Introduction

The region between the Central/Lower Rhine, Main, Saale/Elbe and the coastal zones of the North Sea and the Baltic was mainly Christianised during the phase of the northern expansion of the Carolingian Empire in the eighth and ninth centuries. At the end of the eighth and the first part of the ninth centuries many bishoprics were founded in the region between the Rhine and the Elbe, such as Münster, Paderborn, Osnabrück, Minden, Hildesheim, Halberstadt, Bremen, Verden and Hamburg. During the ninth and tenth centuries, the Mediterranean custom of wearing cross-shaped brooches can be widely observed on this northern periphery of the Carolingian empire. The type and distribution of these brooches, reviewed in this paper, gives an indication of the direction and timing of the process of conversion.

Thanks to a number of major exhibitions during the past few years it is now possible to get a clear idea of the archaeological, historical, art-historical and architectural sources related to the period of conversion in the northern lands. For the Alamans, Bavarians and Franks the catalogues and supplementary volumes accompanying the exhibitions in Mannheim 1996 (Paris-Berlin 1997), Stuttgart 1997, and Rosenheim 1998 provide comprehensive information, and the volumes accompanying the exhibition in Paderborn 1999 do the same for the understanding of situation of the Saxons and Franks. On the occasion of the exhibitions which were held in Budapest 2000 (Berlin, Mannheim, Prague, Bratislava, Cracow 2001–2003) and Magdeburg 2001, catalogues and accompanying volumes were also published, and these give an overview of the regions between the Elbe, Weichsel and Danube (that is the western Slavonic and Hungarian areas). Finally, the exhibition which was held in Berlin 1992 (Paris and Copenhagen 1992–93) dealt with contacts between Scandinavia and Europe and included the material evidence for conversion. The accessibility and dating of this material means that we can use it to reflect, at a personal level, that great change in northern Europe which we know only as a broad historical outline.

Historical Outline

In the wake of Charlemagne's conquest of Saxony from AD 772 to 805, the Christianisation of the Saxons proceeded from the regions adjacent to the south and to the west of the newly subjected areas.