The excavation of settlements has in recent years transformed our understanding of north-west Europe in the early Middle Ages. We can for the first time begin to answer fundamental questions such as: what did houses look like and how were they furnished? how did villages and individual farmsteads develop? how and when did agrarian production become intensified and how did this affect village communities? what role did craft production and trade play in the rural economy? In a period for which written sources are scarce, archaeology is of central importance in understanding the 'small worlds' of early medieval communities. Helena Hamerow's extensively illustrated and accessible study offers the first overview and synthesis of the large and rapidly growing body of evidence for early medieval settlements in north-west Europe, as well as a consideration of the implications of this evidence for Anglo-Saxon England. SERIES DESCRIPTION The volumes in this series bring together archaeological, visual, and historical methods to offer new approaches to aspects of medieval society, economy, and material culture. The series seeks to present and interpret archaeological evidence in ways readily accessible to historians, while providing a historical perspective and context for the material culture of the period.
Reviews
The concept behind this book is excellent and the content sorely needed ... The importance of this book is that it has helped by filling a significant gap in a way that will be extremely useful to undergraduates, postgraduates and early medievalists. Sites are clearly described, well-referenced, and fully discussed within their social and territorial context. * Archaeological Journal *
Without doubt, this is one of the most important books currently available on the early medieval economy and its effect upon the developing landscape. * Landscape History *
... scholarly and elegantly presented ... The survey is wide-ranging, lucid, and thought-provoking as well as precisely exemplified. * Medium Aevum *
... provides a fine example of what this relatively new discipline can bring to our understanding of the immediate post-Roman period. * The Economic History Review *
Hamerow's arguments are clearly put accross and based upon a sound, reliable and detailed knowledge of the evidence, which makes them profitable to read and rewarding to engage with. * English Historical Review *
Hamerow is the leading British student of post-Roman rural settlement and, as one would expect, this long-awaited synthesis presents a wealth of extremely useful information, accompanied by clear and consistent plans and diagrams. * English Historical Review *
While certainly accessible to historians, this book also deserves a substantial readership among archaelogists, not least because it thoughtfully presents a great deal of material that would otherwise be inaccessible to the increasingly 'Anglolexic' world of British archaeology. * English Historical Review *
... attractively produced and interesting new book. * English Historical Review *
Hamerow's book is well produced. It should be read and consulted by all students of early medieval archaeology, both on the British and on the continental side of the North Sea. * The Agricultural History Review *
... the author has made a large body of archaeological information from the continent accessible to British students. * The Agricultural History Review *
Hamerow has produced a fundamentally important comparison of the rural settlement and social history of Early Medieval communities around the North Sea, which demonstrates beyond doubt the value of studying Britain within the context of mainland Europe. * British Archaeology *
... especially strong in its social analysis of buildings and settlement morphology, reflecting the author's long-standing research in this field. * British Archaeology *
... this book should provide a most helpful resource for students and reference book for a wide range of specialists with interests in the economic and social history of Early-medieval Europe. * John Hines, The Medieval Review *
It is much to be welcomed that a publishing house of the weight of the Oxford University Press is willing to launch a series of monographs in Medieval History and Archaeology, and the series is off to a fine start with this volume. * John Hines, The Medieval Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199246977
Author Helena Hamerow
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 595g
Dimensions(mm) 254mm * 176mm * 18mm