BBC Civilisation (1 of 13) 1： The Skin of Our Teeth

1. The Skin of Our Teeth

First page of the Gospel of St Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels
In this first episode Clark—travelling from Byzantine Ravenna to the Celtic Hebrides, from the Norway of the Vikings to Charlemagne's chapel at Aachen—tells the story of the Dark Ages, the six centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire, and “how European thought and art were saved by 'the skin of our teeth'”.

Sections:
Expressions of an Ideal
The Fall of Rome
Skellig Michael
Iona
The Norsemen
The Baptistry at Poitiers
Charlemagne
The Cross of Lothar.