Building and Economic Growth in Southern Europe (1050-1300), ed. by Sandro Carocci and Alessio Fiore, Turnhout, Brepols, 2024 (The Medieval Countryside, 26) (original) (raw)
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Brysbaert, A., Vikatou I. and Pakkanen J. (eds), Shaping Cultural Landscapes: Connecting Agriculture, Crafts, Construction, Transport, and Resilience Strategies; proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (Budapest 2020), Leiden: Sidestone Press, p. 275-285 , 2022
The Early Middle Ages are a period of strong political and social mobility. This period truly marks the end of the Roman as well as the beginning of medieval society and economy (Wickham 2000). With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, in its northwestern part, the power goes first to the Merovingian kings and at the end of the 7th century CE, they are replaced by the Carolingians. Under their rule, the aristocracy becomes more powerful and changes the rural world by organizing manorial complexes 1 (Verhulst 2002; Devroey 2003). This period also sees the growing supremacy of the Christian faith that goes along with the intensifying foundations of churches and abbeys who possesses large estates and hosts craft activities (Lebecq 2000; Henning 2007). Next to them, emporia emerge on the coasts of the North Sea. These ports have a clear commercial orientation and appear as economically dynamic agglomerations (Tys and Loveluck 2006; McCormick 2007). Some historians view the transition from the Merovingian to the Carolingian period as a time of demographic and productive growth due to the rural reorganization in which the North Sea is a zone of active exchanges (Wickham 2000; Verhulst 2002; Devroye 2003). Others however believe the new organisation of the rural world can just as well lead to the ruin of productivity and to the inhibition of efficiency and innovation due to the strong paralyzing domination of the elites (Henning 2007). Nonetheless the early medieval elites are regarded as leading the economy and as responsible for cultural change (Wickham 2008). With the ERC Advanced project 'Rural Riches' (2017-2022) Theuws questioned that point of view and considered the role of the rural population in the economic development in northern Gaul after the collapse of the Roman Empire. In his opinion the mass of objects found in the graves, especially those of the 6th century CE, show that rural dwellers had access to local, regional, and global exchange networks and that they could have triggered economic growth. In order to substantiate this hypothesis, a large amount of data has been collected from sites, their material culture, and burial rites in northern Gaul, allowing the analysis of the distribution patterns by means of GIS and the contextual analysis of finds. The 'Rural Riches' project also employs instrumental 1 The lords possessed and ruled rural estates exploited by labourers supporting themselves and their lords who had to protect them in return.
Settlement change across Medieval Europe, 2019
The idea that the past was an era with long periods of little or no change is almost certainly false. Change has always affected human society. Some of the catalysts for change were exogenous and lay in natural transformations, such as climate change or plant and animal diseases. Others came from endogamous processes, such as demographic change and the resulting alterations in demographic pressure. They might be produced by economic changes in the agrarian economy such as crop- or stock-breeding or better agricultural husbandry systems with the resultant greater harvests. Equally, they might be from technological developments in industry and manufacturing affecting traditional forms of production. We should also note changes in ideology within society and even between principal groups, such as secular and ecclesiastical bodies. We need to consider the impact of politics and warfare. These innovations, transmissions and transformations had profound spatial, economic and social impacts on the environments, landscapes and habitats evident at micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Changes, alterations and modifications may affect how land was worked, how it was organized, and the nature of buildings and rural complexes (homesteads, work buildings, villages, monasteries, towns and landscapes). The authors of the 36 papers focus in particular on transmissions and transformations in a longue durée perspective, such as from early medieval times (c. 500AD) to the High Middle Ages (c. 1000/1200 AD), and from medieval to post-medieval and early modern times (1700). The case studies include the shrinking and disappearance of settlements; changes in rule and authority; developments in the agrarian economy; the shift from handwork to manufacturing; demographic change.
Historia Agraria, 2023
During the last two centuries of the Late Middle Ages lords experienced a substantial fall in rents, which was exacerbated in the case of Valencia due to the small size of local manors. The will to keep their levels of incomes brought lords to demand higher burdens from their vassals, especially Muslims, while some nobles, in addition, invested in the productive structures of their estates. Such was the case in the manor of Manises, where since the early fourteenth century an important ceramicanufacturing had developed, which attracted the interest of buyers from all over Europe. This production took place in a medium-sized manorial village, inhabited by a mixed population of Muslims and Christians, which maintained its engagement with agricultural labour. The aim of this article is to analyse the rents of the manor of Manises through two unpublished and exceptional manorial sources, namely, two registries datable from the early fifteenth century and the early sixteenth century respectively,although the latter continued to be used until the end of the century. These allow the exploration of the structure of seigniorial revenues, showing the incidence that agrarian rents and those coming from ceramic production represented over the total. The tendency followed by the manorial rents in the long run is addressed and compared to those of other contemporary locations of the Kingdom of Valencia. Finally, the involvement of vassals in agriculture and ceramic manufacturing is also explored.
Church building and the economy during Europe’s ‘Age of the Cathedrals’, 700–1500 CE
Explorations in Economic History, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Church building and the economy during Europe’s ‘Age of the Cathedrals’, 700-1500
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2017
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
The research group Cultures i Societats de l'Edat Mitjana (CiSEM) of the Universitat de València organizes, between July 8 and 10, 2024, the III Doctoral School in Economic History of the Middle Ages. This third edition is entitled On the Demand Side. Consumption and Consumers in Medieval Europe and aims to show the possibilities offered by the study of consumption patterns and the different profiles of consumers in medieval and modern Europe. The study of consumption patterns and consumers during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance has been a recurring theme in the field of economic history over the last decades. Debates around concepts such as the "consumer revolution" and the "industrious revolution," initially developed for the Modern Age, have been extended to the Middle Ages, helping to abandon the old idea that consumption and demand were simply by-products of supply and offer. Until recently, it was believed that the Industrial Revolution and the material civilization in Europe arose primarily from supply-side factors such as technology, production, and labour. However, from the 1990s
This volume brings together experts from across Europe working on shared themes related to early medieval settlement. Centring discussion on three core centuries of the Early Middle Ages – the 8th–10th centuries AD – the contributors here examine the phenomenon of fortified settlements in the landscape. The period is, arguably, one dominated by enclosed communities – even if, as will be highlighted by various authors, ‘open’ and ‘dispersed’ settlement persisted in the lands attached to or overseen by the fortified centres. These sites have long been portrayed as physical, monumental and landed manifestations of fractured states, high levels of warfare – external and internecine – and a growing localisation of elite power. They have also long seen historical recognition and archaeological investigation, but generally with a focus determined by the noted vision of insecurity. Hence the emphasis of study had long been on the defences – stone or timber and earthen – and their scale and durability; on the strategic siting of the fortifications – on hilltop, island, promontory, or as citadel or urban enceinte – and their position in a defensive network; and on signs of military garrisons, of conflict and of destruction. Their role in state authority and in elite society are also regular subjects of discussion – frontier bases to a polity; fortified royal palaces; high elite strongholds, perhaps held by royal retainers or administrators such as dukes, counts, margraves; or fortresses between competing nobilities. But while these are all factors that played a role – substantial or lesser – in the formation, functioning, evolution and ends (or endurance) of fortified sites across Europe, discussion of these distinctive and commonplace settlement foci needs better balance, addressing not just their potential politico-military roots and roles, but also their actual workings as settlements. Archaeology is ideally placed to explore not just chronologies and forms, but the occupants, their lifestyles, material expressions, their contacts and their working landscapes. As will be seen, this volume is as much about understanding how, when and why these fortified sites emerged in the Early Middle Ages as understanding how they were put together, the nature of their buildings inside and what we can learn of the social groups living and working within (and without) them.