Markets in Early Medieval Europe: Trading and Productive Sites, 650-850

Description

Over the last few years, collaboration between the archaeological and metal-detectorist communities has transformed our understanding of early medieval economies. The great coastal emporia or wics like Hamwic, Dorestadt and Quentovic have in the past been the centre of scholarly attention. However, the identification of 'productive' sites, mostly through the detection and archaeological analysis of coins, has increasingly shown how economic and cultural exchange also went on at a myriad of other places, many of them inland. This book is the first to survey the evidence for inland markets and trading sites, in Anglo-Saxon England and across Scandinavian and Frankish Europe. Historians, archaeologists and numismatists review the latest evidence for these sites, and for trading relations across Europe and Scandinavia. Markets, fairs and other high-status settlements were all centres of exchange, and many of them are examined here for the first time. This interdisciplinary volume represents a milestone in understanding the complexities of economics and settlement in early medieval England and Europe. By moving the debate away from analysis of the most important sites, it offers new insights into the overall patterns of trade and exchange, and sheds new light on the economic dimension of people's lives.