Barbarian Europe

European culture has been greatly influenced by the Christian Church and Greek and Roman culture.

However, the peoples of Europe's remote past, whom the Greeks, Romans and their medieval heirs called the 'barbarians', also left their mark.

Closely examining ancient and medieval narratives as well as the codification of laws, this comparative study sheds light on the illiterate societies of the early Germanic and Slavic peoples, to create a portrait of communities built on kinship, neighbourly and tribal relations, where decision making, judgement and punishment were carried out collectively, and the distinction between the sacred and profane was unknown.