The “Barbarian Invasions“: sources, methods, ideologies

Despite the fact that the notion of "Barbarian Invasions" has become commonplace, important problems remain with regards to documentation, be it written or archaeological. For nationalist history, the scale of population movements between the 3rd and 6th centuries constituted an ideological preconception (whether positive or negative); validations were sought out in clerical writings or in the layers of destruction. The map of the "Great Invasions" then appeared, such as it is still found in the majority of popularised texts today. In contrast, as of the 1960s, a dominant academic trend had the tendency to diminish the importance of the invasions and to approach the issue in terms of acculturation or ethnogenesis. Since the 1990s, some historians and archaeologists have even come to reject the existence of certain migrations, or have at least refused to characterise the observed transformations as such: a drastic change in material culture does not necessarily signify the arrival of populations; a retrospective chronicle is not always reliable. Other scholars also insist on the inadequacy of the concept of identity: the term "barbarian" does not correspond to the same reality everywhere. These opposing interpretations betray different methods, but also a constant adaptation to changing geopolitical contexts.