Silver, Status and Society - the transition from Late Roman to Early Medieval Europe

在公元第一个千年，欧洲的权力和声望主要表现在两种可携带的物质上：银和金。这些贵金属为欧洲中世纪早期王国的出现提供了原材料，用于制造用于创造、竞争和反映社会内部和社会之间地位的贵重物品。虽然欧洲部分地区偏爱黄金，但在600多年（公元400-1000年）的时间里，苏格兰的白银一直是最重要的贵金属。白银由罗马引入苏格兰（通过补贴、军饷、外交和掠夺），并迅速成为在边境以外的土地上表达权力和威望的重要手段，尽管它承载着帝国的“包袱”。最近在苏格兰发现了罗马晚期和中世纪早期的银库，并对现有的银库进行了重新评估，这突显了与欧洲其他地方研究类似材料的人建立联系的必要性。“白银、地位与社会”网络将提供一个机会，最大限度地利用现有的两个国家白银研究项目所建立的势头，在欧洲历史上的这一关键时期，首次对这种强大而有价值的材料进行国际和跨学科的比较研究。西尔弗为理解对罗马帝国解体和中世纪早期欧洲王国出现所造成的政治真空的反应提供了关键的证据来源，但研究一直受到国家边界和学科之间的分歧的限制。汇集学者、博物馆专业人士、早期职业研究人员和博士生，将在那些参与发现、策展、研究和公开展示来自北欧的中世纪早期白银的人之间建立持久的跨学科联系。该网络将通过提供对可比材料、替代方法和解释模型的见解，将英国新兴的研究领域置于国际背景下。这将为比较和对比罗马帝国崩溃后白银供应、流通和使用的不同策略提供一个平台，并探索这种贵金属在中世纪早期欧洲王国出现中的作用。银、地位和社会网络的研究结果将通过爱丁堡的开放日会议，以及格伦莫兰吉中世纪早期苏格兰研究项目（位于苏格兰国家博物馆www.nms.ac.uk/earlymedieval）现有的公共项目活动，包括在爱丁堡举办的特别展览和2017年出版的一本流行书籍，向公众传播。学术传播将通过两个专题讨论会进行，一个在英国，一个在丹麦，并出版从中抽取的一卷论文。

Power and prestige in Europe during the first millennium AD is predominately expressed in two portable materials: silver and gold. These precious metals underpinned the emergence of early medieval kingdoms in Europe by providing the raw materials for prestige objects that were used to create, contest and reflect status within and between societies. While parts of Europe favoured gold, in Scotland silver was the most important precious metal for over 600 years (AD400-1000). Silver had been introduced to Scotland by Rome (via subsidies, military pay, diplomacy and loot) and rapidly became a vital means of expressing power and prestige in the lands beyond the frontier, albeit one that carried Imperial 'baggage'. Recent discoveries of Late Roman and Early Medieval silver hoards in Scotland, and re-evaluation of existing hoards, has highlighted the need to connect with those working on comparable material elsewhere in Europe. The network Silver, Status and Society will provide an opportunity to maximise the momentum building from two existing programmes of national research on silver to develop, for the first time, a comparative international and cross-disciplinary study of this powerful and valuable material, during this pivotal period in Europe's history. Silver provides a key source of evidence for understanding reactions to the political vacuum caused by the disintegration of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the early medieval kingdoms of Europe, but research has been inhibited by national boundaries and divides between academic disciplines. Bringing together academics, museum professionals, early career researchers and doctoral students, will create lasting cross-disciplinary connections between those involved in the discovery, curation, research and public presentation of early medieval silver from across northern Europe. The network will place an emerging field of study in the UK into an international context by providing insights into comparable material, alternative methodologies, and interpretative models. This will provide a platform from which to compare and contrast different strategies towards the supply, circulation and use of silver following the collapse of the Roman Empire and to explore the role of this precious metal in the emergence of the early medieval kingdoms of Europe. The findings of the Silver, Status and Society network will be disseminated publically through an open day conference in Edinburgh, and via the existing public programmes activity of the Glenmorangie Research Project on Early Medieval Scotland (based at National Museums Scotland www.nms.ac.uk/earlymedieval), including a special exhibition in Edinburgh and publication of a popular book in 2017. Academic dissemination will be through two symposia, one in the UK and one in Denmark, and the publication of a volume of papers drawn from them.