Having received a European Research Centre grant in 2025 the Connected Communities in Early Medieval Europe (COCO) project kicked off with a three-day long programme last month. From the 28th to the 30th of April the National Museum of Antiquities and the Faculty of Archaeology hosted the meetings bringing together researchers from all around Europe.
A completely new image
The kick-off meeting was organised to bring the researchers together in the same space to discuss research questions, database methods and how to communicate the results to the public. Frans Theuws (cPI) hopes that with this project they will be able to paint a completely new image of Early-Medieval Europe. Software developer David Schaper agrees: 'I hope that we can bring together data from all around Europe to create a synergy.' He will be in charge of creating the database that will house the results of the research. The results of the project will be open access so finding the right way to publish the data where it can be found was an important topic.
Consensus or violence?
Jip Barreveld, a postdoc researcher, will be focusing on Early-Medieval meeting places: 'finding the unfindable places, that is the idea behind these meeting places, what are the places that we can't easily find where people come together?'
Dries Tys, also a postdoc researcher, is interested in the drivers behind societal structures: 'For me it is important to show that there was a world based on consensus instead of violence.'
Violence is what the weapons in the graves suggest but Femke Lippok and the burial ritual group will analyse whether this pan-European practice refers to other aspects in the world views of early medieval people.
A new logo
With the kick-off meeting also came the reveal of the official logo and visual identity of the project which was met with excitement from the group. The design of the logo and the visual style were inspired by Early Medieval glass beads, representative of trade and cultural exchange in Europe at the time.
European collaboration
The COCO project has received funding from the European research council and is a collaboration between researchers from The Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, Germany and France. Over the next 6 years they will work together to map connections between communities in Early-Medieval Europe.
Synergy grant
The ERC Synergy Grants enable groups of outstanding researchers within the EU to work together. The generous funding allows them to pool their skills, knowledge and resources to push the frontiers of our knowledge.
