The Significance of Continuities in Post-Roman Urbanism in Western Europe (5th-10th century) from a Global Perspective

Abstract

Following the demise of the Roman Empire in Western Europe, the network of compact urban settlements continued. Yet the 5th to 10th century AD was characterised by disruption and transformation. Intense social, economic, and political change occurred due to shifting power and religious structures, and the expansion and disappearance of new regional political entities. Despite this, the occupation of major localities endured, and the old urban networks persisted. The continuity of the compact urban network in a time of socio-political disruption is profoundly significant, as it indicates that the networks of compact urbanism are distinctive and robust. Their endurance contrasts to the networks of low-density, dispersed, agrarian urbanism globally. The compact urban networks have demonstrated remarkable continuity, raising a key issue about the significance of the robust urban networks of post-Roman Europe from a global perspective. The primary issue is whether this capacity to persist is due to specific socio-political or economic factors or is essentially due to the basic, material form of the settlements. A transregional approach has been used to assess the urban settlements of Western Europe between the 5th and 10th centuries, in terms of north-south gradients of deterioration, reuse, and transformation and combinations of mercantile, ecclesiastic, and royal functions. Several, distinct regional phenomena form diverse transregional patterns. The aim of the thesis is to view the relationship between the endurance of communities, intense cultural change, and persistence of the urban networks from a wider global perspective to contribute to understanding of urban network persistence. Amidst the diversity in development and socio-political context in post-Roman Western Europe the key implication is that the compactness of the urban settlements is, itself, a sufficiently general, continent-wide factor to produce the network continuity which has been profoundly important.