Description
Book SynopsisDark Age Liguria surveys the history of the Liguria region from c. 400 to c. 1050 AD, to provide a detailed case study of what happened here as Roman imperial rule ended. The book pulls together all the surviving evidence, written, archaeological, artistic and ecological, to propose that, in contrast with later periods, Ligurians looked north as much as they gazed out to sea. Genoese history under Byzantines, Lombards, Carolingians and Ottonians is compared with that of other coastal settlements, including Albenga, Noli, Perti and Savona and the less-studied but fascinating inland valleys, the Aveto, Polcevera, Stura and Vara. The book draws also on more than fifteen years of fieldwork in and around the small town of Varese Ligure (La Spezia province) to suggest some new methods for investigating the Dark Age past.
Trade ReviewThe book’s strength is in the questions it asks and the possibilities it suggests for shedding light on the obscure corners of past landscapes. -- Enrico Giannichedda, Istituto di Storia della Cultura Materiale di Genova and Caroline Goodson, Birkbeck College, University of London * Landscape History Vol. 36, No. 1 *
In
Dark Age Liguria, Ross Balzaretti provides a history of early Middle Ages Liguria, highlighting its role as a region "of transit" which mediated the relations between northern Europe and the Mediterranean, France and the rest of Italy * Medioevo Latino (Bloomsbury translation) *
Table of ContentsPreface Abbreviations Maps Figures Introduction: Historical Ecology Villas, Castra and Villages Political Change and Social Organization Genoa: central place? Vara Valley: at the margins? Conclusion Appendix Chronology Select Bibliography Index, including inventory of sites
