Abstract:
Dorestad was the largest town of the Low Countries in the Carolingian era. As an inland port on the edge of the Frankish Empire, it functioned as an international hub, connecting the North Sea World with the Continent and the Low Countries with Italy. In 2024, the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden hosted its quinquennial international congress based around Dorestad, located at present-day Wijk bij Duurstede. This fourth edition, ‘Dorestad and Everything After’, coincided with the large exhibition ‘The Year 1000’ that showcased the Netherlands in the tenth and eleventh century in its European framework.
The Fourth Dorestad Congress brought together scholars from various disciplines to debate Dorestad and its relations in northern and southern Europe in the period of 800 to 1100 AD. The contributions in these proceedings are devoted to new research into high medieval towns, from Quentovic to Rome, the landscape in which they flourished and the travellers that traversed those. Special attention is paid to the monetization of the period and even Halley’s comet, visible in 1066, makes an appearance. Together, they show the afterlives of Dorestad and its counterparts, putting these emporia into new geographical and temporal perspectives.
Contents
Dorestad and everything after: an introduction
Annemarieke Willemsen
Quentovic and after: Early medieval occupation on the banks of the Canche
Inès Leroy
Placing the early medieval kingdom of Lindsey in the North Sea
Alex Harvey
In short: An early medieval royal estate in Haamstede (Schouwen-Duiveland, Zeeland)
Ernst Dekkers
From Classe to Cervia: Urban stories from the Upper Adriatic
Andrea Augenti
Pilgrimage to Rome around the year 1000
Pleun van Lieshout
The Year 1000 in Rome: Results of an academic workshop at the Royal Netherlandish Institute (KNIR) in Rome, 7-8 October 2021
Pleun van Lieshout, Raphaël Rijntjes & Annemarieke Willemsen
Exotic objects in church treasuries in Rome and surroundings
Olivia Romijn
After Dorestad: silver and gold in Carolingian Frisia, 850-950
Simon Coupland
The monetization of the Low Countries around 1000 AD and its potential for historians
Jos Benders
In short: Needles and what they tell us about Dorestad
Cynthia Kromotaroeno
The significance of Halley’s Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry
Michael Lewis & Simon Portegies Zwart
Life after Dorestad: Late medieval memories of an erstwhile emporium
Christian Cooijmans
Dr.
Annemarieke Willemsen
Annemarieke Willemsen is curator of the Medieval collections at the National Museum of Antiquities (Leiden) and director of the Dorestad Congress. In Leiden, she organized the 2009 exhibition & congress on Carolingian Dorestad and the 2014 exhibition & congress on the early-medieval Netherlands. Next to books about Dorestad and the Vikings in the Netherlands, she published extensively on Roman and medieval children, toys, education, fashion & accessories.
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Hanneke Kik
M.A.
Hanneke Kik studied Ancient History and Classical Archaeology and works as project manager exhibitions at the National Museum of Antiquities since 2011.
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