Town and Country in England

This Research Report describes how archaeology can contribute to the study of the relationship between town and country, and sets out a series of recommendations for future research. The principal focus is how urban needs impacted on rural systems, and how settlement hierarchies were developed. Theoretical models are reviewed, and the history of the English town traced from its late Iron Age origins down to the late medieval period. Emphasis is given to the contribution that archaeological finds, such as animal bone and pottery, can make to the study of the networks of economic and social dependencies that characterise urban society. Different ways of using these archaeological sources are described. A series of case studies illustrate how the ideas presented in this report can be explored through further applied research.