Early Medieval Settlements: The Archaeology of Rural Communities in North-West Europe 400-900The excavation of settlements has in recent years transformed our understanding of north west Europe in the early Middle Ages. We can for the first time begin to answer fundamental questions such as: what did houses look like and how were they furnished? how did villages and individual farmsteads develop? how and when did agrarian production become intensified and how did this affect village communities? what role did craft production and trade play