Clara BLANCHARD THE QUESTION OF GENDER IN MEROVINGIAN CEMETERIES IN THE ÎLE-DE-FRANCE: introduction and methodology

Abstract

Knowledge of Merovingian grave-goods is well developed as a result of multiple chrono- typological studies. However, the question of the social symbolism of the objects placed with the dead has rarely been addressed. The prism of gender, with its image of a continuum in the representativeness of femininities and masculinities, could well lead to a fresh look at expected roles in local Early Medieval populations, still perceived as binary with stereotypes largely of the warrior man and the adorned woman. The present article examines the question of Merovingian gender and initiates a debate focusing on the representational role of funerary objects.

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