Many parts of its bold framework have been attacked, but seldom decisively, for until now the evidence has been insufficient. Henri Pirenne's classic history of Europe between the fifth and ninth centuries, Mohammed and Charlemagne, although published on the eve of the Second World War, remains an important work. Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe attempts to prove the point. The new data and models positively compel us to take a new look at the written sources and reconsider the 'making of the Middle Ages'. The 'New Archaeology', pioneered in the United States in the 1960s, has taught the archaeologist the value of anthropological models in the study of the past. Here, as in northern Europe, field survey, careful excavation and improved methods of dating are beginning to supply information which now is not only more abundant but also of much higher quality than ever before. 500-1000 has taken off in the Mediterranean (where prehistoric and classical studies formerly enjoyed a virtual monopoly in most areas) and in the Islamic world.
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