This book is a contribution to efforts to understand the transformation that took place across the European continent, and in particular East Central Europe, during the second half of the first millennium. Its goal is to draw conclusions primarily on the basis of the archaeological evidence from important early medieval centres. A special emphasis is given to Pohansko near Břeclav (Czech Republic), perhaps the best studied centre of its kind in the entire region. In terms of methodology the book marks a new attempt to interlink a number of proven methodological tools used in western archaeology from the 1970’s, to new questions related to a cognitive approach to archaeology and the positivist tradition of Central European archaeology.

"This little volume contains the substance of lectures ... delivered from October to December 1922 in several American universities."--Pref. Bibliography: p. [245]-249.

An introduction to the life of towns and cities in the medieval period, this book shows how medieval towns grew to become important centers of trade and liberty. Beginning with a look at the Roman Empire's urban legacy, the author delves into urban planning or lack thereof; the urban way of life; the church in the city; city government; urban crafts and urban trade, health, wealth, and welfare; and the city in history. Annotated primary documents like Domesday Book, sketches of street life, and descriptions of fairs and markets bring the period to life, and extended biographical sketches of towns, regions, and city-dwellers provide readers with valuable detail. In addition, 26 maps and illustrations, an annotated bibliography, glossary, and index round out the work. After a long decline in urban life following the fall of the Roman Empire, towns became centers of trade and of liberty during the medieval period. Here, the author describes how, as Europe stabilized after centuries of strife, commerce and the commercial class grew, and urban areas became an important source of revenue into royal coffers. Towns enjoyed various levels of autonomy, and always provided goods and services unavailable in rural areas. Hazards abounded in towns, though. Disease, fire, crime and other hazards raised mortality rates in urban environs. Designed as an introduction to life of towns and cities in the medieval period, eminent historian Norman Pounds brings to life the many pleasures, rewards, and dangers city-dwellers sought and avoided. Beginning with a look at the Roman Empire's urban legacy, Pounds delves into Urban Planning or lack thereof; The Urban Way of Life; The Church in the City; City Government; Urban Crafts and Urban Trade, Health, Wealth, and Welfare; and The City in History. Annotated primary documents like Domesday Book, sketches of street life, and descriptions of fairs and markets bring the period to life, and extended biographical sketches of towns, regions, and city-dwellers provide readers with valuable detail. In addition, 26 maps and illustrations, an annotated bibliography, glossary, and index round out the work.

"The Routledge Handbook of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1300 is the first of its kind to provide a point of reference for the history of the whole of Eastern Europe during the Middle Ages. While historians have recognized the importance of integrating the eastern part of the European continent into surveys of the Middle Ages, few have actually paid attention to the region, its specific features, problems of chronology, and historiography. This vast region represents more than two thirds of the European continent, but its history in general - and its medieval history in particular - is poorly known. This book covers the history of the whole region, from the Balkans to the Carpathian Basin, and the Bohemian Forest to the Finnish Bay. It provides an overview of the current state of research and a route map for navigating an abundant historiography available in more than ten different languages. Chapters cover topics as diverse as religion, architecture, art, state formation, migration, law, trade, and the experiences of women and children. This book is an essential reference for scholars and students of medieval history, as well as those interested in the history of central and eastern Europe"--

Whilst much has been written about early modern urban history, the majority of this work has focussed on Western Europe with relatively little available in English on towns and cities in the former communist East. However, in recent years urban scholars have increasingly looked to a much more inclusive picture of Europe that compares and contrasts development across the whole continent. Dealing primarily with Bohemia, Hungary and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, this book provides an insight into a number of key issues concerning the economic, social and demographic trends in early modern East-Central European urban history. Taking a supra-national perspective, across a long time span, it examines the effects of migration, Reformation, state building and economic change on the transformation of medieval urban communities into early modern societies. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, particularly the registers of new citizens kept by many towns and cities, a fascinating picture of urban development and social structure is reconstructed that not only tells us much about East-Central Europe, but adds to our knowledge of the whole continent.

A comprehensive analysis of changes in body form and skeletal robusticity from the Terminal Pleistocene through the Holocene, leading to the modern European human phenotype. Skeletal Variation and Adaptation in Europeans: Upper Paleolithic to the Twentieth Century brings together for the first time the results of an unprecedented large-scale investigation of European skeletal remains. The study was conducted over ten years by an international research team, and includes more than 2,000 skeletons spanning most of the European continent over the past 30,000 years, from the Early Upper Paleolithic to the 20th century. This time span includes environmental transitions from foraging to food production, small-scale to large-scale urban settlements, increasing social stratification and mechanization of labor, and climatic changes. Alterations in body form and behavior in response to these transitions are reconstructed through osteometric and biomechanical analyses. Divided into four sections, the book includes an introduction to the project and comprehensive descriptions of the methods used; general continent-wide syntheses of major trends in body size, shape, and skeletal robusticity; detailed regional analyses; and a summary of results. It also offers a full data set on an external website. Brings together data from an unprecedented large-scale study of human skeletal and anatomical variations Includes appendix of specific information from each research site Synthesizes data from spatial, temporal, regional, and geographical perspectives Skeletal Variation and Adaptation in Europeans will be a valuable resource for bioarchaeologists, palaeoanthropologists, forensic anthropologists, medical historians, and archaeologists at both the graduate and post-graduate level.

In The Making of Christian Moravia Maddalena Betti examines the creation of the Moravian archdiocese, of which St Methodius was the first incumbent, in the context of ninth-century papal policy in central and south-eastern Europe. In the nineteenth and twentieth century religious and nationalistic concerns widely influenced the reconstruction of the history of the archdiocese of Methodius. Offering a new reading of already widely-used sources, both Slavonic and Latin, Maddalena Betti turns attention upon the jurisdictional conflict between Rome, the Bavarian churches and Byzantium, in order to uncover the strategies and the languages adopted by the Apostolic See to gain jurisdiction over the new territories in central and south-eastern Europe.

The study of landscape has in recent years been a field for considerable analytical archaeological experimentation. Although the Mediterranean is the home of classicism, it has seen the implementation of projects of this new kind, and in regions of Spain and Italy, after some delay, the proliferation of landscape archaeology studies.

This is the second volume of conference proceedings for the handbook of the economic history of the Alpine region in the preindustrial era, which finally provides an extensive cross-regional synopsis of the history of the Alpine economy. Like Braudel's classic on the Mediterranean region, renowned scholars examine the region and its people, the everyday lives of Alpine inhabitants, and commerce, migration, and communication in three volumes.

This ambitious work focuses on the emergence and the development of medieval towns in the two Romanian principalities of South-Eastern Europe, Wallachia and Moldavia, from their earliest days, in the 13th century, up to the 16th. It is the only work of its kind in English, but at the same time the first in the field seeking to identify and substantiate common elements between towns in this area of Europe. It also covers Poland, Hungary and the lands south of the Danube. By relying both on various written sources, and on archeological finds, the author addresses several controversial issues, starting from the particulars of urbanization, through an analysis of local institutions, of urban society and economy, and concluding with thorough case studies. The result is a book which shows that medieval towns in the Romanian Principalities, despite being on the outskirts of Europe, were nevertheless part of it.