APY 611LEC - Celt Anglo-Saxon Viking

Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings: these names evoke many colorful ideas and legendary images, but who were these peoples and what do we really know about them? This course explores over two millennia of dynamic times in Europe. Celtic peoples can be traced to the late Bronze Age and have left us spectacular archaeological remains: gold, silver and bronze works of art, fantastically rich burials and monuments, trade with the Greeks, then Romans. Anglo-Saxon cultures that existed from around AD 400 to 1000 were once thought of as constituting a ?dark age,? but this period is now known to have been a dynamic time, seeing the rise and fall of states, economic expansion, innovative trade and manufacturing traditions, and religious transformation, when Christianity spread and mingled with pre-Christian beliefs. At the same time, pre-Viking and Viking cultures were developing in Scandinavia, bursting upon the world at around AD 800. Often imagined as bloodthirsty raiders, Vikings were also master craftspeople, traders, explorers, and built their own state-level societies at home as they colonized abroad. This course is dual-listed with APY 437.

Credits: 3