TY - JOUR
T1 - Early medieval slave-trading in the archaeological record
T2 - comparative methodologies
AU - Fontaine, Janel M.
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - Efforts to identify archaeological indicators of slave-trading have highlighted four main criteria: shackles, fortified settlements, currency, and burials. However, little effort has been made to examine these indicators together for the early medieval period. By comparing finds, studies, and methodologies from the two major slave-trading regions of Britain and Ireland and Slavic east central Europe, it becomes clear that these so-called ‘indicators’ for slave trading are inconclusive, and textually attested slave-trading can remain archaeologically invisible. To better understand slave-trading in the seventh to eleventh centuries, historians and archaeologists should instead focus on its context within general trade.
AB - Efforts to identify archaeological indicators of slave-trading have highlighted four main criteria: shackles, fortified settlements, currency, and burials. However, little effort has been made to examine these indicators together for the early medieval period. By comparing finds, studies, and methodologies from the two major slave-trading regions of Britain and Ireland and Slavic east central Europe, it becomes clear that these so-called ‘indicators’ for slave trading are inconclusive, and textually attested slave-trading can remain archaeologically invisible. To better understand slave-trading in the seventh to eleventh centuries, historians and archaeologists should instead focus on its context within general trade.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032572637&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/emed.12228
DO - 10.1111/emed.12228
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032572637
SN - 0963-9462
VL - 25
SP - 466
EP - 488
JO - EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
JF - EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE
IS - 4
ER -