Conclusion

Summary

This book has challenged relevant concepts and dichotomies in the research on early medieval art and archaeology, especially between the fifth and eighth centuries, and explored new ways of engaging with the visual and material world of Merovingian Europe and beyond. Through interrogating so-called Germanic art, this study sits (methodologically and in terms of its subject matter) between medieval archaeology and art history. The scholarly mode of expression employed throughout this book has for the most part been, by design, the ‘early medieval present’, which prefers to focus on social relations rather than historical grand narratives as the pivotal point of archaeology. Understanding art objects as active things in social relations has revealed new insights into the way early medieval objects were shaped, seen, perceived, and how they impacted on their environment. Being present is pivotal to the agency of things. Understanding the artworks discussed here against the background of a historical metanarrative, that is, the ‘Germanic’ Middle Ages, fails to engage with this ‘how’ of early medieval art. Often subliminally, the ‘Germanic’ heavily informs research on Merovingian Europe and its periphery. Interpretations are still permeated by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century categories. The most prevalent of such categories are Heilsbild (healing images), Sakralkönigtum (sacral kingship), and Gefolgschaft (retinue).¹