Short description:

This book examines the contribution of archaeology to the study of the social, economic, religious, and other developments in England from the end of the Roman period at the start of the fifth century to the beginnings of the Renaissance at the end of the fifteenth.

Long description:

This book examines the contribution of archaeology to the study of the social, economic, religious, and other developments in England from the end of the Roman period at the start of the fifth century to the beginnings of the Renaissance at the end of the fifteenth century.

The first edition of the book was published in 1990, and remains the only synthesis of the whole spectrum of medieval archaeology. This new edition is completely rewritten and extended, but uses the same chronological approach to investigate how society and economy evolved. It draws on a wide range of new data, derived from excavation, investigation of buildings, metal-detection, and scientific techniques. It examines the social customs, economic pressures, and environmental constraints within which people functioned; the technology available to them; and how they expressed themselves, for example in their houses, their burial customs, their costume, and their material possessions such as pottery. Their adaptation to new circumstances, whether caused by human factors such as the re-emergence of towns or changing taxation requirements, or by external ones such as volcanic activity or the Black Death, is explored throughout each chapter.

The new edition of Archaeology, Economy, and Society will be essential reading for students and researchers of the archaeology of Medieval England.

?If one wants information chronologically and lucidly structured, it is currently impossible to do better than this? It is truly a remarkable achievement?.

Current Archaeology ? John Blair

Table of Contents:

Introduction; 1. The Fifth Century: Living Without the Legions; 2. The Sixth Century: Adjusting to Change; 3. The Seventh Century: Kings, Christianity, and Commerce; 4. The Eighth Century: Surpluses and Subjections; 5. The Ninth Century: Kings and Vikings; 6. The Tenth Century: Towns and Trade in Troubled Times; 7. The Eleventh Century: Conquests and their Consequences; 8. The Twelfth Century: Community and Constraint; 9. The Thirteenth Century: Magnates, Money, and Obligations; 10. The Fourteenth Century: Dearth and Death; 11. The Fifteenth Century: Living in Reduced Circumstances; References; Index