This volume represents a selection of papers presented at the 2013 Edinburgh Seventh Century Colloquium, showcasing the latest scholarship from a rising generation of academics. The volume traverses the globe from Iran to the Atlantic and from Sweden to the Sahara and ranges from the establishment of the early Islamic state to the beginnings of English Christianity. Topics include the transmission of high culture across time, settlement patterns in a rapidly changing world and the formation of new and emerging identities. The essays also bring into dialogue a wide range of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, including archaeology, literature, history, art, papyrology and economics. Together, they generate valuable new insights into the still uncharted territories of the long seventh century.

Alessandro Gnasso is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Edinburgh, conducting research on the manuscript transmission of Merovingian historiography.
Emanuele E. Intagliata is a doctoral candidate in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, undertaking a dissertation on the city of Palmyra in the Late Antique and Umayyad periods.
Thomas J. MacMaster is a doctoral candidate in history at the University of Edinburgh, working on the slave trade in the long seventh century.
Bethan N. Morris works for the National Trust for Scotland and also tutors in Celtic studies and medieval Scottish history at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on early medieval ethnic identity in Northern Britain, warfare and the negotiation of peace treaties, and the beginning of literacy and its impact in Scotland.

Contents: Emanuele E. Intagliata/Bethan N. Morris: Preface: Evaluating the 'Edinburgh Seventh-Century Colloquium' Experience - Alex Woolf: Sutton Hoo and Sweden Revisited - Heidi Stoner: Kings without Faces: An Examination of the Visual Evidence for Kingship in the Seventh Century - Austin Mason: The Early English Cult of Saints in Long-Term Perspective - Richard Broome: Approaches to the Frankish Community in the Chronicle of Fredegar and Liber Historiae Francorum - Paolo Forlin: The Periphery during the Seventh Century: The Rise of a New Landscape within the Core of the Alps. Climate Change, Land Use and the Arrival of the Lombards in the Eastern Trentino, Northern Italy (Sixth-Seventh Centuries AD) - Jörg Drauschke: The Development of Diplomatic Contacts and Exchange between the Byzantine Empire and the Frankish Kingdoms until the Early Eighth Century - José Cristóbal Carvajal López/Julio Miguel Román Punzón/Miguel Jiménez Puertas/Javier Martínez Jiménez: When the East Came to the West: The Seventh Century in the Vega of Granada (South-East Spain): Visigoths, Byzantines and Muslims - Ine Jacobs: From Early Byzantium to the Middle Ages at Sagalassos - Giuseppe Cacciaguerra/Antonino Facella/Luca Zambito: Continuity and Discontinuity in Seventh-Century Sicily: Rural Settlement and Economy - Marie Legendre: Islamic Conquest, Territorial Reorganization and Empire Formation: A Study of Seventh-Century Movements of Population in the Light of Egyptian Papyri - Ryan J. Lynch: Sons of the Muhajirun: Some Comments on Ibn al-Zubayr and Legitimizing Power in Seventh-Century Islamic History - Mehrnoush Soroush: Irrigation in Khuzistan after the Sasanians: Continuity, Decline, or Transformation? - Thomas J. MacMaster: Afterword: Why the Seventh Century? The Problem of Periodization across Cultures.