Interpreting Transformations of People and Landscapes in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Subtitle: Archaeological Approaches and Issues
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9781789250343
Subjects: Civilization, ancient; Civilization, classical; Archaeology; Geography, ancient; Europe, social conditions
Description: In this volume, deriving from two conferences held in Rome and Leicester in 2016, nineteen leading European archaeologists discuss and interpret the complex evolution of landscapes - both urban and rural - across Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (c. AD 300-700). The geographical coverage extends from Italy to the Mediterranean West through to the Rhine frontier and onto Hadrian's Wall. Core are questions of impacts due to the socio-political, religious, military and economic transformations affecting provinces, territories and kingdoms across these often turbulent centuries: how did townscapes change and at what rate? What were the fates of villas? When do post-classical landscapes emerge and in what form? To what degree did Europe become an insecure, defended landscape? In what ways did people - cityfolk, farmers, nobility, churchmen, merchants - adapt? Do the elite remain visible and how prominent is the Church? Where and how do we see culture change through the arrival of new groups or new ideas? Do burials form a clear guide to the changing world? And underlying much of the discussion is a consideration of the nature and quality of our source material.