Nail

This nail is among the variety of items likely found in the Merovingian cemetery of the Butte des Gargans archeological site. Among the items found included weapons like axeheads and arrowtips, accessories such as rings and plaque-buckles, and pottery vessels. The presence of these artifact types in multiple grave sites suggests that burials in Merovingian society were often elaborate and coordinated depending on their social context.

Preparation of the funeral process, from dressing the body to transportation, was deliberately planned in accordance to the identity and status of the deceased. Grave goods were also chosen as vessels for the storage and transmission of social information. The event itself also seemed to be a shared ritual, with findings of animal bones and ashes suggesting that funerary feasts may have occurred around the graves. This nail likely contributed to the ceremony as a part of a funerary structure like a coffin, litter, or a wooden grave covering. Its proximity to human remains may have been caused by the decomposition of these structures.

Some archaeologists have suggested that the funerary preparation process, including parting gifts and the burial of the deceased in their best clothing, may have also been a part of an effort to appease the spirits of the dead so that they would not disturb the living. It has been proposed that unusual inhumations such as abnormal positioning of bodies, the immobilization of corpses with stones or nails, and the mutilation of legs of skeletons, may exemplify measures taken to prevent a haunting. While this theory is heavily disputed and lacks written documentation, the possibility of this nail being used for such a purpose cannot be disregarded.

Effros, Bonnie. “Modern Assessments of Merovingian Burial.” Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages, 1st ed., 71–118. University of California Press, 2003.

Halsall, Guy. “Burial, Ritual, and Merovingian Society.” Cemeteries and Society in Merovingian Gaul: Selected Studies in History and Archaeology, 1992-2009, Vol. 18, 203-214. Brill’s Series on the Early Middle Ages. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers, 2009.

Halsall, Guy. "Testing the model, cemeteries outside the civitas of Metz." Settlement and Social Organization: The Merovingian Region of Metz, 110-163. Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Oehlschlaeger-Garvey, Barbara. “Reconstructing the Merovingian Cemetery of Butte Des Gargans, Houdan, France: The Documents of Auguste Moutie and Paul Guegan Considered with the Collections of the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures and the Musde d’Art et D’Histoire de Dreux.” University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2000.