Settlement change across Medieval Europe

The idea that the past was an era with long periods of little or no change is almost certainly false. Change has always affected human society. Some of the catalysts for change were exogenous and lay in natural transformations, such as climate change or plant and animal diseases. Others came from endogamous processes, such as demographic change and the resulting alterations in demographic pressure. They might be produced by economic changes in the agrarian economy such as crop- or stock-breeding or better agricultural husbandry systems with the resultant greater harvests. Equally, they might be from technological developments in industry and manufacturing affecting traditional forms of production. We should also note changes in ideology within society and even between principal groups, such as secular and ecclesiastical bodies. We need to consider the impact of politics and warfare.These innovations, transmissions and transformations had profound spatial, economic and social impacts on the environments, landscapes and habitats evident at micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Changes, alterations and modifications may affect how land was worked, how it was organized, and the nature of buildings and rural complexes (homesteads, work buildings, villages, monasteries, towns and landscapes). The authors of the 36 papers focus in particular on transmissions and transformations in a longue durée perspective, such as from early medieval times (c. 500AD) to the High Middle Ages (c. 1000/1200 AD), and from medieval to post-medieval and early modern times (1700). The case studies include the shrinking and disappearance of settlements; changes in rule and authority; developments in the agrarian economy; the shift from handwork to manufacturing; demographic change.ContentsPrefaceNiall Brady, Claudia TheuneIntroductionNiall Brady, Claudia TheuneMountain communities in the Catalan Pyrenees: 25 years of archaeological researchWalter Alegría-Tejedor, Marta Sancho-Planas, Maria Soler-SalaEndogenous and exogenous characteristics of settlement development of an early medieval settlement at Sursee (Canton of Lucerne, Switzerland)Christian auf der MaurNot so dark centuries: changes and continuities in the Catalan landscape (6th-12th centuries)Jordi BolòsRural settlement in later medieval Ireland through the lens of deserted settlementsNiall BradyRural settlement and economy in Campania (South Italy) between Late Antiquity and Middle AgesNicola BusinoDeciphering transformations of rural settlement and land-use patterns in central Adriatic Italy between the 6th and the 12th centuries ADFrancesca Carboni, Frank VermeulenChange and continuity in rural early medieval Hispania. Comparative multidisciplinary approach to the countrysides of Egitania (Idanha-A-Velha, Portugal) and Emerita (Mérida, Spain)Tomás Cordero RuizBeyond the Borders: transformations, acculturation and adaptation between Latium and Campania during the Lombard Period (6th - 8th c.)Cristina CorsiSilent witness: the deserted medieval borough of Newtown Jerpoint, Co Kilkenny, IrelandIan Doyle, Tadhg O'KeeffeKopaniec in the Izera Mountains. An example of unusual transformation of a village after the Thirty Years' War period in SilesiaPaweł Duma, Jerzy Piekalski, Anna ŁuczakCounting heads. Post-Roman population decline in the Rhine-Meuse delta (the Netherlands) and the need for more evidence-based reconstructionsBert Groenewoudt, Rowin J. van LanenLand-organisational changes in rural Denmark from AD 200-1200Jesper HansenSettlement abandonment in Dartmoor (England): Retreat of margins reassessed and difficult market accessibility as important factors of settlement vulnerabilityLukas HolataThe mid-6th century crises and their impacts on human activity and settlements in south-eastern NorwayFrode Iversen, Steinar SolheimThe transformation of rural settlements in Slavonia in the period from the 12th to the 15th centuriesAndrej Janeš, Ivana Hirschler MarićSocioeconomic Mobility and property transmission among peasants: the Cheb region (Czech Republic) in the Late Middle AgesTomáš KlírMendicant friaries and the changing landscapes of late medieval Ireland: The foundations of the Augustinian friars in Co. Mayo and SligoAnne-Julie LafayeLate medieval transformation of rural landscape - model of melioratio terrae on the examples of the land of Nysa-Otmuchów and the Kaczawskie Foothills, Silesia, PolandMaria Legut-PintalNew evidence for the transformative impact of depopulation on currently inhabited medieval rural settlements from archaeological test-pit excavation in EnglandCarenza LewisOne land, Two peasantries: Moriscos and old Christians in the Upper Genal Valley, Málaga (16th-18th C.)Esteban López-García, Ignacio Díaz, Félix RetameroTransformation and continuity in the Wexford countrysideBreda LynchRural landscapes of north-eastern Rus' in transition: From the large unfortified settlements of the Viking Age to medieval villagesNikolaj MakarovThe Anglo-Scottish western march: A landscape in transitionCaron NewmanChange in rural settlement in Eastern Central Europe from the early to the later Middle AgesElisabeth NowotnyAssembling in times of transitions - the case of cooking-pit sitesMarie ØdegaardPost-roman land-use transformations: analysing the early medieval countryside in Castelo de Vide (Portugal)Sara PrataThe Hungarian conquest and the contemporary settlement structures. Research into 9th - 10th century archaeological finds from the Pest PlainTibor Ákos RáczTransformations of settlements for agricultural production between Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages in ItalyMarcello RotiliSettlements, communication and authority. Transforming spatial structure in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve Region in the 15-17th centuryEdit SárosiLate medieval deserted settlements in Southern Germany as a consequence of long-term landscape transformationsRainer SchregCrisis or transition? Risk and resilience during the late medieval agrarian crisisEva SvenssonNo smoke without fire. Burning and changing settlements in 10th-century central-northern PortugalCatarina TenteClimate change and economic development in the Alps during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern PeriodClaudia TheuneBreaking old ties. Settlement relocation in North-Brabant (NL) at the dawn of the Late Middle AgesJohan VerspayThe impact of the Christian conquest on the agrarian areas in the low Ebro valley. The case of Xerta (Spain)Antoni Virgili, Helena KirchnerMedieval settlement dynamics in peatland reclamations in the Western, Central and Northern NetherlandsJan van Doesburg