{"word_count": 271, "character_count": 1744}
 Archaeological Approaches and Issues  / sous la direction de Pilar Diarte-Blasco et Neil Christie  In this volume of papers, deriving from two conferences held in Rome and  Leicester in 2016, nineteen leading European archaeologists discuss and  interpret the complex evolution of landscapes – both urban and rural –  across Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (c. AD 300–700). The  geographical coverage extends from Italy to the Mediterranean West  through to the Rhine frontier and onto Hadrian's Wall. Core are  questions of impacts due to the socio-political, religious, military and  economic transformations affecting provinces, territories and kingdoms  across these often turbulent centuries: how did townscapes change and at  what rate? What were the fates of villas? When do post-classical  landscapes emerge and in what form? To what degree did Europe become an  insecure, defended landscape? In what ways did people – cityfolk,  farmers, nobility, churchmen, merchants – adapt? Do the elite remain  visible and how prominent is the Church? Where and how do we see culture  change through the arrival of new groups or new ideas? Do burials form a  clear guide to the changing world? And how did the environment change  in this period of stress – was the classical period landscape much  altered through the attested depopulation and economic deterioration?  And underlying much of the discussion is a consideration of the nature  and quality of our source material: how good is the archaeology of these  periods and how good is our current reading of the materials available?  Combined, these expert studies offer valuable new analyses of people  and places in a complex, challenging and crucial period in European  history.  