Unearthed Secrets: Ancient Jewish Life in Medieval Europe – Documentary - MDW

#History #Secrets

The Jewish presence, though a minority, is very ancient in France and Europe: it dates back to the first centuries of our era. Jews integrated into towns and villages, participating in community life and interacting with the predominantly Christian populations. Merchants, bankers, doctors, horse traders, but also eminent intellectuals, Jews in the Middle Ages actively participated in society, of which they were an important part. But from the 13th to the 15th centuries, Jews were expelled from most European countries. Yet, European history, and French history in particular, downplays or ignores this Jewish presence. Today, thanks to archaeology, and especially preventive archaeology, traces of forgotten Jewish communities are being rediscovered in France, as well as in Germany, Spain, Italy, and elsewhere. For the past twenty years, numerous discoveries have enriched our understanding of the Jewish presence in Europe. Excavation after excavation, archaeologists are bringing their history back to life, a history previously known only through texts. Archaeologists, as well as epigraphers, anthropologists, and historians, are studying the archives of the earth to revive these communities whose existence has been largely ignored until now. We want to meet them, to try to describe a new history of the Jewish presence in Europe.
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