A closer look
The Dark Ages were surprisingly glamorous if you were dead and royal. When archaeologists unsealed the tomb of the 6th-century Merovingian Queen Arnegunde, they didn't find primitive furs, but a spectacular fashion statement. She was buried in Byzantine silk, gold-embroidered violet tunics, and silver-buckled garters, proving that the early Frankish elite maintained hyper-expensive, globe-spanning trade networks for luxury textiles long after the Western Roman Empire had collapsed into dust.
