We Are Not the Periphery: Barbarian Economies and Northern Europe in the Exchange Patterns of Western Eurasia, 1800 BC – AD 900

722 Pages·2013·4.917 MB·English

by  Arnold A. Lelis

We Are Not the Periphery:
Barbarian Economies and Northern Europe in the Exchange
Patterns of Western Eurasia, 1800 BC – AD 900

A dissertation
submitted to the faculty of the University of Minnesota

by

Arnold A. Lelis

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Bernard S. Bachrach
(advisor)

December 2013
© Arnold A. Lelis, 2013
Acknowledgements

Not long after my father’s untimely death in 1989, I was being told that “We need
another professor Lelis.” This circumstance was among the many considerations
converging around this time that inspired me to re-start my higher education. The road
embarked upon then—which turned out to be far longer than I ever imagined when I
started—has culminated, so far, in the completion of this dissertation. Along the way, I
have received the support and encouragement of a very large number of individuals and
institutions.
It should be said at the outset that none of this would have been possible without a
steady and generous stream of public financial support. Both during the undergraduate
and graduate phases of my education I have benefitted greatly from the availability of
Federal student loan programs. Further, when I came to the University of Minnesota to
start my graduate studies, I received from the University a fully funded fellowship in my
first year, with many years of Teaching Assistantships and Research Assistantships to
follow. From 2006 onwards, I have been fortunate to hold a full-time adjunct position at
the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, which has enabled me to support myself
during the many long years as an ABD, ever pursuing the moving target of a complete
and finished dissertation.
Further, it has been my great good fortune to have access to excellent library
resources, both at U Mass – Boston and especially at Minnesota. At UW – Stevens Point,
the ILL coordinator never failed to locate and deliver even the most obscure foreign-
language materials that I frequently needed for the dissertation research and without
which the work could not have been completed. To her my thanks and appreciation.
The excellent faculty at U Mass – Boston provided me with a superb
undergraduate foundation for advanced studies. I especially want to thank Professors
Paul Bookbinder, Clive Foss, and William A. Percy, who wrote letters for me when I was
applying to graduate programs. Moreover, Bill Percy gave me the opportunity to
participate in a stimulating and controversial project researching the issue of Roman
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marriage ages, which resulted in a book co-authored by myself, Bill Percy, and Beert
Verstraete.
At Minnesota, I continued to receive support, encouragement, and excellent
mentoring from a large number of faculty both within and outside the Department of
History. My special thanks goes to Tom Noonan, who brought me to the University of
Minnesota and supported my pursuit of the study of the eastern Baltic lands. I was
included in Noonan’s “kruzhok,” his circle of graduate students who would meet
regularly in his office to discuss our work and to share ideas. Other faculty members
who were most involved in my development as an historian include especially Bernard
Bachrach, Ruth Karras, Kay Reyerson, Jim Tracy, and Peter Wells, all of whom served
also on my final examination committee. Prof. Bachrach, who advised me during the
long process of completing the dissertation, always insisted upon the highest standards of
scholarship and professional style, which undoubtedly made the finished product much
more balanced and coherent than it would have been otherwise. Last but not least, I must
thank the highly competent staff in the Department of History Graduate Studies office,
who cheerfully put up with my endless delays and extensions and who always made the
bureaucracy work.
My appreciation goes as well to the cohorts of fellow graduate students that I met
during my years of residency at Minnesota, who collectively shaped a congenial and
cooperative atmosphere in which we all flourished. Special mention must go to Ellen
Arnold, Chris Freeman, and Roman Kovalev, but especially to my incomparable friends
of the select circle we called the Pigs of Uranus: Mike Ryan, Eric Richtmyer, and Mike
Sizer. Many were the nights that we spent with music, wine, and smelly cheeses. Eric
was my housemate my last three years in Minneapolis, during which we pursued endless
rounds of discussion on history and philosophy. Mike Sizer remains my truest
intellectual companion. Thank you, Mike, first for introducing me to Paris, and always
for your unfailing interest in my work.
Finally, and most importantly of all, I must express my thanks and appreciation to
Heidi Sherman. We met originally in Tom Noonan’s “kruzhok,” and have been together
ever since, sharing first the vicissitudes of life in graduate school and later the struggles
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to survive as professional academics, along with many memorable travel adventures.
Heidi is my true partner in life in every way, and it is difficult to see how I could have
come this far without her. Along the way we got married, and the snug and homey house
that we share with our three cats—the big, black Binksis and the classic stripeys Egbert
and Ælfgifu—is a blessing that keeps my life sane and secure.

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To my Uncle Oj!rs,
who was my first teacher regarding the wider world
and who inspired me to learn much, much more.

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Abstract
Examination of long-term exchange patterns involving northern Europe and neighboring
regions of western Eurasia reveals that the world of the North has, typically, played an
important role both as producer and consumer. Especially in the Carolingian period (AD
700 – 900), the system as a whole can be characterized best as a vast circuit of exchange
flows rather than in terms of center – periphery relationships. The major regions
participating in the western Eurasian exchange circuit were the North (Scandinavia –
Baltic), Latin Christendom, European Russia, Byzantium, and the Islamic world of the
Middle East and North Africa.
Exchange within the circuit always operated at multiple levels, including elite and
non-elite gift giving and resource sharing, but also including independent, professional
merchant-adventurers who redistributed goods and materials for profit. This class of
entrepreneurs can be analyzed further into long-distance wholesale traders, who linked
the top-level nodal places in the system, and others who linked the nodal places with
points in the local area down to the capillary level of individual producers and
consumers. Typically, members of the mercantile class traveled armed and formed ad
hoc aggregations for mutual protection. In the Carolingian Empire, their activities were
governed by rules and administrative practices derived, ultimately, from the Late Roman.
Commercial exchange can and does operate successfully even in pre-state and
non-urbanized societies, i.e., without elite direction or coercion. The evidence shows that
pre-commercial societies will incorporate commercial modes of behavior into their socio-
economic value systems when opportunity to do so arises. Even “peasants” will behave
entrepreneurially, feeding into the larger exchange system both as producers and
consumers.

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TABLE of CONTENTS:

Acknowledgements i
Dedication iv
Abstract v
Table of Contents vi
List of Abbreviations xi

Chapter 1: Introduction: The Evolution of a Project 1
Intentions and revisions 1
Definitions 7
The chapters 10
A note on formatting 14

Chapter 2: The Question of An Early Medieval Economy
2.0 Introduction 16
2.1 Dopsch and Pirenne 20
2.2 Reaction and Dogma 34
2.3 Northern Waters and Archaeology 51
2.4 The Primitivists and Their Critics 64
2.5 McCormick and Wickham 67
2.6 Conclusion 74

Chapter 3: The Northern Background: Potentials and Early Development
3.0 Introduction 76
3.1 Geology, Climate, and Resources 77
Geology and metals 81
Climate and soils 84
3.2 Areas of Settlement and Avenues of Exchange 87
The Neolithic Baltic and north central Europe 89
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The Bronze Age Baltic and central Europe 92
The amber routes 96
Communications over mountains and rivers 98
3.3 Local Development and Mediterranean Contacts 103
Slaves 104
Copper, tin, and bronze 106
Salt and iron 112
Elite mobilization vs. entrepreneurship 114
Beginnings of Mediterranean dominance 121
Transalpine trade: Greeks 124
Transalpine trade: Romans 130
3.4 The Effects of Roman Expansion 139
Provincialized Temperate Europe 142
The Rhine - Danube interface zone 145
Roman influence north 150
3.5 Conclusion 154

Chapter 4: From Roman to post-Roman I: The Imperial System and Its Fate,
AD 200 – 600
4.0 Introduction 158
4.1 Decline of the Imperial Economy 162
The Antonine plague 163
Metal production 164
Ceramics production 165
4.2 The End of the Roman Mediterranean 168
The annona transport and its effects 169
Justinian’s plague 172
4.3 Imperial Unity and the Barbarians 176
Relations along the frontier 178
Late Roman structural changes 180
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Barbarian capabilities and their place in
the late Roman system 185
Africa and the Vandals 192
Contradictions in Roman policy 194
Socio-cultural changes 197
4.4 The Case of Roman Gaul 199
A model province of the High Empire 200
A potential for self-sufficiency 205
Structural changes of the third and fourth centuries 208
The fifth-century transition 220
4.5 Conclusion 223

Chapter 5: From Roman to post-Roman II: The New Temperate Europe, AD 400
– 700
5.0 Introduction 225
5.1 Merovingian Gaul 226
The structure of the state 227
Economy and demographics 232
The Mediterranean connection 237
5.2 Along the Former Frontier 245
Trade and instability 245
Danubian variations in the transition 251
Alamannia and the Rhine 257
New spheres of influence: Franks and Avars 269
5.3 Northern Connections East and West 275
Post-Roman eastern and central Europe 276
Development in Denmark and Sweden 281
Northwestern waters 295
5.4 Theorizing Dark-Age Europe 304
5.5 Conclusion 336
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