Milton Public Library

Fortified settlements in early medieval Europe, defended communities of the 8th-10th centuries

eng

no index present

non fiction

Fortified settlements in early medieval Europe

electronic resource

dictionaries

defended communities of the 8th-10th centuries

Twenty-three contributions by leading archaeologists from across Europe explore the varied forms, functions, and significances of fortified settlements in the 8th to 10th centuries AD. These could be sites of strongly martial nature, upland retreats, monastic enclosures, rural seats, island bases, or urban nuclei. But they were all expressions of control - of states, frontiers, lands, materials, communities - and ones defined by walls, ramparts, or enclosing banks. Papers run from Irish cashels to Welsh and Pictish strongholds, Saxon burhs, Viking fortresses, Byzantine castra, Carolingian creations, Venetian barricades, Slavic strongholds, and Bulgarian central places, and coverage extends fully from northwest Europe to central Europe, the northern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. Strongly informed by recent fieldwork and excavations, but drawing also were available on the documentary record, this important collection provides fully up-to-date reviews and analyses of the archaeology of the distinctive settlement forms that characterized Europe in the Early Middle Ages

adult