Agrarian archaeology in Early Medieval Europe

摘要

Over the last few decades, the archaeological study of agrarian and animal husbandry activities of historical societies has seen an impressive development as a result of the synergy of different factors. One of the major events allowing this renovation has been the great amount of rescue and preventive archaeological projects carried out all over Europe. As a consequence of the massive realization of linear works such as highways, gas pipelines, railways, and the urbanization of entire residential areas, thousands of projects have brought to light extensive new sites and new kind of archaeological sites unknown until now. On the other hand, paleo-enviromental disciplines traditionally interested in prehistoric times, such as geoarchaeology, bioarchaeology or paleoclimatology, have extended their studies into historical times, facing problems studied until now with the written evidence (ie Leveau et al., 2002; Crabtree, 2010; McCormick et al., 2012). However the asymmetry between different European traditions is quite evident. While in Britain or Scandinavia Archaeological Science is heavily consolidated in academic and professional terms and, as a result, there is a strong tradition in the study of paleoenvironmental historical records, the situation is very different in southern Europe. In this area rescue archaeology and single initiatives have promoted the first bioarchaeological and geoarchaeological studies conducted by scholars who usually have a prehistoric background. Finally, a theoretical and methodological renovation of historical archaeology has had an important role in the renovation of classic archaeology into a wider social science.