A study of the closed world of medieval Eastern Europe which opens up a neglected archaeological tradition to English-speaking readers. It suggests new approaches to the formative period when migrating tribes emerged into the light of written history and founded the states on which the nationalities of modern Europe are based.

This study offers an insight into the closed world of medieval Eastern Europe and opens up a neglected archaeological tradition to English-speaking readers. Sections focus on early European ethnic formations and states, the demography of medieval populations and the nature of rural settlement and urban development. The book challenges the intellectual assumptions of medieval archaeology and questions its relationship to history and prehistory. It seeks to expose the limitations of a strictly empirical approach to studying the period when written history began and the early medieval states...