Theme:
5. Theories and methods in archaeology: interactions between disciplines
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
The Rural Economy in Transition: Agriculture and Animal Husbandry between the Late Roman Times and the Early Middle Ages
Content:
The collapse of the Roman Empire and the long formation processes of medieval societies throughout Europe constitute two major themes in both historical and archaeological research. Most archaeological research has been carried out on settlement patterns, architecture and material culture, showing a picture of instability, radical changes in settlement patterns and the termination of most trading routes. Rural economy, however, has received less attention, and this is somewhat surprising, as these major socio-political upheavals must have had a tremendous impact in the lives of the European rural population and their most basic economic activities: animal husbandry and agriculture.
The introduction of Roman husbandry practices is known to have impacted considerably on the rural landscape, plant cultivation and animal management in the various provinces of the Empire, with a high degree of specialisation of economic activities. In many cases, the subsequent decline of the Roman political and economic structures led to less specialised, more local, smaller-scale, self-sufficient subsistence economies. We now understand that the collapse of the Roman Empire and the development of medieval socio-economic structures had important consequences in rural economy, mainly in relation to the end of market-oriented production and a significant decrease of urban demand of agricultural products.
Recent research has shown the potential of archaeological sciences in addressing these issues and, for this reason, the main aim of this session is to bring together researchers from different archaeological disciplines (such as archaeobotany, palynology, zooarchaeology, geoarchaeology, landscape archaeology, etc.) to explore common patterns and dissimilarities in the ways that rural economies changed or adapted to the new socio-political scenarios as the result of the collapse of the Empire and the formation of medieval economies. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary papers which involve the integration of different scientific methods.
Keywords:
Late Roman times, Early Middle Ages, economy, transition, archaeological sciences
Session associated with MERC:
yes
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Idoia Grau-Sologestoa (Switzerland) 1
Co-organisers:
Mauro Rizzetto (United Kingdom) 2
Tudur Davies (United Kingdom) 3
Affiliations:
1. IPNA/IPAS, University of Basel
2. University of Sheffield
3. Cardiff University
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