Life in towns after Rome : investigating late antique and early medieval urbanism c.AD 300-1050

Through extensive use of primary and secondary material, this study examines the development of the late classical and early medieval town across three regions of north-western Europe in order to map physical and functional urban change and to identify the key factors linking a spatially and temporally broad study area. The three diverse but complementary areas of investigation consist of Britain, a region with a relatively tenuous, discontinuous urbanism, Gaul, with its persistence of urban functions and populations throughout the period of study, and Scandinavia and Ireland, regions revealing a late urbanism.;In each core chapter the archaeological and documentary data for towns are reviewed followed by presentation of key case studies. Selected for their level/quality of investigation, these provide the essential platform for a wider discussion of urban roles between c. AD 300-1050.;The thesis establishes that urban form and developmental trajectories were highly intricate, with considerable temporal and spatial diversity and, as a result, towns demonstrate strongly individualistic histories, with a heavy dependency upon setting, role(s) and, above all, human presences. Despite this variety, the emergence of royal authority, the Christian Church and inter-regional market economies are recognised as fundamental and consistent factors in the establishment, and continued existence, of a stable urban network.