Dark Age Liguria

Dark Age Liguria surveys the history of the Liguria region from c. 400 to c. 1050 AD to provide a detailed case study of what happened here as Roman imperial rule ended. The book pulls together all the surviving evidence written archaeological artistic and ecological to propose that in contrast with later periods Ligurians looked north as much as they gazed out to sea. Genoese history under Byzantines Lombards Carolingians and Ottonians is compared with that of other coastal settlements including Albenga Noli Perti and Savona and the less-studied but fascinating inland valleys the Aveto Polcevera Stura and Vara. The book draws also on more than fifteen years of fieldwork in and around the small town of Varese Ligure (La Spezia province) to suggest some new methods for investigating the Dark Age past.