken seriously. No mint is known to have existed at Tarquimpol, though one almost certainly did at nearby Dieuze (the mint-mark is DOSO; cp. Stahl 1982:33), where Boccichild, Bobo (who also struck at Sarrebourg) and Totto (who also struck at Marsal) minted coins. Tarquimpol is referred to as an oppidum by Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:263)y thus being differentiated from other settlements, at least by virtue of its walls. It is difficult to draw many conclusions about Tarquimpol's role from present evidence. Its classification as an oppidum underlines the fact that its walls gave it value as a refuge. Judgements cannot easily be made from Paul's failure to use the term castrum to describe the settlement. Perhaps he wished to avoid repetition of this term, already used in a preceding anecdote to describe Scarponne, whilst still alluding to Tarquimpol's fortified status and thus 'mirroring' that aspect of the Scarponne story. However, no other function can be attributed to Tarquimpol. No count is attested here and a mint functioned at Dieuze. Perhaps Decempagi was reduced in importance and was transferring some of its functions to Dieuze, which is a far larger settlement today. On the other hand, the existence, within the walls, of a probably Merovingian church makes continued occupation of the site possible, though the problems encountered at Sarrebourg apply here too. Interestingly, the Tarquimpol church and cemetery lie close to a gate in the late Roman walls, as does the Sarrebourg cemetery, at least according to the conventional plan of that site's walled area.

The vici Marsal

Marsal, Roman Marosalum, is on the upper Seille, in the heart of the Saulnois, the Merovingian Pagus Salinensis. Roman Marsal lay on the cC6te-deSt-Jean' about 2250m west-north-west of the present parish church, and was For refs., see ch.3 n . l l .

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CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

certainly occupied into the fourth century. Evidence of the production of salt has been located (Wightman 1985:94,141). An inscription of about AD 43 has also been found referring to the vicani of Marsal (ibid.:66; Lutz 1991:92). MarsaPs inhabitants then had some community identity distinguishing them from the inhabitants of other rural sites. For the first time in this chapter we are now dealing with a Merovingian site for which we have detailed written evidence. The Wissembourg cartulary contains three documents relating to Marsal, though only one is Merovingian (Wiss. 213, dated Marsal, 1 April 682-3; Wiss. 207, dated 1 April 792; Wiss. 215, dated Marsal, June, 840-1 [?833]). The forged foundation charter of St-Mihiel (St-M. 1) also gives land there. Not surprisingly, the two earlier Wissembourg charters and the St-Mihiel forgery relate to the production of salt, Wiss. 213 giving a more complete description of a salt-making workshop: for the making of salt, the holding (sesso), workshop [officina constructed with a gateway (portu), canals (canalis), and a barn (estatili), [an error for et stadile; cp. Gorze 5] and all the necessary utensils (et omnibus utensilibus ad racionem necessitatis huiusmodi pertinentibus). One side [of the holding] Bertram holds, and on the other Bobo holds; on one front the canal runs and from the other the gate [Pleads] to the public street (ab alio fronte porte usque ad stratam puplicam [sic]).

Wiss. 207 grants 200 pounds of the yield from two salt-pans, one of which belongs to Wissembourg, the other to St-Leodegar and St-Maximin, Trier. Wiss. 215 gives what seems to be a deserted mansus (et habet ipse mansus exterminacionem), bounded on one side by the public street. Marsal is referred to on the coins and in Wiss. 213 and 215 as a vicus but is simply called Marsello in Wiss. 207. Marsal was the site of, outside the civitas-czpitais> the most productive mint, with thirteen minters (Austroald, Theudulf, Muldulnus, Gisloald, Landoald, Garoald, Andoald, Ansoald (who also struck at Metz), Fati (who also struck at Scarponne), Fulculin, Theudemund, Totto (who also struck at Dieuze) and Luolframn) striking coins between 600 and 660 at least (Stahl 1982:152-4). This is one of only two Merovingian mints studied by Stahl to produce coins in the Carolingian era (ibid.:32). This mint, like those at Vic-sur-Seille and Moyenvic, was certainly associated with the salt-making industry. The only certain archaeological trace of Merovingian occupation consists of a cemetery found in 1882 at cLa Maison Neuf', at the foot of the C6te-deSt-Jean by the Roman road from Metz to Strasbourg.6 The unusual feature of the site was that, allegedly, all the burials were face down (but see above, p. 108, for reservations). The descriptions of holdings in Marsal are not greatly different from those of other settlements, as found in the Gorze cartulary at least, though, as has been mentioned, they differ from the usual descriptions found in the Wissembourg cartulary itself (above, ch.5). The distinction of the site as a vicus is significant. The production of salt was widespread at Marsal. Manufacture was a major feature of the site's economic base, though Hiegel (1981) 6

For refs. to cemetery, see ch.3 n.9. See also Lutz 1991:93 for the discovery of the Roman road.

209

SETTLEMENT

argues that, at least by the end of the seventh century, this was located securely within a 'domanial' economic system. Further economic importance is signalled by the very active mint. This and the terminological differentiation serve to distinguish the site from other settlements of the region. The Pagus Salinensis was centred on the vici of Marsal, Moyenvic and Vic-surSeille, but we do not know whether the administrative seat of the pagus was located at one of these specifically, or whether it was shared between them. Moyenvic Less is known of Moyenvic, the Mediano Vico of the coins and documents. Roman discoveries from the commune seem to be associated with the agglomeration of Marosalum at Cote-de-St Jean. Perhaps Mediano Vico was a suburb of Marosalum, though this seems unlikely. In 1977 aerial archaeological survey by Michel Loison discovered traces of rectangular buildings south of the river Seille at 'L'Enfer'. In the Merovingian period Moyenvic was the site of a monastery of StPient, which belonged to St-Stephen, Toul (Stahl 1982:33). It is possibly the alio vico where Duke Theotchar gave things for the making of salt {ad sal faciendum) in Wiss. 213. Six minters struck there between about 610 and 660 (Stahl 1982:154-5): Walfchramn (probably the Luolframn attested at Marsal), Trasulf, Theudemund, Bertemund, Garoald and Germanus (Garoald and Theudemund also struck at Marsal). A possibly Merovingian decorated sarcophagus was found in the village cemetery in 1901 {JGLGA 1901:409; REL:716; Toussaint 1938d:12; Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:243). Little more can be said about this site except that, again, salt-making, the associated mint, the contemporary distinction of the site as a vicus and the presence of a monastery almost certainly lift Moyenvic to a higher order of settlement. Vic-sur-Seille Vic is attested as Vicus Bodesius on a Roman inscription (Lutz 1991:93). In 1975 a third-century pit containing a 'ritual' deposit of artefacts was located near the church of St-Marianus in the village (Baudoux et al. 1990:194-5). Vic is frequently mentioned in the Gorze charters of the eighth and ninth centuries (cp. Gorze 2, 5, 53, 81 and 83), and, like Moyenvic, could be the 'other vicus' of Wiss. 213. It is referred to as Subterior Vicus or Bodesius Vicus in these charters, sometimes both (in vico Bodesio sive subteriori; Gorze 53, dated Varangeville, 849) and as BODESIO VICO on the coins. Gorze 5 (dated PArgancy, 757) grants a salt-making workshop very similar to that described in Wiss. 213, and a similar workshop is implied in Gorze 2 (of dubious authenticity, allegedly dated Metz, 25 May 754). The other charters simply mention mansi, arable land and meadow with boundary clauses like that in Wiss. 213 and in most other Gorze charters. Gorze 53 and 81 also show that, like other nucleated settlements of the period, in addition to the vicus itself there were surrounding fines, thefinesBodesiaga (note once again the use of the -acum suffix to denote the surrounding 210

CASTRA,

VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

district). St-Marianus, Vic, whose lands are mentioned in several of the boundary clauses of these charters, was also a possession of Gorze, as is made clear in Gorze 99 (dated Aachen, 13 July 944). Metz cathedral also held land at Vic, as did churches of SS. Martin and Maurice. By the late ninth century Gorze exacted a toll on the public street as it passed one of its mansi (Gorze 81, dated Gorze, 890). Coins were struck at Vic by Walfechramn (who also struck at Moyenvic and Marsal), Trasoald, Madelinus (probably the Muldulnus attested at Marsal), Fainulf (who also struck at Scarponne) and Domnolen, between about 600 and 660 (Stahl 1982:150). Archaeological evidence is scarce. The Garde Champetre of Vic gave a scramasax found in or near Vic to an abbe Harter who in turn gave it to the Musee du Pays de Sarrebourg (Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:322-3). As at Marsal, contemporary descriptions of the plots in Vic did not distinguish it from other settlements. The description of the site as a vicus is important. To this we can add another active mint and salt-making, to show a diverse economic base, including manufacture and exchange as well as subsistence agriculture (as attested by the fines Bodesiaga). The site was probably involved in the administration of the Pagus Salinensis, though, as stated, this service was not site-linked. At least by the end of the Merovingian period, Vic-sur-Seille was clearly more than a simple rural hamlet.

Palaces and monasteries Two other forms of prestigious settlement need to be considered: the palaces of the Merovingian kings and the Arnulfing mayors of the palace, and the monasteries established in the civitas. The first of these categories need not detain us long. Thionville, Theodonis villa, is mentioned as a palace from the mid-eighth century onwards, with Charlemagne himself staying there repeatedly7 and issuing the famous capitulary of Thionville in 806 (Boretius (ed.) 1883:120-6). We have no Merovingian mention of Thionville but the fact that the Continuator of Fredegar's Chronicle (c. 36) calls the palace a villa publica almost certainly means it belonged to the royal fisc. This might mean it had been an Arnulfing estate centre before, but it might equally imply that it had been a Merovingian palace. Roman evidence is sparse at Thionville (Baudoux et al. 1990:194) but there are several Merovingian finds (Toussaint 1938d:22-3; Hurstel 1984, vol. 11:306-8; Simmer 1987:377 and pi. XIV). Coins of Justinian were found under the town's fortifications in 1828 and 1873. Ceramics were found in a grave under the Avenue Clemenceau in 1982. A third cemetery is known on the site of the cTour-aux-Puces\ which now houses the Musee de Thionville. This cemetery, discovered in 1942, contained three or more graves lined with mortar-faced stone walls. No grave-goods were reported and so it is 7

Cp. Dipl Karol. 66-7 (April-May 772), 97 (May 775), 109 (Nov.775), 149 (May 783), 203 (Jan. 806); Royal Frankish Annals, s.a. 773, 782; Revised Annals, s.a.773, 782-3; Annales Mettenses Priores, s.a. 773.

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SETTLEMENT

not impossible that these burials are Carolingian. It has been suggested (Stiller 1986:5-6) that the Tour-aux-Puces originated as part of the Carolingian palace at Thionville. These graves might be connected with the palace church. Recently, an early medieval settlement, dating to the ninth to twelfth centuries and including sunken-featured buildings, has been found near Thionville on the site of the medieval village of Guentrange but detailed information is not yet available (Arch. Med. 1990:367-8). The fairly wide spread of these finds might suggest that Thionville was a settlement of some size in the Merovingian period, possibly explaining why it was more important as a Carolingian palace than Yutz, just across the Moselle, a problem which perplexed Stiller (Baudoux et al. 1990:194). Yutz was a more important site in the Roman period, but has nevertheless, as we have seen, yielded evidence of occupation in the early medieval period, and was also the site of a Carolingian royal villa. The site at Thionville would obviously grow in size, population and importance whenever the kings or their mayors were in residence, with their courts, officials, magnates, followers and attendants. In these terms it was an occasionally occupied, privileged village, with a fluctuating heterogeneous population. Nothing can be said about the other possible palace site, Sarreguemines. It has been plausibly identified with the Gaimundas of the charters but it is unlikely that it ever reached the high prestige attained by Thionville or Yutz. A single Merovingian artefact, a disc brooch, is recorded as coming from Sarreguemines (Clermont-Joly 1978:no.271). Nevertheless, the site can be described in similar terms to those employed for Thionville. As noted (ch.2), rural monasteries were very few in the civitas of Metz (Parisse 1981:11-20). Gorze, founded at the very end of the period, was undoubtedly the most important, with a large population of monks. A site like this, with its ancillary staff; its widespread estates which needed to be administered and of which the surplus had to be collected and brought to the abbey; and its regional roles, social, economic and religious, cannot be classified as other than a privileged village, with an economic base founded on a mixture of voluntary and compulsory supply. As for the other monasteries, they all had privileged status but their size will have varied between that of homestead and hamlet.

Conclusions The most obvious conclusion to be drawn from this chapter is the clear reduction in the numbers of intermediate-order settlements, or villages, after the Roman era. As has been outlined, the majority of the lesser via were either abandoned or reduced to the status of homesteads or hamlets, though possibly with some prestige within the immediate locality. Given that a significant contraction of the settlement pattern in the late Roman period was suggested in chapter 5, this is hardly unexpected. If the overall number of settlements is seriously reduced, then it is more than likely that the need for middle-order settlements will be correspondingly adversely affected.

212

CASTRA, VICI, PALACES AND MONASTERIES

Some castra may have suffered similar fates. Le Heraple seems to have been abandoned in the fifth century; Saarbriicken shows little evidence of anything other than dispersed rural homesteads or hamlets around an abandoned walled area. Tarquimpol similarly reveals little trace of occupation. Sarrebourg and Scarponne, however, particularly the latter, are the only castra to present serious evidence of higher-order status. Their status as mint-sites, administrative centres and crossing points (both of rivers and, effectively, of administrative boundaries), serving wide regions within the civitas allow us to describe them as villages for the bulk of this period. However, at both sites (as perhaps at Saarbriicken) the idea that settlement moved outside the walled area is not to be ruled out. On the upper Seille, three vici continued to function as higher-order settlements, though these too, as was made clear in the case of Vic-sur-Seille, relied heavily on agriculture. However, their involvement in salt production will have enabled a substantial number of them to exist other than on subsistence farming, from at least the late sixth century. Here too, mints existed, and very active ones at that, though the fact that several of the minters operated at more than one of these sites underlines the idea that the vici shared their regional roles. This is also suggested by the fact that none of them seems to have been the exclusive seat of the seventh-century Pagus Salinensis administration, but then there were barely four kilometres between Vic-sur-Seille in the west, and Marosalum (on the Cote-de-St-Jean) in the east. All three sites can be classified as villages. Population seems to have been larger than in other settlements and, as stated, was involved in manufacture and exchange serving a wide region. The kind of dwelling-unit in these sites is not distinguished by contemporaries from that in other settlements, but social differentiation of these settlements by the end of the Merovingian period may be suggested by the fact that Carolingian capitularies distinguished i>zo*s-dwellers from other inhabitants of the pagi. It may not be unreasonable to see some, if not all, of the vici reaching the status of small towns by the Carolingian era. Marsal would be the likeliest candidate. This reduction in the number of intermediate settlements was in part compensated for by the creation of new kinds of settlement: palaces, which were in effect occasional villages, and monasteries, religious vici. These will have fulfilled many functions analogous to those of the old sites, whilst at the same time providing a graphic illustration of the changes in society and mentalities which took place in the Merovingian period, changes which will be stressed further in the study of the capital of the civitas, Metz, itself.

213

7 Urbanism in Metz

Background1 The first occupation of Metz is neolithic, and later Bronze Age and Iron Age evidence has also been unearthed. In the La Tene period Metz became an important settlement, the capital of the possibly Belgic Mediomatrici. Its Roman name, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, seems to have been something of a mouthful even for the Gallo-Romans, and by the late Roman period the name had been shortened to Mettis, from which the modern Metz is easily derived (Chazan 1992 for medieval etymologies of these names). Like its Gallic predecessor, Roman Metz was originally concentrated on the Hauts-de-Ste-Croix in the angle of the Seille-Moselle confluence, but quickly spread across to the second of the city's high-points, usually referred to, from its later function, as the citadel (fig. 7.2). Streets were apparently laid out by the Augustan period (Vigneron 1986:72), but the exact street-plan (pace many plans of the Roman city) is unknown. The city soon had most of the attributes of a Roman provincial town. An impressive aqueduct brought water from Gorze, eighteen kilometres upriver; some of the arches by which this system crossed the Moselle are still visible at Ars-sur-Moselle and Jouy-aux-Arches. Baths have been located under the present Musees de Metz and the Centre Commercial St-Jacques, and an amphitheatre lay to the south of the city, the fourth largest such building in all of Roman Gaul (ibid.:236). A smaller amphitheatre lay between the Moselle and the main body of the city. The study of urban architecture in Roman Metz is well advanced; wealthy houses, temples, merchants' stalls, workshops and other buildings have all been unearthed (cp. Brunella et al. 1988; Baudoux et al. 1990:82-3, 110-12). The city's cemeteries stretched away to the east, north and, above all, south.2 Early imperial Metz prospered. It lay at a vital junction of Roman roads on the Moselle, part of the lifeline between the Rhine frontier, Trier and the Mediterranean. The aqueduct could apparently have supplied water to over 40,000 people and the amphitheatre seated over 20,000. Attempts to estimate the town's population from these figures have been made (cp. Vigneron 1986:68), but this methodology mistakes the purpose of such public works, which were designed to impress and to compete, rather than to meet precise 1 2

Brunella et al. 1992a:87-95 is the most recent, thorough bibliography of urban archaeology in Metz. Keune 1905; 1907-09; Knitterschied 1901; Simon 1834-5b; 1842-3; 1848-9; Toussaint 1948; Weidemann 1970.

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URBANISM IN METZ

Hotel de Police/ O Moulin des Thermes

Grenier de Chevremont Rue des Trinitaires J&

Parking/ Souterrain de ('Esplanade Q Ecole des Arts Appliques St-Pierre- / The Citadel

„

J

t Pare de r^ J Stationnement U /

Avenue Ney

•

Square Gallieni

•

Kev

N 0

Q-H6pital-St -Nicholas

100 200 300 400 500

O = Archaeological excavation,

—i

M Fig. 7.1

n = Coin find (to 1948).

Metz: sites mentioned in chapter 7

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SETTLEMENT

•

N 0

100 200 300 400 500 — M

# © €) ® ® I ^F O

Site yielding evidence of occupation. Cemetery. Site yielding evidence of destruction. Site yielding evidence of partial or summary occupation. Site yielding evidence of abandonment. Site possibly occupied. Ancient watercourse. Coin find. Church in existence. Church possibly in existence.

Fig. 7.2 Metz: early Roman 216

URBANISM IN METZ

requirements. It is no more than a neat coincidence that the late medieval population of 30,000 lies half-way between these figures. Lefebvre and Demarolle (1986:40) more plausibly suggest a population of 10,000 from an estimation of population density of >100 people per hectare. Metz was an important and populous place in the first to third centuries.

Evidence Before examining Metz's late antique and early medieval history, a brief discussion of the evidence upon which such an examination is based, and its problems, will be useful. Written sources for the period include references in most of the major narratives, to which can be added stories in two of Gregory of Tours' books of miracles.3 Local sources include most obviously Paul the Deacon's Book of the Bishops of Metz which is disappointing, including little of interest to this kind of study. To this can be added the local saints' lives, of Arnulf, Waldrada and Glodessindis, and later diplomatic sources such as various charters of Gorze Abbey (d'Herbomez (ed.) 1898).4 Finally there exist two valuable documents related to Archbishop Chrodegang of Metz's mid-eighth-century reforms, the Canonical Rule and the Stational List of Churches. From a long list of other snippets it is worth drawing attention to some useful descriptions in Venantius Fortunatus' poetry. The range of written sources is then reasonably wide for a north Gallic town, including most of the types of written source likely to be encountered in a survey of this kind. The pitfalls of using such patchy data are familiar. The use of Gregory of Tours' anecdotes for this kind of study can be likened to trying to write a history of late Tudor London from the props box of the Globe Theatre; Gregory only mentions physical features as props or back-drops to his stories: city walls for drunken deacons to fall off, churches as settings for miracles or grave robberies, and so on. The bishop was not interested in describing any of the Merovingian aw'tas-capitals which he undoubtedly knew well, not even Tours, and nor were many other writers. One exception might be Venantius, but the problems of using his flowery, rhetorical and above all flattering pictures are well known. Where the student of early medieval Metz is lucky is in the survival at a relatively early date of reliable topographical data, as in the Stational List. Clearly, it would be dangerous to drive a study such as this from these limited sources. We need more plentiful information, and that, obviously, is provided by archaeology. Published information exists for over fifty postwar excavations across Metz. These cover the Roman city fairly well, but there are significant blanks in the archaeological map. The quality of excavations has been uneven. In the fifties and early sixties, when the first major phase of excavation in Metz was begun, excavation was often under the 3

4

In addition to references cited below: Ammianus Marcellinus, Res GestaeiXVAl.ix; XVII.l.ii; Gregory, L//IV.7, IV.35, IX.13, X.3, X.19; GM 62; Fredegar, Chron. IV.16, IV.38-40, IV.74-5, IV.85; Continuation 6. Also interesting are Pertz, Royal 89, Mayoral 2 and Spuria 7.

217

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then Directeur de la Circonscription Historique de Strasbourg, JJ. Hatt. The problems of Hatt's archaeological technique are fairly well known - his desire to reduce all sites to a unilinear succession of 'layers' and his willingness to ascribe any black or burnt layers to 'sackings', whether directly historically attested or not.5 However, Hatt's work and that of his colleague Gerald Collot, then conservateur of the Musees de Metz, is, for its day, relatively well published, certainly better than the archaeology of most other French cities at that time. This means that it is not too difficult to read between the lines with these records. The period since then has been characterized by a steady improvement in archaeological technique, so that the employees of the Direction des Antiquites in Metz are as skilled as urban archaeologists anywhere in Europe. Unfortunately, the standard of publication has not improved comparably. The 'dark age' for the secondary researcher really comes in the 'seventies, before the creation of the Direction des Antiquites, when the valuable work of local amateurs is almost impossible to assess from their publications (cp. Biehler & Schlemaire 1974; Jolin 1982). Publication has remained poor, leaving the researcher either to rely exclusively upon the excavator's word or to attempt to read between the lines. Even given these problems, we must recognize that archaeologists in Metz are quite competent enough to recognize complex stratigraphical sequences and ephemeral traces of occupation. Iron Age, Roman, Carolingian and later wooden structures have all been recovered (Blouet et al. 1983), so it is difficult to employ the oft-used argument that vestigial traces of immediately post-Roman occupation have been missed. Consequently, as a rule of thumb, we can assume that, while arguments for areas of occupation are often based upon extremely tenuous data, the areas of extensive negative evidence are to be taken very seriously. Finally, mention must be made of topographical evidence. Apart from employing ninth-century Gorze charters for incidental detail, it is instructive to examine Metz's central and even later medieval urban topography to provide clues to what might have taken place in late antiquity. Clearly it is dangerously teleological simply to argue back from the tenth- to thirteenthcentury situation, and this has only been done when there are, however fragmentary, indications that a similar picture might have existed in the fifth to eighth centuries. Other forms of evidence exist, such as perhaps thirty or so sites of chance finds (up to 1948) of Roman coins (Toussaint 1948), and a well-known corpus of early medieval sculpture of vexed date but probably from the midto later eighth century.6 The coins are difficult to interpret as contextual information on their discovery is absent. We do not know whether a find of 'coins from Tiberius to Constantius IF represents the result of gradual coin loss spread over 300 years, the deposition of a single mid-fourth5

6

The clearest case of this is the frequently attested 'sack of 352', for which there is no written testimony. Hatt assumes that a reference to an Alamannic break-through on the Rhine that year means they must have sacked Metz, and thus pins on the Alamans the blame for any vaguely mid-fourth-century fires. The best description is Collot 1980. The data is most recently discussed by Frangois Heber-Suffrin in Cuvelier, Delestre & Heber-Suffrin 1988. See above, p. 188.

218

URBANISM IN METZ

century hoard, or fourth-century occupation with residual early coins. Furthermore, some extra-mural coins are quite probably found in secondary contexts in Merovingian burials and some could result from later extra-mural dumping from intra-mural clearing. Finally we must bear in mind the problems of residuality, both in archaeological terms and in terms of coins continuing in circulation after the date of their minting. The safest solution has been to signal coin discoveries as indicative of occupation of all the periods represented, and then point out the difficulties involved in this interpretation for individual cases.

Descriptive model: the late Roman period7 The walls (fig. 7.3) Discussion of urbanism in Metz must begin with the alleged results of the late third-century barbarian invasions. It is usually held that the city walls were a response to these attacks. The dating is unclear, however, as is often the case with Roman town walls. The reuse of third-century funerary steles gives a terminus post quern of c 300, but little more. Given the general absence of such monuments in the fourth century (Morris 1992: ch.6, esp. pp.l67ff, and refs.), their absence from the wall foundations should not be taken as too important a dating criterion. Burnand (1990:214-15) demonstrates that the reuse of funerary monuments in the foundations should not be taken as indicative of haste, urgency or poverty, either. The walls' exact trace is debatable (fig. 7.3 shows the alternatives). In spite of Vigneron's (1986:26Iff) arguments to the contrary, it is more probable that the walls ran along the top of the slope above the Moselle, rather than along the bank itself. There was perhaps a bastion, enclosing the undated small amphitheatre (Gallia 1984:342), as suggested by analysis of a seventeenth-century print (fig. 7.4). Burnand (1990:221-4) believes that the small amphitheatre post-dates the walls. For defensive reasons, this would seem unlikely. Wagner (1987; 1992) also adopts the theory of a rectangular bastion. The rest of the area, around St-Victor, was not enclosed by the walls until the Carolingian period, as demonstrated archaeologically (Gallia 1982: 325-6), and suggested historically by a late reference to Bishop Robert (883— 917) restoring the walls (Vigneron 1986:265), and a tenth-century reference to St-Victor as infra muros Metis. The walled circuit nevertheless enclosed 72 hectares of the early Roman city, more than was the case in most other late Roman towns. The Great Amphitheatre The Great Amphitheatre was left well outside the fortified area. Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:26l) said that when Clemens, Metz's first, semilegendary bishop, came to the town, probably in the late third century 7

Brunella et at. 1992b gives an invaluable catalogue of late Roman and early medieval discoveries in Metz.

219

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0

100 200 300 400 500 — M

Archaeologically attested circuit Wagner 1987 Gauthier 1980 Vigneron 1986 Leclerq 1933 Brunella et al 1992a (followed here).

Fig. 7.3 The Roman walls of Metz 220

URBANISM IN METZ

City Walls

Small Amphitheatre

City Walls

Fig. 7.4 A seventeenth-century engraving of the small amphitheatre (simplified from an engraving by Claude Chastillon, c.1614)

(Gauthier 1980:2Iff), he made his home, and set up an altar, in the caverns of the amphitheatre. If there is any truth in this story, it might imply the abandonment of the town's civic public buildings, and thus real fourthcentury contraction. Some darkness was shed on this (to adopt Mark Twain's phrase) when the site was excavated in the early years of this century, before the construction of the present railway goods station (Keune et al. 1892). The site had fallen into disrepair by c. 300, but showed signs of Constantinian renovation. Wagner (1987:514) mentions that Argonne ware found in the amphitheatre dated occupation there to 350-80. These traces have been variously interpreted. Wightman (1985:293) aligned herself with those who saw them as nothing more than a restoration of the amphitheatre's machinery; Oswald (1967) supported those who saw this as Metz's earliest Christian sanctuary, the later St-Pierre-aux-Arenes; Gauthier (1980:20-1), probably wisely, said there was nothing in the data to prove the case either way. Oswald's other examples of Christian sanctuaries in amphitheatres deserve consideration, however, and the tradition that the site was the first church in Metz seems fairly well grounded (Oswald 1967:159-60). The church of St Peter in arenam is attested in the eighth century, and the site was in Christian use in the fifth; artefacts suggested an early Christian religious use (depictions of fish and anchor). The Constantinian building was, moreover, in the amphitheatre's central sunken pit, which could connect neatly with Paul's statement that the altar was erected in cavernis ampheatri. In the final analysis, then, though the question remains open, the interpretation of the site as a Christian sanctuary is probable. St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains Another great late Roman monument is the basilica on the citadel, which, like the amphitheatre, later became a church of St Peter: St-Pierre221

SETTLEMENT

aux-Nonnains (or St-Pierre-en-Citadelle). The major problems relating to this building concern its date and function. The former is the thornier. The basilica was originally dated to the earlier fourth century, from the tiles stamped ADIUTEX (or derivations thereof) and found on other datable sites (notably the aula palatina in Trier, which St-Pierre resembles in plan; cp. Reusch 1943). The Trier tiles are found in a wall apparently unitary with one containing a coin of Severus II dating to 305. After recent excavation, samples of the St-Pierre tiles were sent for archaeomagnetic intensity dating, which suggested a date of AD 400 (±15 years; Delestre 1988a; 1988b). This would force us to consider St-Pierre as one of the last Roman civic buildings north of the Alps; a building on a large scale, erected at a time when imperial presence was fast in retreat for the south (see ch.l), when almost all other north Gallic towns had long lapsed into decay and when the greatest of them all, Trier itself, was undergoing a period of catastrophe leading ultimately to Salvian's memorable description of its desolation in the 430s {Governance VI.13, VI.15). Even archaeological evidence from the rest of Metz would make this surprising. The new date can be challenged on a number of grounds. Archaeomagnetic intensity dating is problematic and produces results which apply equally well to several different dates (Rolph et al. 1987), because the fluctuations in the density of the earth's magnetic field lead to similar magnetic intensities at regular intervals. This is clear from Delestre's own results (fig. 7.5), which, most significantly of all, allows us to retain the traditional date of c. 300. Delestre's rejection of this date (1988b) fails to carry conviction. Archaeomagnetic intensity dating is heavily reliant upon the quality of the sample and a fifteen-year margin of error would be exceptional even with more accurate directional archaeomagnetic dating. Moreover, there is no indisputable evidence to allow us to push the use of ADIUTEX tiles to c. 400. The kiln, at Haute-Yutz, was excavated and revealed no evidence of occupation after c. 350 (Toussaint 1950:227; Lutz 1991:290). The buildings immediately adjacent to St-Pierre were also excavated and dated to the third quarter of the fourth century by a coin of Valentinian I found in a foundation trench (Hatt 1961). This site also yielded a sample of tiles for archaeomagnetic dating, which revealed the date (somewhat suspiciously!) of AD 370 (±15 years). Hatt, however, opined that these buildings were stratigraphically later than the basilica. This cannot tally with a date of c. 400 for the latter. Delestre proposed that St-Pierre was originally built as the palaestrum of a public baths complex, associated with the definitely thermal buildings just to the north. Duval (1991:188-9) remained unconvinced, still seeing it as a public meeting-place. If the latter were the case, it is odd that the basilica turns its main entrance to face the presumed course of the city walls (less than ten metres to the west and thus hindering access). Ennen (1959:325) also drew attention to this problem. This might suggest that the walls here post-date the basilica. I would propose that the basilica was not built much later than the mid-fourth century, perhaps just predating the construction of the city walls in this area. This suggests at least a refurbishing of the town walls during or after the mid-fourth-century Alamannic wars (Ammianus, Res Gestae, XVI.2.ix-x; XXVII.2.iff). This would date the construction of 222

URBANISM IN METZ

100

200

300

400 t(AD)

i = Inclination (degrees) t = Date A & B = Average inclination for the two samples taken from the St-Pierre complex Fig. 7.5 Archaeomagnetic intensity dating of tiles from St-Pierre-auxNonnains: results (after Delestre 1988b:196 fig. 1)

Metz's walls in this sector to about the same time as the fortification of Saarbrticken (ch.6, above). Several writers have claimed that the basilica was never finished (cp., most recently, Duval 1991:189), but the evidence for this supposition is not compelling. If so, however, the construction of the town walls, cutting off its main entrance, may have been the reason. The basilica might then have altered in function, becoming the palaestrum of a baths complex built in the reign of Valentinian I. Finally, the suggestion that St-Pierre was a church from the start, put forward by J.-J. Hatt (1961), who thought that the baths mentioned above were a baptistery, cannot now be accepted. Archaeological traces of Christian burial, and of the basilica's remodelling as a church, date to the early seventh century and can be associated with the foundation of Waldrada's monastery (see below). The rest of the town (fig. 7.6) Metz survived the third-century chaos fairly well, though there are sites which seem to be abandoned at this time, that at the Tare de Stationnement, 223

SETTLEMENT

Avenue Ney' (Gallia Informations 1989:119), for example. The suburb of Pontiffroy8 was occupied until c. 300, but, apart from the site at St-Livier (see below), there was no more than summary fourth-century occupation, and most sites appeared to be completely abandoned. At the Hotel de Police/ Moulin des Thermes an undatable late antique, tile-lined burial was found (Gallia 1986:301). Within the walls, according to conventional pottery dating and coin finds, occupation is well attested until the mid-fourth century, as Burnand (1990:221-4) also argues. Thereafter, however, there is little recognizable activity (fig.7.7). Looking, where possible, at stratification, it seems very difficult to push occupation on almost any site beyond 400. At the 'Parking Souterrain de l'Esplanade et Rue Poncelet' (Collot 1964a; Gallia 1966:290-3), the latest Roman evidence, variously dated within the fourth century, was sealed by Carolingian or later destruction levels. On some sites, the last Roman evidence itself takes the form of destruction levels (as at the Rue des Clercs; Collot 1961b; 1963). There is little evidence of the cblack earth' so well known on late Roman British urban sites (cp. Esmonde Cleary 1989:146-8). Leclercq (1933: col.816) said that wherever one dug in Metz, the latest evidence was covered by a thick black layer. This may have stemmed from a misunderstanding of a comment by Victor Simon (1834-3b:429-30), but, even if not, since the last war such traces have mainly been found in the north of the walled zone, around the Thermes du Carmel, the Rue Chanoine-Collin and the Hauts-de-SteCroix.9 These layers are usually described as destruction levels, and sometimes associated with the so-called csack of 352\ The most recent examination of the evidence associated this layer with a fire (Arch. Med. 1985:226-7; Gallia 1986:298-9). A similar 'remblai terre noire' between the late Roman and Carolingian levels was located at section C of the 'Parking Souterrain de l'Esplanade' (Collot 1964a:77). These 'ashy' layers may represent the 'rot-down' of old wattle and timber buildings and roofs, but whether they represent true 'black earth' is, as yet, unclear. The most likely candidate is the thick, black organic layer covering the last Roman evidence at the Chantier de la Visitation (Hatt 1958). It is often pointed out that fifth-century material is difficult to date, and that very late and immediately post-Roman levels may simply have gone unrecognized, subsumed within the late fourth-century levels on the grounds 8 9

Arch. Med. 1986:247; 1989:367-8; Dautremont unpub.; Gallia 1980:409; 1982:324; 1984:343^; 1986: 300-1; Gallia Informations 1989:112-15; Schlemaire 1974; 1976; 1978; Waton 1986. Rue des Trinitaires: Roman evidence covered by a black layer containing Roman fragments. MAM 1875-6:375-86; Toussaint 1948:94-5. 'Chantier de la Visitation': fourth-century remains covered by one burnt level and one destruction layer. A building, dated by Hatt to the late fourth century, post-dated this and encroached upon the old Roman road. This was covered by a very thick black layer, rich in organic debris. Gallia 1958:323— 9; 1960:213-17; Hatt 1958; 1959. Thermes du CarmeP: fourth-century occupation covered by thick destruction level. Collot 1964b. 'Grenier de Chevremont': fourth-century evidence sealed by 10 cm-deep burnt destruction level. Gallia 1964:347-9. Rue du Chanoine-Collin: mid-fourth-century occupation covered by thick ashy layer including Roman debris. Hatt 1958; Biehler & Schlemaire 1974; Gallia 1974:353-5. Hauts-de-Ste-Croix: mid-fourth-century 'fire' confirmed. This sealed by a Carolingian building. Gallia 1986:298-9; Arch. Med. 1985:226-7.

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URBANISM IN METZ

Pierre-aux Arenes

Site yielding evidence of occupation. Site yielding evidence of destruction. Site yielding evidence of partial or summary occupation Site yielding evidence of abandonment. © Site possibly occupied. • Coin find. Church in existence. O Church possibly in existence.

Fig. 7.6

Metz: c. 270 - c. 350 225

SETTLEMENT

5/ -John-the-Baptist

o Holy Apostles

St-Felix

I

Site Site Site Site

yielding yielding yielding yielding

evidence evidence evidence evidence

Key of occupation. of destruction. of partial or summary occupation. of abandonment.

100 200 300 400 500 O

Fig. 7.7 226

Church in existence. Church possibly in existence

Metz: c. 350 - c. 400

URBANISM IN METZ

of the latest coins. It has also been argued that the post-Roman levels have either not been recognized because of their ephemeral nature, or have been destroyed by later rebuilding. The first argument is the more plausible. When archaeologists in Metz have recognized pre-Roman, Roman and medieval timber buildings, it is, as stated, unlikely that, in recent years, they have missed Merovingian buildings. Similarly, though some destruction by later occupation is certain, it is unlikely that, across an uneven site such as Metz, all occupation between late Roman and Carolingian should have systematically been sheared off. Pierre-Edouard Wagner (1992:212-13) makes a similar point. As for the invisibility of fifth-century material, the sporadic use of furnished burial, especially at the end of the century, gives us a fair indication of what fifth-century material culture looked like. Recent reexaminations of Argonne ware have attempted to allow the use of this pottery into the fifth century (P. Brunella/?ers. comm. 1988; Feller & Poplineau 1988, an introductory survey, remains the only publication). In Metz, the reasoning behind this seems to be to close the archaeological gap between the late Roman and Carolingian periods, and so make the excavated data fit an image of a thriving 'capital' drawn from written records. However, as Ewig (1963) argued, we should not assume that a Merovingian 'capital3 was anything like a later medieval city. As mentioned, on stratigraphic grounds, it is very difficult to push occupation beyond c. 400, and many late Roman levels directly underlie Carolingian or later medieval levels. The hiatus between the late Roman and Carolingian or later periods is thus well attested and common.10 Possible exceptions include the sites of the Great Amphitheatre, where late fourth-century Argonne ware was found (Wagner 1987:514), the Hopital St-Nicholas, which turned up a sherd of fifth-century pottery (N. Dautremontpers. comm.), and above all St-Pierreaux-Nonnains. These finds are all concentrated in the southern part of the walled area or in between the city walls and the Great Amphitheatre. There is some possible later fourth-century summary occupation of the former baths on the Thermes du Carmel site (Hatt 1959; Gallia 1964:347-9). Occupation in the extra-mural Pontiffroy area, under the later church of St-Livier, reaches the end of the fourth century but probably not the fifth (Gallia 1980:409; Gallia 1982:324). Coin finds are known across the city but within the walled area are most common in the south. Coins later than the mid-fourth century are rare. Seven sites in Toussaint's 1948 inventory yielded coins of Magnentius, Valens and Valentinian I, and six produced coins of Gratian and Valentinian II. Coins of the Theodosian dynasty were found at only two. The Rue des Benedictins find, a coin of Theodosius, was accompanied by 'objects of Frankish date', and the Rue St-Eucaire, where a coin of Arcadius was found, is in an area which has yielded several Frankish burials. It seems most likely that these two very late Roman coins were found reused in Merovingian burials. This is probably true for a number of other Roman coin finds, and no significance can therefore be attached to their extra-mural location. What is significant is that Metz yields Roman coin finds only up to the 380s. 10

See above, n. 9, for sites around the Hauts-de-Ste-Croix. Hopital St-Nicholas: N. Dautremont pers. comm.

227

SETTLEMENT

This compares interestingly with the general region of Lorraine (Stein 1989b: tab. 1-3), where coins are found into the early fifth century, with thirty-four find-spots of Theodosian coins. Churches of certain Roman date11 are, as would be expected, grouped outside the walls; one (St-Pierre-aux-Arenes) is in the amphitheatre, and another (St-John the Baptist) just outside, with the other two (Holy Apostles and St-Felix), as is often the case, on the site of the earlier Roman cemetery, though both perhaps slightly away from areas of later Roman inhumations. The closest graves to the church of the Holy Apostles (according to Weidemann) are in fact early cremations (Weidemann 1970:150-4 and Abb.2). This church, though built in the Roman sub-urban cemetery, may thus not have been built over the graves of early Christians.

The hiatus, c. 400 - c. 550 The fifth century Fifth-century evidence is extremely sparse (fig. 7.8). As stated, one sherd of fifth-century pottery was found at the Hopital St-Nicholas, and a possibly mid- to late fifth-century pitcher was found in the amphitheatre (Clermont-Joly 1978: no.894). There are also references to palaeochristian ware at the Espace Serpenoise (Verdel unpub.) though the excavators saw this site as abandoned before the end of the fifth century (the site is partially published in Verdel 1986). Again, there is a concentration in the southern part of the walled city, and between the walls and the amphitheatre. No evidence of occupation can be located anywhere else. The bulk of the walled area seems simply to have been abandoned and to have fallen into disrepair. The only certain fifth-century church-foundation is that of St-Stephen, the future cathedral, founded between 415 and 451 almost certainly on its present site, overlooking the Moselle, near the postulated site of the forum (cp. Bour 1930 and 1938, contra Wolfram 1892; Heitz 1982). From the cemeteries around Holy Apostles, St-Felix and St-Pierre-aux-Arenes, a few stone inscriptions are known.12 The sack of Metz and the transfer of the cathedral The most dramatic event of Metz's history in this period was its sack by Attila's Huns in 451. This was noted by Hydatius (Chronicle:100-1) in Spain, and 120 years or so later, Gregory of Tours (L//II.6) recorded a miracle story associated with the attack. It also provided the occasion for a very curious collection of stories by Paul the Deacon (Lib.Ep.Mett.:262-3). Paul conflates Gregory's miracle story with the tale recorded in the previous 11

12

Weidemann (1970) dated about twenty Messin churches to the late Roman period, on the strength of their patrocinia. This methodology is very dangerous, and his results rather unlikely. I have based my dating on Gauthier's (1986:42-53) more reliable chronology, modifying it by comparison with archaeology. Gauthier 1975: nos.1243-4 and 1252-3 (possibly also of late fourth-century date), 1251, 1255 and 1257.

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0

100 200 300 400 500 M Fig. 7.8

Site yielding evidence of occupation. Site yielding evidence of destruction. Site yielding evidence of partial or summary occupation. @ Site yielding evidence of abandonment. © Site possibly occupied. I Coin find. • Church in existence. O Church possibly in existence.

Metz: c. 400 - c. 500 229

SETTLEMENT

chapter of the Histories, wherein, at some unspecified time before 451, Bishop 'Aravatius' of Tongres (probably the Servatius attested in 349-56; Gauthier 1980:140-1) journeys to Rome to pray for his civitas safety. Though Paul rightly corrects Gregory's 'Aravatius' to Servatius, he moves his visit forward to 451. He further says that the Huns initially abandoned the siege of Metz on account of the strength of the city's walls, and moved south to attack Scarponne. Whilst they were away, Servatius passed through Metz, warning his friend, Bishop Auctor, of impending doom, and went on his way. The city walls then miraculously collapsed, and the Huns returned and destroyed the city. Paul next records a miracle wherein Auctor forces the Huns, at Tarquimpol, to release their prisoners, by successfully praying for an eclipse. This is a medley of tales. In addition to the stories from Gregory, the first incarnation of the Nibelungenlied's tale of how Attila killed Gundigar, king of the Burgundians, and the modification of a story from Genesis (below, n. 13), the collapsing walls of Metz are found earlier in Fredegar's Chronicle (11.60), albeit in association with the barbarian invasion of 407. Scarponne and Tarquimpol also feature in Ammianus' Res Gestae (XVI.2.ix-x, XXVII.2.i), as the site of battles between Romans and Alamans. Paul had not read Ammianus, but the coincidence is striking, and suggests that stories linking these castra with 'barbarians' were circulating in the late eighth century. Barnish (1992, esp., for Metz, pp.45-6) has discussed the ways in which later traditions competed in associating particular episcopal sees with the calamitous events of 451. Goffart (1988:374) sees Paul's account as representing the 'flood' in a history using a decidedly biblical structure. I would further argue that Auctor's episcopate 'mirrors' that of Chrodegang, on the other side of Arnulf's, at the crux (Lib.Ep.Mett.:264-5). The destruction of 'Rome' in Metz in Auctor's time is mirrored by its 'renovation' there in Chrodegang's; Servatius' journey from Rome to Metz matches Chrodegang's from Metz to Rome; and the miracle of Auctor's restoration of the broken altar (ibid.:263) mirrors Chrodegang's works of rebuilding (ibid:26S). Whatever the case, the sack presents a problem. If Metz was largely deserted in this period, why should its destruction have been so noteworthy, the shock-waves even reaching Hydatius in Spain? The problem is perhaps not so difficult to resolve. Evidence of desertion, as stated, comes from within the walled area; certain hints of fifth-century occupation are extramural, as are all except one of the fifth-century churches. A shift of population away from the walled zone is possible. It is possible to see how, in Gregory of Tours' words, the Huns could have 'burned the town to the ground' and 'slaughtered the populace with the sharp edge of their swords' without setting foot inside the walls. Gregory's statement (LH II.6) that the Huns 'killed the priests of the Lord in front of their holy altars' must refer to events outside the walls (Wagner 1987:514 comes to a similar conclusion). The only church 'miraculously' to escape the sack was St-Stephen, the only intra-mural church.13 13

I originally suggested (Halsall 1990:180) that this reason for St Stephen's preservation may have been behind Paul the Deacon's story that it was spared because it took on the appearance of a solid block of stone and the Huns could not find a way in. It is probably more likely, however, that this miracle is borrowed from Genesis 19.xi, where the men of Sodom were similarly unable to find a way into Lot's house. This would fit well into Paul's description of the sack, which draws upon Gregory of Tours' account (LH 11.6). Gregory talks of the sack of Metz as though it were a fifth-century equival-

230

URBANISM IN METZ

The reasons for the shock felt at Metz's destruction are surely to be sought in Christian outrage at the violation of sanctuary, the slaughter of priests and their congregations, and above all at the fact that this took place on Easter Eve. Metz's population will have been swollen for the Easter festival which in the fifth century was the only time when people were supposed to be baptized. As, according to church rulings, baptism was still a prerogative of the bishop, most baptisms for the whole civitas had to take place in the episcopal complex on this day. The population will also have been increased by people seeking spiritual protection from the Huns. The later fifth century will have seen, primarily as a result of the Hunnish attack, the transfer of the status of cathedral to St-Stephen. Before 451, it seems that the bishops resided outside the walls, as is in fact claimed by the thirteenth-century History of St-Arnulf, Metz. The History claims that St-Arnulf, then the church of the Holy Apostles, was the cathedral, but St-Pierre-aux-Arenes is perhaps more likely (with its nearby associated church of St John the Baptist, a possible baptistry). This could explain why St-Stephen is referred to as the oratorium sancti stephani, rather than as a cathedral, in accounts of the sack.14 The early sixth century (fig. 7.9) During the earlier sixth century, evidence is again largely absent. The Espace Serpenoise records refer to sixth century pottery but admit that there was no permanent occupation. The area appears to have been abandoned, or given over to horticulture. Sondages showed this to be the case at the nearby Rue des Clercs too (Wagner 1987:513; Verdel unpub.), even though Roman buildings here continued to stand (Jolin 1977; see below). The Hopital StNicholas site shows no traces of occupation, but the pitcher from the amphitheatre, referred to above, could also be early sixth century in date. Apart from that, there are some possible, but far from certain, church-foundations in the southern extra-mural zones. Even the series of inscriptions from the Sablon cemetery almost dies out.15 A new furnished cemetery appears to be founded, on the site of the Jardin-Botanique (Clermont-Joly 1978:32-3).

The later sixth and seventh centuries The main sixth-century development was the Austrasian kings' adoption of Metz as their principal urban residence, in the 560s (see ch.l). The reasons for the choice of Metz probably relate to its central position within Austrasia. From this time there seems to have been an upsurge in the fortunes of

14

15

ent of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ((in reported speech of SS. Peter and Paul) "But the rest of the town, we will not spare, because the sentence of the Lord's decree has already been passed upon it. For the sins of the people grow stronger and the clamour of their malice has risen before the Lord."). Indeed, at Lib.Ep.Mett.:263, the Huns are, like the men of Sodom, 'blinded in mind'. I am grateful to Dr Sam Barnish for drawing my attention to this. It has to be said, however, that this terminology has never been an insurmountable obstacle to the church's status as cathedral in 451. Vieillard-Troiekouroff 1976:172-5 gives examples of other cathedrals called oratoria. Gauthier 1975: no.1245, to Paulus, possibly dates to the early sixth century. Nos. 1248-9 are of possible sixth-century date, whilst nos. 1247 (to Arlaius) and 1250 are of sixth century or later date.

231

SETTLEMENT

St -Benignus

o •

N 0

100 200 300 400 500 wmim

M

Fig. 7.9 232

0 ® Q @ 0 • • O

Key Cemetery. Site yielding evidence of occupation. FH Site yielding evidence of destruction. Site yielding evidence of partial or summary occupation. Site yielding evidence of abandonment. Site possibly occupied. ^HHl Ancient watercourse. Coin find. Church in existence. Church possibly in existence.

Metz: c. 500 - c. 550

URBANISM IN METZ

the town (fig. 7.10). By the later sixth century there are certainly two and possibly six cemeteries in use.16 A couple more churches are now certainly in existence, with a larger number possibly founded at this date. The only archaeological traces of occupation in Metz which might date to this period were found recently at 7 Rue Taison/12 En Jurue (Brunella et al. 1992b:28; Gallia Informations 1989:117-18). A sixth- or seventh-century pit was found, containing pottery, a decorated bone disc and a mortar. Venantius claims that the city's walls were restored at this time. If the picture of settlement straddling the south-eastern walls is correct it is not difficult to see how they might have fallen into disrepair. Gregory of Tours (VSM IV.29) mentions a bridge over the Moselle, probably the present Ponta-Moselle/Pont-St-Georges, north of the walled city. As suggested in chapter 1, the see of Metz, from the later sixth century, seems to have been held by people closely connected to the royal family, a development obviously connected with the presence of the royal palace at Metz. Wagner (1987:513) has plausibly identified this with the large Roman basilical building known as La Maison Quarree just south of the cathedral. This survived, two storeys high, into the eighteenth century, when it was drawn by the two Benedictines compiling their excellent, unfinished history of Metz (Francois & Tabouillot 1769-90). The bear-baiting mentioned by Gregory (LH VIII.36) would then have taken place in the nearby small theatre. The revival of which the roots can be seen in the later sixth century is in even clearer evidence in the seventh (fig. 7.11). A dozen more churches were certainly in use, including the nunnery of St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains, founded at the beginning of the seventh century. Gauthier (1980:296-7; 1986:43) originally dated this foundation to the 670s, identifying Waldrada's father Eleutherius with Leuthar, duke of the Alamans, attested in 643. This makes the King Theuderic mentioned in the Vita Waldradae Theuderic III rather than Theuderic II. However, the earlier version of the vita, a charter in origin (above, ch. 2, n. 10), states specifically that the monastery was founded at the time of Theuderic and Theudebert, sons of Childebert, making an identification with Theuderic III impossible. One need only emend Theuderici to Theudeberti in the last sentence of the Life to make it make sense, and evade Gauthier's objection that Theuderic I never reigned in Metz whilst his brother was alive. The archaeological evidence from the site, both structural (Delestre 1988a) and cemeterial (Clermont-Joly 1978: nos.201, 451 and 966, 985-6), place the site's religious use in the early seventh century. Gauthier has more recently (1988:376) returned to an early seventh-century date. The patrocinia of the probably seventh-century foundation of St-Sigolena (a saint from Albi) demonstrates Metz's connections with the Auvergne and the Midi (Levison 1948c; most recently, Elziere 1993). This link is also shown by the dedications of St-Amantius (from Rodez), another probably seventh-century cult (ibid., n. 102), St-Victor (from Marseille) and St-Julian 16

Possible new cemeteries: 'Brasserie Messine' (Rue Wilson and Rue Leclerc-de-Hautecloque; ClermontJoly 1978: nos. 37, 47, 50, 58-9); Porte de Thionville (ibid, no.96); Rue des Allemands (ibid, no.419); 'Les Halles' (= Rue au Ble?; ibid, nos.39-40). It should be noted that these lists are of the earliest possible artefacts found on these sites only, and that all of these objects could also be of seventhcentury date. The other objects found at 'Les Halles' and the 'Brasserie Messine' make a seventhcentury date more likely.

233

SETTLEMENT

0

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Metz: c. 550 - c. 600

URBANISM IN METZ

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Fig. 7.11 Metz: c. 600 - c. 700 235

SETTLEMENT

(from Brioude). A further dozen churches possibly existed in the seventh century. Furnished burial is now well attested17 and the series of Messin funerary inscriptions resumes.18 More interestingly, we have evidence of occupation from at least four sites in the southern half of the walled area,19 as might have been expected. As well as the Rue Taison evidence mentioned above, some sherds of postRoman pottery were found at the Rue du Chanoine-Collin (Hatt 1958), dated by Hatt to the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. This dating can no longer be checked, and nor can that of the pottery associated with rough stone foundations on the nearby site of the Grenier de Chevremont (Gallia 1964:347-9), which Hatt associated (almost certainly incorrectly; Wagner 1987:513) with the royal palace. The Vita Arnulfi gives some precious insights into life in Metz at this time, mentioning urban processions (VA 10; also recorded by Gregory of Tours in the late sixth century), registered poor (VA 14), or matriculariiy a royal granary within the town (VA 20) and so on. Gold coins were minted in Metz in the early and middle seventh century, the Metz mint being easily the most active in the north-east (Stahl 1982:143-7).

The eighth century By the mid-eighth century, when we have the Stational List to help us, no less than forty-three churches were in existence, with two more associated with the town, only a short distance away (fig. 7.12). From this source and some ninth-century charters we can name certain quarters of the city. The area around the cathedral was unsurprisingly known as infra episcopo (Heitz 1967), the area south of the walls was called the suburbium, with the eastern extra-mural quarter across the Seille known as in viciniolo. The southern part of the intra-mural area was referred to as in sinodochio, from the hostels which existed there. The Arnulfings may have had a town house in Metz at the 'Rome-Salle', a large Roman building still standing in the later middle ages (Wagner 1987:512) between the present Rue des Clercs and Rue Serpenoise (see also Collot 1961a; Jolin 1977), as claimed by a late and problem17

18 19

'Brasserie Messine' (possibly associated with St-Benignus?), 'Les Halles' (possibly associated with St-Victor), and cemetery around Porte des Allemands (possibly associated with St-Eucharius) now certainly in use (Clermont-Joly 1978: no.299 is a seventh-century brooch from the Porte des Allemands). Jardin-Botanique site possibly still in use; the Lunette d'Arc^on cemetery (associated with Holy Apostles) and other 'Sablon' sites certainly are. New cemeteries: St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains (see above); Rue Paul-Diacre (ibid. nos. 913, 987; Clement 1936); Rue de PEveche (Clermont-Joly 1978: nos.109 and 209). Gauthier 1975: nos. 1242 (to Aspasius), 1254 and 1256, with the possible addition of 1247, 1250 and 1257. Isolated finds of seventh-century pottery from Square Gallieni (Clermont-Joly 1978: no.960), En Nexirue (ibid, no.964), Place de la Republique (ibid, no.972) and 'St-Pierre-aux-Nonnains' (ibid. no.966). The last is certainly that found, with a Carolingian vase in a thick organic layer covering the last Roman occupation at the Ecole des Arts Appliques (Collot 1967-8). Whether this is indicative of a cemetery or habitation is unclear. Other evidence suggests a seventh-century cemetery around StPierre (see above), but, as we have seen, the deposition of ceramics in new seventh-century cemeteries was extremely uncommon. The similar vase found at the Rue Paul-Diacre (ibid, no.913) is, however, almost certainly funerary, associated with the seventh-century cemetery located there (above, n.17).

236

URBANISM IN METZ

St-Mary-\

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Metz: c. 700 - c. 800, and later 237

SETTLEMENT

atic charter (Pertz, Spuria 7).20 This clearly does not exist in its original form, but we might accept that it possibly represents an authentic tradition. In the early eighth century the Metz mint struck silver deniers (Lafaurie 1987:92); its last 'Merovingian' style coins date to the 750s (ibid.:93). The mint was not very busy in the later eighth century, and only really began to be active again under Louis the Pious, when, as one might expect in the cCarolingian renaissance', the mint-mark changed from METTIS CIVITAS to MEDIOMATRICORUM. A number of late Merovingian deniers have been found at Metz (ibid.:92n.33). Archaeological evidence of Carolingian occupation in the southern intramural and south-eastern extra-mural zones, which might be pushed back to this period, has been found on the Espace Serpenoise (Verdel 1986; unpub.), the Hopital St-Nicholas (N. Dautremont pers. comm.), and near St-Pierreaux-Nonnains (Hatt 1961). By the end of the century occupation had returned to the north of the intra-mural zone, on the Hauts-de-Ste-Croix (Arch. Med. 1985:226-7). This was also suggested by Hatt's excavations on the nearby Rue Chanoine-Collin (Hatt 1958). I would propose that the pottery and rough stone building located by Hatt at the 'Grenier de Chevremont' were also Carolingian (Gallia 1964:347ff). Carolingian occupation in the northern extra-mural zone has also been reported (Arch. Med. 1985:227). It is worth pointing out, however, that the area around the Espace Serpenoise site remained an essentially horticultural zone. The walled city, especially north and west of the cardo maximus, remained an ecclesiastical city even in the thirteenth century (Schneider 1950:35, 38). There seems to be a major phase of urban development in the Carolingian period. On a number of sites, the last Roman evidence is covered directly by destruction layers associated with Carolingian pottery.21 This suggests levelling of derelict areas in the Carolingian period. Perhaps this should be associated with Charlemagne's economic reforms (cp. Hodges 1982:149; Hodges & Whitehouse 1983:109ff), suggesting that these were carried out on old town sites as well as new market places, and involved major works of urban reorganization.

Descriptive summary Metz remained fairly prosperous until the mid-fourth century. Then decline set in. We can suggest a shift of settlement to the south and east, probably straddling the city walls. Perhaps, as elsewhere, the Great Amphitheatre, with its church, served as a small citadel and refuge. The evidence for settlement shift in this period is now widespread. In addition to the movement suggested above, for rural settlements, vici and castra, the spatial reorganization of 'Anglian' York (Hall 1988) and middle Saxon London (Vince 1990) is well known. Within Gaul, the fragmentation of Tours into two foci is 20

21

Pertz, obviously, considered it a forgery; Heidrich (1965:251-2) thought it genuine, but with the clause about Romana Sala as an interpolation; Prinz (1965:192), Gauthier (1980:xviii) and Wagner (1987:512) consider it genuine. 'Grenier de Chevremont', Hauts-de-Ste-Croix and Rue du Chanoine-Collin (see above); Parking Souterrain de l'Esplanade, Point C (Collot 1964a).

238

URBANISM IN METZ

similarly familiar (Galinie 1978; 1988), whilst a shift of settlement seems to be attested at Limoges (Notin & Desbordes (ed.) 1990:45ff) and Jublains (Naveau 1987:87-9). However, the almost complete lack of evidence of any kind means that we must deny the site urban status between c. 400 and c. 550. Its population must have been small and impermanent, and its economic basis seems difficult to establish. The church will have been the main element ensuring continuity of occupation and, in this period, its economic base must largely have been voluntary supply. Any regional prestige which the site had was purely based upon the presence there of the bishop and possibly a count (though we know from written accounts that counts spent at least as much time away from their chitas-capitals as in them). These religious and possibly administrative services were personalized. If the bishop had decided to move, say downstream to Thionville, then the site would have been another to add to the list of towns which collapsed with the transfer of the bishopric (see James 1982:49). The only possible site-linked prestige was that derived from St Stephen's relics, but even these could have been translated. Any social differentiation of the site rested purely upon its status as episcopal seat and as the civitas-capital. In the fifth century neither distinction ensured continued urban survival (cp. Loseby 1992). From the later sixth century onwards we can trace an upsurge in the town's fortunes. The royal palace complex, including its archives, seems to have been located at Metz and the kingly presence added to that of a bishop and possibly a count. Gregory of Tours mentions a duke in Metz (LH VIII.21), presumably with jurisdiction over a wider area, perhaps Belgica Prima. Probably as a result, Metz became a centre for burial for people from throughout the region and churches began to be built in greater numbers. This building activity will itself have helped to provide employment and to sponsor manufacture and industry. With the addition of economic services such as the mint, and the trading activity which we know was carried out at the city, we can suggest that a matrix of functions was being built up. To this we can add episcopal policies, similar to those attested on other early medieval Gallic sites (Wood 1983:52-3), of instituting processional liturgies, aimed at linking the regional aristocracy with the town site. These annual processions, such as to the church of St-Remy-de-Scy on the feast of St Remigius (LH VIII.21), or to the church of the Holy Apostles (VA 10), brought together the region's notables in a regular act of social theatre associated with this particular site. Arnulf's relics would provide further prestige but, as mentioned above (ch.l), his cult seems to have developed very slowly. Processes were under way which might lead us to describe Metz as at least proto-urban between c 550 and c. 650. In the early seventh century, Metz clearly stood well above any other settlement in its region, and even further afield, in the provision of high order services. It was becoming increasingly unlikely that the removal of certain privileged people would drastically alter the site's high status. Indeed, when the regular royal presence seems to have been withdrawn in the later Merovingian period, and when administrative functions became more fragmented within the area (with a count at 239

SETTLEMENT

Sarrebourg, and possibly a duke in the Pagus Salinensis (Wiss. 213)) we can indeed detect no set-back to the town. Nevertheless, the town's population seems to have been a fluctuating one, coming to town for religious festivals and for political business. There appears to have been an increasingly stable and permanent core, even if still largely dependent upon the church and royal presence. It does not seem unreasonable to describe late Merovingian Metz as urban. The site was indubitably larger and more populous than any other in the region, and it provided high level, economic, administrative and religious functions. The population seems to have become more stable and more permanent (as witnessed by increasing archaeological traces of settlement). Where was late Merovingian Metz, though? It still seems to have been located essentially to the south and south-east of the old Roman city. We might also postulate settlement in the northern extra-mural zones, where commercial activity certainly took place from the late sixth century at least, and which was known as the portus by the late ninth century (Gorze 61). We can consolidate this impression by examining later topography. In 1200 the densest occupation was located around the area between the walls and the Seille. There were, by the eleventh century, no less than eight parish churches in the eastern extra-mural zone (Wagner 1987:514), compared with only three within the walls. A trading area, the Portus Saliae, existed here and mills were located on the Seille around the amphitheatre in the twelfth century (Schneider 1950:12; Wagner 1987:515). It is perhaps significant that the sacks of the suburbs reported in the tenth century led not to a withdrawal inside the old Roman walls (where there was clearly a lot of space), but apparently to a concentration within this extra-mural zone, which was later fortified. To the north, in the portus, between the lesser amphitheatre and the Moselle bridge, there were four parish churches in the eleventh century, all founded (though not necessarily as parish churches) before 750. Beyond the Moselle, there were, in the eleventh century, a further seven parish churches, and it may be that the part of the northern suburb known as ad termas, just across the Moselle bridge, was fortified by the later ninth century.22 The present Pont-a-Moselle or Pont-St-Georges, remained the only bridge until the thirteenth century (Schneider 1950:13). It is perhaps significant that an earlier Roman bridge further south, at the Pont de la Prefecture, appears to have gone out of use by this period (Gallia 1958:328-9; 1984:343). Coupled with the presence of the riverine trading area, it is not difficult to see why the population should have been drawn out to the north. In the southern extra-mural zone, there were similarly at least three parish churches by the central middle ages. These existed alongside the great urban monasteries, which, by the mid-tenth century, were fortified, giving Metz a similar aspect to Trier in the existence of a central area surrounded by walled suburban foci (Bohner 1958; 1977). This impression is supported by the mid-eighth-century Canonical Rule which refers to the town being surrounded by vici (per ceteras ecclesias infra civitate vel vicis matricolas habent; 22

Gorze 74, infra murum Mettis civitatis ad termas vocato loco. See, for a discussion of possible fortification in the area, Wagner 1987:512.

240

URBANISM IN METZ

Reg. Can. 34). The Canonical Rule also suggests that it was in the suburban areas, around the churches, that the population of matricularii were concentrated. This southern area was the site of more scattered occupation, amid vineyards. The latter are possibly attested as early as the mid-eighth century (in the, at best, interpolated charter, Gorze 2), certainly by the later ninth, when the present name for the area, cle Sablon' (Savelonis) is first attested (Gorze 74, dated Metz, 880). A market, the fair of St-Arnulf, is attested here by the mid-tenth century. Within the walls, as mentioned, occupation remained sparse, especially between the cardo maximus and the western walls, even in the thirteenth century. Again as stated, there were only three intra-mural parish churches, one of which was a Carolingian foundation. Another, St-Martin, is located in the very south-eastern edge of the walled area, and was said to stand 'in the middle of gardens' in 1135 (Wagner 1987:513). Even in the ninth century, however, Metz was described in the same way as any other settlement, as a core settlement and a surrounding agricultural district known as the fines Mettensis (Gorze 74). It is hard to dismiss a significant agricultural element from the settlement's economic base. In this and in the description of plots within the town, which describe them in terms of two measured and bounded latexes and two frontes (cp. Gorze 61, dated 3 Nov. 864), it is difficult to detect social differentiation from other types of settlement. Nevertheless, by the Carolingian period there was legal distinction of towndwellers from other inhabitants. Late Merovingian Metz was a dispersed settlement. The apparent physical separation of the town's many functions, administrative-defensive, socioeconomic, religious, seems typical of towns in this period. Similar dispersion has been proposed for contemporary English towns (Haslam 1987), and even on certain of the earlier emporia (Hodges 1982: ch.4). The physical and functional changes which took place at Metz between c. 400 and c. 750 can, however, only be explained by examining the town's place in its wider social and economic context.

241

Part III Conclusions

8 Town and country, c. 350 - c. 600

Preliminary: interpreting Merovingian grave-goods deposits There is no room here to assess previous attempts to extract information about social organization from early medieval furnished burials. Extensive critiques have already been published.1 Previous approaches fail essentially because they see the grave-goods' distribution patterns as a passive reflection of social reality. This assumption must be challenged. As argued in chapters 3 and 4, sixth-century burials in the region of Metz show, within individual cemeteries, what seem to be rules or customs governing the deposition of

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245

20

CONCLUSIONS

artefacts with the dead. In general terms, these are attested on all the sixthcentury sites examined. It appears that there were clear mores about what types of grave-goods were appropriate, and in what numbers, in the burials of particular people. But within these rules there is significant diversity. At Lavoye, it seems that males above about twenty, who had not yet reached old age, were deemed worthy of burial with numerous grave-goods, particularly weapons and other masculine artefacts. There is, nevertheless, a wide variety of practice within this general rule. This might suggest competitive display of resources. On the other hand, it might simply be that, within this general rule, the distribution of grave-goods reflected accurately a family's rank or wealth-based class. If the argument against variability in grave-goods (within age and gender groups) representing social competition is to be maintained, we must ask why grave-goods were buried at all. Why should there have been a 'passive' (reflective) rather than an 'active' (competitive) gravegoods custom? In the former case we are forced to accept that the burial custom was governed by the exigencies of religious belief or Germanic tradition. The latter possibility, that grave-goods manifest Frankish as opposed to Gallo-Roman ethnicity was, in its usual crude sense, rejected in chapter 1. The religious interpretation of grave-goods has long been questioned (cp. Ucko 1969). The many flaws in the idea that burial with grave-goods was pagan and burial without them Christian have long been pointed out, and need not be repeated (Young 1975; 1977). One more recent attempt to plot Christians within the region's cemeteries was made by Alain Simmer (1987:388; 1988:130-5), who argues that sarcophagus burials are Christian because they are, allegedly, conscious imitations of things Roman and urban, like Christianity itself. This is clearly a flawed argument, though more interesting than previous efforts to identify Christian burials. The distribution of sarcophagi is uneven and governed, obviously, by the availability of suitable stone or the ability to transport such stone to the cemetery (Cuvelier &c Guillaume 1989). If we accept Simmer's hypothesis, we must also accept that this manifestation of Christianity is only to be found in geologically and geographically suitable areas, and thus that no argument can be made from the absence of sarcophagi. Except where a local quarry made sarcophagus production easier and the use of stone coffins a viable proposition for the bulk of the community, sarcophagi were expensive items and are usually rare within cemeteries. They are therefore more likely to be manifestations of the wealth and prestige of the deceased's family than a sign that within a cemetery of 200 graves, five or six were those of Christians. Simmer (1988) does pay lip-service to this point but does not allow it to interfere with his suggestion (discussed above) that one area of the site at Audun-le-Tiche was reserved for Christians. The religious element in a funeral is likely to be that which leaves no archaeological trace, such as what was said over a grave, as part of the funerary feast, or at other stages of mourning and burial. It is surely worth asking why religion appears to have played so little part in the archaeologically revealed aspects of the disposal of the dead. The lack of a religious element in the material remains of Merovingian burials, or the fact that such an element remains ambiguous, is worthy of note, not least because it coincides 246

TOWN AND COUNTRY, c. 350 - c. 600

so well with the testimony of the written sources, which likewise attest the perpetuation by Christians of apparently non-Christian beliefs, the separation of what seem superficially to be religious acts from religious creeds, and finally the slowness of the church to take interest in these particular c rites of passage' in this period (Paxton 1990). Religious and ethnic explanations cannot then be adduced for the existence of the furnished burial custom, which, in turn, makes it difficult to see the latter as a passive reflection of society. A case has been made for the reasons for the appearance of the rite in the late fourth and early fifth centuries to be sought in the social instability of the period (Halsall 1992a). The deposition of grave-goods becomes a strategy in the competition for prestige within the local community. For such strategies to make sense, burials must be regarded, as set out in chapter 1, as deliberate, actively and meaningfully constituted 'texts'. This should be pursued further. If, following Shanks and Tilley (1987:75), cno social practices exist without signification and without being situated in an overall symbolic field', funerals and burials, as religious and ritual events, are clearly particularly important arenas for symbolism. The funeral and the resources expended on the construction and furnishing of the grave were important means of transmitting to an audience information about the deceased and their families. We can argue that burial practices are an especially important and dynamic field of social expression; in our period they underwent fundamental change more frequently than spoken language. Let us consider the detectable elements of Merovingian burial in the region of Metz. Even the patchy data from the region have suggested that the shape, size and construction of the tomb were deliberately chosen, and thus important variables in the funerary process. Then the deceased was clothed for his or her burial. It has been noted that certain elements of dress or bodily adornment, such as jewellery and plaque-buckles, had important symbolic value, as did other items such as knives, and scramasaxes, which were often worn rather than deposited in the grave separately. Other grave-goods were laid in the grave alongside the corpse: items of weaponry such as spears and, it seems, swords; pottery, glassware and other vessels; even dress adjuncts were sometimes piled neatly beside the deceased rather than worn as in life (and a distinction must be drawn between these two options). In both cases, the grave-goods were governed by general customs. The analyses performed on the cemeteries of the region have suggested that the positioning of the body, and its treatment between death and burial, were further significant variables. Finally, we have evidence that the burial was accompanied by feasting. The pits on cemetery sites at Morley (Meuse; Salin 1946:205), Koenigsmacker (Moselle; above, pp. 107-8), Varangeville (Meurthe-et-Moselle; Salin 1946:205), Bouzonville (Moselle; above, p. 99) and Ennery (Moselle; above, p. 91), which contain ashes, bones and pieces of pottery, are just the kind of evidence one would expect of the sweeping up after a feast. The presence of food and drink offerings, either in the form of animal bones or in the deposit of pottery in the graves, argues further for the existence of funeral feasts. The charcoals, pot sherds and animal bones found in the fill of graves are probably also best explained as the remains of such activities. 247

CONCLUSIONS

We can consider the cemetery as an arena for competitive discourse, with the burials as statements. We need to consider further two related issues; the audience at which the statement was aimed, and the temporal aspect of the message. For how long was it intended to be read (and re-read) and understood? All the elements of sixth-century burial noted above are, it must be stressed, temporary. Outside Metz, there is hardly any evidence for permanent above-ground grave-markers. A display of wealth or of access to resources manifested through the variables noted would be invisible to anyone not actually present during the funeral process. Once the grave was filled in, the display was ended. To be effective, then, such a display needed a large audience. Written evidence supports the indications of the archaeological data, that early medieval funerals were important public displays rather than quiet family affairs. As we saw at Lavoye, sixth-century cemeteries seem to serve a large community. There we suggested that two or three groups used the same cemetery. As shown in chapter 5, it seems reasonable to suppose that the sixth-century cemetery served as a common ritual focus for a large but dispersed community. The potentially large audience at a sixth-century burial in turn probably required fairly clear rules determining the appropriate symbolism of the grave-goods. The often implicit belief that grave-goods and burials are a static mirror of a fixed social structure can thus be countered. It is not infrequently cited as an anomaly, as an example of the complexity and 'difficulty' of reading archaeological evidence (cp. Miller 1985:203), that whilst, as in sixth-century Anglo-Saxon and Frankish society, settlements show