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Barbarians to Angels: The Dark Ages Reconsidered | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter S. Wells
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 131740
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0393060756
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.12
EAN: 9780393060751
ASIN: 0393060756
Publication Date: July 14, 2008
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Product Description
A surprising look at the least-appreciated yet profoundly important period of European history: the so-called Dark Ages.
The barbarians who destroyed the glory that was Rome demolished civilization along with it, and for the next four centuries the peasants and artisans of Europe barely held on. Random violence, mass migration, disease, and starvation were the only way of life. This is the picture of the Dark Ages that most historians promote. But archaeology tells a different story. Peter S. Wells, one of the world's leading archaeologists, surveys the archaeological record to demonstrate that the Dark Ages were not dark at all. The kingdoms of Christendom that emerged starting in the ninth century sprang from a robust, previously little-known, European culture, albeit one that left behind few written texts. This recently recognized culture achieved heights in artistry, technology, craft production, commerce, and learning. Future assessments of the period between Rome and Charlemagne will need to incorporate this fresh new picture. 24 illustrations.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The fall of the Roman Empire finally explained August 13, 2008
I vaguely recall Ludwig von Mises, the famous free-market economist, writing that the Roman Empire fell because its economy was ruined by inflation and price controls. Because of the decrease in productivity, Rome was unable to fight back the hordes of barbarians attacking the empire.
Wells explains how grave goods, artifacts, soil analysis, etc. gives a better picture of the emergence of Western civilization than the writings of pro-Roman fanatics like Gibbons, St. Jerome, Augustine, etc. For example:
"If the stories recounted by the Dark Age writers were historically accurate, we would expect to find abundant material evidence for the arrival and settlement of new groups in different parts of Europe, with new types of houses, new styles of pottery and metalwork, and new burial practices. We would also expect to find evidence of abandonment in the areas from which people were suposed to have emigrated. But we do not find these patterns to any appreciable degree." (p. 31)
I always thought that Germany and Scandinavia were the homelands of uncivilized warmongers that migrated south. Wells describes the development and changes that occured in farming villages throughout Europe:
"Well beyond the frontiers of the Roman Empire, on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the village of Verbasse was inhabited continuously from the first to the eleventh century....In the early period, the settlement consisted of 13 farmsteads...furnaces for processing iron were situated outside of the settlement... By the eighth century, changes in the layout of the settlement indicate a growth in population and important changes in the scale and intensity of economic activity in this village." (p. 136)
Very good read.
Skeptic Reads Book, Has Doubts August 11, 2008
Like another reviewer, I remain unconvinced of the author's thesis about post-Roman Europe. He rejects the term "barbarians" for the people who followed the Romans, but because they lacked a written language, their level of "civilization" cannot be demonstrated. The fact that they made and imported decorative objects is not proof of either moral enlightenment or intelligence. I read this book with much interest, and admire its succinct coverage of a complex subject, accessible to the nonspecialist. However, I sense an apologia for our Enlightenment viewpoint, an attempt not to judge, to give "Dark Ages" Europeans too much of the benefit of the doubt. His philosophy is much like Jared Diamond's in his two best-selling books which try to downplay the "superiority" of the West and explain the lack of development in the Third World totally in terms of geographical happenstance and environmental negligence. I would put credence in the written evidence of contemporary Roman writers. The quality of the human beings involved to me is always paramount. And given the paltry evidence for Dark Ages civilization (except for the monasteries), I read this book with yes, skepticism.
Barbarians to Angels August 10, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
There are so many lengthy difficult books about the Early Middle Ages, written for and by specialists, what a delight to find a short and easy to read summary of the latest scholarship of this rapidly changing multi-disciplinary field, written for a general audience by a medieval scholar with an up to date and useful bibliography.
The term "Dark Ages" has a long and complicated history ever since its invention by Italian Humanists in the 14th and 15th centuries. Modern medieval historians try to avoid the term Dark Ages with its pejorative implications. However some will still justify its use because the period was "dark to us", because of the lack of written record. However even this is no longer the case, a wealth of archaeological information has surfaced to enlighten the period. The old prejudices of a violent, backwards and stagnant time are falling away. Was it different from Rome? Yes, but to apply a value judgment of a "Dark Age" is inappropriate, this powerful metaphor has sadly shaped many peoples vision of the period.
Peter Wells examines some of the enduring myths and shows, through new archaeological findings, rather than a sudden break with the past, a continuity of history. For example there is a myth that urban centers declined or were abandoned, Wells shows substantial evidence this was not the case, using a case example of London. There is a myth of continuous violence and warfare, however Wells suggests this could not have been the case because of freedom of movement and trade that was occurring. There is a myth that technology halted or went backwards, when in fact it was a period of innovation, including the deep plow, horse harness and 3-field system which created a surplus in food, population and specialization. There is a myth that Roman roads deteriorated, which is true, but the original Roman roads were built on ancient roadways and were mainly only meant for military purposes anyway. Artwork flourished in this period finding new and original expressions.
Barbarians to Angels is a quick read for a general audience that summarizes a lot of recent and difficult scholarship. For more specialized works, to understand how we know what we know, the "proof", there is an excellent Bibliography.
 The Dark Ages Revisited August 7, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Peter Wells's new book is intriguing but not earth shattering. Henri Pirenne (he died in 1935) pointed out that cities in the Roman Empire did not collapse in the 4th century but instead survived until Moslems seized Spain and the major islands and turned the Mediterranean into an "Islamic Lake." Then there were sharp declines in the size of Mediterranean cities as widespread trade between Byzantium and the Near East stopped flowing in that direction. And Rome, an ancient of a million people declined to something like 30,000 by 552, due to barbarian attacks, and hovered around that figure into the 12th century.
Some trade continued, to be sure, and the Varangian Trade Route via Russia to the Baltic Sea soon replaced the southern trade route for a couple centuries. Venice, as Frederic Lane demonstrated, was an exception to this general rule.
There were masterpieces such as the Book of Kells produced in this period BUT anyone bothering to look at the display of British coins in the British Museum is aware that craftsmanship went to "hell" soon after the Romans left Britain and did not rise to the ancient level for many centuries.
Finally, and most importantly, Wells argues that there is no material evidence of a mass migration into western Europe and the British Isles so therefore we should assume that there were only smaller scale movements so the few contemporary chroniclers were incorrect in picturing mass hordes. There also is no evidence of people abandoning their old homes as they made their way towards new ones. I'm much more inclined to believe the chroniclers. If, as many historians have argued, overcrowding was a large factor in pushing people out of their old homes, there would be little or no evidence of "abandonment."
Looking only at England, the "Roman" elite seem to have disappeared while the Celtic masses suddenly switched to a Teutonic tongue they had never used before. Linguistics definitely favors a mass influx of Germanic peoples who pushed the original Celts inhabitants into Wales and Cornwall, and in the process, made England the only part of the western Roman Empire where the people stopped having a Romance language.
Wells's BARBARIANS TO ANGELS is enjoyable to read and stimulated my mind but, to me, his case is not proven.
A Modern Look at the Dark Ages July 7, 2008
14 out of 14 found this review helpful
Based on recent archaeological evidence, the author of this book proposes that the Dark Ages, i.e., the centuries that followed the fall of the Roman Empire, were not really as barbaric and totally chaotic as they were previously thought to be. He describes various sites throughout Europe where recent archaeological evidence suggests that life continued and even prospered and that living conditions were not at all as bad as previously thought. Although the writing style is clear, authoritative, accessible and indeed quite scholarly, the book contains several passages that tend to be rather dry even for an interested general reader, e.g., many detailed lists and descriptions of various artifacts found in ancient graves. Perhaps more photographs, including colored ones, of these items could have helped reduce the quantity of such descriptions. Nevertheless, this book can be thoroughly enjoyed by readers who are seriously interested in this topic. It could also serve as a valuable auxiliary textbook for some archaeology courses.
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