Le commerce des grenats à l’époque mérovingienne

• Published in: Archéopages
• Main Authors: Thomas Calligaro, Patrick Périn
• Format: Article
• Language: French
• Published: Institut national de recherche archéologique préventive (Inrap) 2019-01-01
• Subjects: Medieval Period; India; Sri Lanka; Bohemia; Portugal; Merovingians
• Online Access: https://journals.openedition.org/archeopages/9464
• ISSN: 1622-8545; 2269-9872

In the 5th and 6th centuries, the cloisonné style was used throughout the West, from the Black Sea to the British Isles and from Scandinavia to North Africa, for the decoration of handles, sword scabbards and scramasaxes, as well as for ornamental objects and clothing accessories. It has long been demonstrated that, without exception, the red inlays used were not glass but garnets, and investigations into their geological and geographical origin suggests links to Asia (India and Sri Lanka) and Europe. With the help of more powerful measuring instruments than previously used, the study of almost 5,000 archaeological garnets and geological reference garnets (securely localised and partly from surveys in India, Sri Lanka and Portugal) shows that western goldsmiths had recourse to only six sources of garnets in the Merovingian period, two in India, two in Sri Lanka and, from the 600s onwards, two in Europe (Bohemia and Portugal). The trade in garnets between the Indian world and the West, via the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, raises a number of political and economic questions that can only be briefly discussed here. Moreover, the disruption of Western supplies of Indian garnets in the 600s undoubtedly led to the disappearance of the famous cloisonné style, as the size of European garnets made it impossible to produce mosaic coverings. It is then that the decorative style of stones mounted in frames began to flourish, which was to last well into the 7th century.