The archaeology of the period A.D. 500-1000 has taken off in the Mediterranean (where prehistoric and classical studies formerly enjoyed a virtual monopoly in most areas) and in the Islamic world. Here, as in northern Europe, field survey, careful excavation and improved methods...
'In this book, Richard Hodges and David Whitehouse review the Pirenne thesis and test hypotheses advanced by some of Pirenne's critics in the light of archaeological information from the Mediterranean, northern Europe, and western Asia....The book succeeds extraordinarily well...