Settlement and Social Organization

Book excerpt: This book examines one region of north-eastern Gaul around Metz in the period between the end of the Roman Empire and the accession of Charlemagne. It adopts a new, multi-disciplinary approach using all available evidence, both documentary and archaeological. It deals with a broad range of historical themes, and, by looking at the reasons behind the creation of different forms of evidence, it examines how the different facets of social organisation (ethnicity, gender, age and social hierarchy) were related intimately to each other and to contemporary settlement patterns of the region. As a result, it is argued that the Merovingian period was not one of slow 'transformation' from 'Roman' to 'medieval' but was one of constant, dynamic social change and diversity even between the recognised periods of dramatic upheaval.