Town Origins and Development in Early England C.400-950 A.D.

Relying heavily on primary literary sources and archaeological scholarship this study sheds new light on the development of towns in early England from late Roman to late Anglo-Saxon times. After a discussion of the problems of urban definition and typology Russo examines the background of Romano-British urbanism in its prime and in its late Roman transformations. He demonstrates that late Roman towns were virtually abandoned before the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The emporianew types of Anglo-Saxon townsare analyzed on the basis of written and archaeological evidence and are compared with continental emporia. Finally the origin and growth of the Anglo-Saxon burgh is considered from its eighth-century Mercian beginnings to the better known cases of King Alfred and his successors.