Between empires: Race and ethnicity in the early Middle Ages

The early Middle Ages often defies easy categorization, positioned between empires and conceived of as between historical epochs, and is thus often at the margin of scholarship treating topics on antiquity or the Middle Ages. As a period of transitions, developments resist easy integration into larger interpretive models, and consequently, they tend to not be discussed in studies either of classical antiquity or of the Middle Ages. Many early medieval historians have argued that race is not a valid concept for the early Middle Ages, preferring instead to use the term ethnicity. Instead, this paper will argue that yes, racial concepts were important in the early Middle Ages, and this period provides a bridge between classical and medieval forms of racial categorization. It will therefore explore the idea of race as a useful category of analysis in the early Middle Ages, in particular in Italy, and suggest ways that it might be used to further understand hierarchical strategies of distinction in the early Middle Ages and the transformation of the Roman world.