From the North Sea to the Mediterranean, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea: The spatial distribution of late Roman and early medieval material culture demonstrates the era’s long-distance human connections.

New finds, as well as methodological and theoretical developments, allow us to analyse them from a new perspective.

For this year’s AGSFM meeting we invite you to reflect on networks and perspectives of network analysis in late Roman and early medieval studies.  
We will focus on the following topics:

• Regional visualizations based on individual studies
• Spatial and temporal high-resolution information on ‚key regions‘
• Individual studies, e.g. household archaeology (spatial distributions within small areas and their relationships)
• Areas of communication, e.g. exchange and trade networks, symbols, burial practices, artifacts and their components
• Overlapping spatial concepts, their entanglements and communication ranges
• Social meanings and construction of space
• Mental mapping and actor-related spatial perception, e.g. of distances
• Mobility, especially of groups of people and animals; mobility and social (e.g. family) structures
• Political and social order as a basis for spatial understanding
• Relationships between identity and space
• Networks of resources and activities
• “Network” as a metaphor and research tool
• The use and transformation of maps and mappings in contemporary research.

On September 8 and 9 2025, this year’s meeting of the Working Group for Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages (AGSFM) will give space to these questions. The meeting will be a forum to present new results or projects on these topics. We also aim to identify and discuss related challenges, problems and questions.  

We welcome contributions in German and English. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. Proposals for papers (400-600 characters) should be submitted to a.flueckiger@clutterunibas.ch

by April 30, 2025.

Please note that the working group cannot cover travel or accommodation costs. Participants are therefore kindly asked to cover their own expenses and to register for the conference.

Organisation:  
Dr. Michaela Helmbrecht, Dr. Christoph Lobinger, Valerie Palmowski M. A.,
Dr. Roland Prien, Mag. Dr. Bendeguz Tobias (advisory board), Dr. Anna Flückiger (speaker)