Session: #130

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

Early medieval elite settlements are found throughout the European area. In some regions, particularly in northern Europe, they are sited to take advantage of dramatic topography, both natural and prehistoric, while in southern Europe, Roman topography often provides a focus or an inspiration. This session hopes to move beyond such a basic dichotomy to bring nuanced perspectives to notions of elite settlement by addressing a series of themes that demand a reassessment of the character and understandings of such sites: 1) Defining high-status settlements: hierarchy, scale, networks and society (this theme will focus upon the archaeological definition of elite culture); 2) Monumentality and setting: cultural references in the creation of elite space (this theme considers the expression of identities and the performance of power including the paradoxical relationships between funerary, domestic and monumental behaviours); 3) Material culture and elite settlement: taphonomy, social life, craft activities and consumptions (this theme explores daily life at elite sites; 4) Provisioning and hinterlands: surplus economics and interdependence (this theme investigates the role of elite sites in the production, collection, storage and redistribution of commodities). The overall aim of the session is to provide a comparative perspective of the emergence and sustainability of elite groups across a period of fundamental social, political and territorial change and to explore elite settlements as components of a wider picture of social complexity rather than as an isolated phenomenon. Papers should emphasise diachronic and comparative approaches rather than individual case studies.

High Status, Rural Settlement, Hierarchy

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Professor Dr Juan Antonio Quirós Castillo (Spain) ¹

Professor Dr Andrew Reynolds (United Kingdom) ²