ABSTRACT
Medieval people had a complex understanding of spatial reality. Relics were part of early medieval networks of exchange, and they traveled extensively carried by pilgrims, messengers, and diplomats, and often distributed as part of the complex networks of gift exchange that marked the early medieval economy. In the early medieval world, people moved in a real landscape and exchanged objects, forming new central places that were centers of trade and exchange. The afterlife of Amandus’ relics in the central Middle Ages was part of complex systems of political, economic, and religious power. The early Middle Ages was a period of political and economic change, as well as religious and cultural transformation. Examining mobility has demonstrated the long-distance connections between people, places, and ideas in the early medieval period. The cumulative weight of the evidence and perspectives has suggested demonstrated a new conclusion of a complex, diverse, multivalent religious travel milieu in the early medieval west.
