|
|
Article: CHARLEMAGNE'S ELEPHANT.
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- December 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
On the 1,200th anniversary of Charlemagne's coronation in Rome, Richard Hodges reviews the evidence for long-distance trade in his empire.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE Mediterranean and northern Europe in the age of Charlemagne have puzzled archaeologists and historians. At face value the two parts of Europe appear to have been completely separated, despite Charlemagne's famous coronation in Rome in December 800. Furthermore, relations between Latin Christendom, Byzantium and the Abbasid caliphate (based in Baghdad) appear to have been virtually non-existent. Only intrepid pilgrims bridged the ideological divides that separated these three great regions with their ...