Archeologia delle campagne altomedievali: diacronia e forme dell’insediamento

The paper analyzes the studies centered on Italian early Medieval rural areas in the last 40 years – that is, from the founding of the journal “Archeologia Medievale”. It is based on a systematic survey of all existing literature, representing the actual state of the art of our knowledge on the subject. Besides the contributions on “Archeologia Medievale”, reference has been made to the widest range of published material. It therefore represents a critical review of the history of studies and of the interpretive models proposed by the different scholars (historians and archaeologists) who have dealt ant interacted with the subject over time. The synthesis of these aspects conveys an updated picture of Italian settlement networks between the 5th and the 10th centuries. The identified research themes on which the paper focuses respect the interests of the authors who wrote in the journal: late antique-early medieval fortifications, formation of the early medieval village and role of the sparse settlement, the secular and ecclesiastic “lordly” action on rural property, the development of regionalized economies, the evolution of the elites. The debate that clearly marked this season of Italian Medieval Archaeology, led by both national and international researchers, is also taken into account.