À armes égales : femmes et armement dans le cimetière mérovingien de Romilly-sur-Andelle (Eure, France)

Abstract

Abstract: In 2006 and 2007, a church and its cemetery (late VIth-mid-XIth century) were excavated at Romilly-sur-Andelle in Normandy (France). Over 720 graves were discovered, which provided a sample large enough to permit research on the evolution of the burial area’s organization and a statistical study of the population’s biological data. In this essay, we will address the discovery of weapons found in four graves of biological women, three of whom have been sexed osteologically with 95 % reliability. We have also contextualized this exciting discovery within current debates in early medieval gender studies and the development of new methodological approaches for cemeterial archaeology and have confidence in the reliability of our results.

Keywords

• Neustria
• cemetery
• Merovingian period
• religious building
• grave goods
• weapons