ANR DenMon project

The project focuses on the study of monasteries - male and female - founded, in the High Middle Ages, by royal power, in northern Gaul (approximately the 7th-century Dentelin duchy), in a context of deepening Christianization of rural populations and the creation of new forms of political and religious control. The aim is to analyze the spatial organization of these royal monasteries, each of which was partly devoted to enclosure and spirituality, partly open to the outside world for social, economic and cultural purposes, making them places of life and production, within and around the monastic space. The aim is to understand the choices and models of these privileged foundations, to investigate their spread to other European areas, and to question the role of the monastic towns around these establishments in the urban renewal of northern Gaul from the end of the Carolingian era. The project intends to (re)study 14 identified sites, crossing data from texts, iconography, archaeological excavations and non-invasive techniques (LIDAR, electromagnetic surveys, ground penetrating radar - GPR).

The team, coordinated by Adrien Bayard, is therefore multi-disciplinary and includes altomedievalists from four of the region's universities (Arras, Lille, Amiens and Valenciennes). It comprises two archaeologists (Adrien Bayard and Mathieu Béghin), an art historian specializing in the study of architecture (Sara Nardi Combescure), three text historians studying manuscript collections (François Bougard), saints and shrines (Charles Mériaux) and interactions between gender and age (Emmanuelle Santinelli-Foltz), as well as an epigrapher (Daniele Ferraiuolo). This working group will also collaborate with researchers working for different types of public establishments: universities, CNRS and the preventive archaeology departments of local authorities.