Rural and Urban Aspects of Early Medieval Northwest Europe

The articles here concern the period from the end of the Roman Empire up to the 10th-11th centuries and the lands between the Loire and the Rhine, most particularly the Low Countries. Rural history forms the subject of the first studies, which focus on the large 'classical' estates of the Carolingian period. Adriaan Verhulst has argued convincingly that these were medieval creations, not any inheritance from Late Antiquity, and emphasizes their regional differences. The following section, on urban history, consists of three studies on the origins and early development of the key Flemish cities of Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp (this last now in English), and three broader-ranging essays which seriously challenge Pirenne's long accepted views of town origins. In these the author makes full use of contemporary archaeological research to supplement the scanty written sources and to examine the possibilities of (dis)continuity from Roman times through the early Middle Ages. Cette serie d'articles concerne la periode allant de la fin de l'Empire romain jusqu'aux 10 et 11e siecles et le territoires situes entre la Loire et le Rhin, avec un attachement plus particulier aux pays bas. Les premieres etudes, qui se concentrent sur les grands domaines 'classiques' de l'epoque carolingienne, ont pour sujet l'histoire rurale. Adriaan Verhulst a soutenu de faAon convaincante qu'il s'agissait lA de creations medievales, plutA't que d'un heritage provenu de l'Antiquite tardive, et il en souligne les differences regionales. La section suivante, qui traite de l'histoire urbaine, consiste en trois etudes sur les origines et le developpement des cites flamandes de Gand, Bruges et Anvers, et en trois essais moins specifiques, qui remettent serieusement en question les opinions de Pirenne - acceptees de longue date - sur les origines de la ville. Au travers de ces dernieres, l'auteur se sert pleinement de la recherche arche