The Lost Abbey of Eynsham will be of interest not just to local historians but to those with an interest in the development of monasticism and medieval art and architecture, particularly the Romanesque. Eynsham was one of the few religious foundations in England in continuous use from the late Saxon period to the Dissolution. Its first Benedictine Abbot was the internationally renowned scholar and teacher, Aelfric, and it was frequently visited by medieval kings given its close proximity to the royal hunting lodge of Woodstock. Hugh of Avalon, later canonised, was appointed Bishop of Lincoln at a royal council at Eynsham in 1186. Shortly afterwards the abbey achieved fame with the Vision of the Monk of Eynsham which is said to have influenced Dante. Its reputation was further enhanced when Eynsham acquired an important relic, the arm of St Andrew in 1240. In the later Middle Ages, the abbey went into decline and was beset by scandal. It surrendered to the Crown in 1538 and the huge structure was gradually demolished and pillaged for its building materials. Now, nothing remains in situ above ground. This book aims to rescue this important abbey from obscurity by summarising its history and examining the material remains of Eynsham Abbey, most of which have never been published before.

Wolfgang Capito (1478-1541) was one of the most important figures of the Reformation in Southern Germany, a leading churchman who turned from Catholic to Protestant. A professor of theology and advisor to the Archbishop of Mainz, he moved to Strasbourg and worked for two decades toward the reformation of the city, which became, after Wittenberg, the most active centre of the Reformation movement.

This volume - the second of three - is a fully annotated translation of Capito's existing correspondence, covering the years 1524-31, during which the Reformation took root in Strasbourg. It was characterized by the strenuous efforts of Capito and his fellow reformer Martin Bucer to enlist the support of the city council in establishing an evangelical church, to vanquish Catholic opponents in court, in polemical writings and public disputations. The same years also saw disputes among the reformers over the interpretation of the Eucharist. Erika Rummel's head- and footnotes provide historical context by identifying classical, patristic, and biblical quotations as well as persons and places.

This volume continues in the tradition of rigorous scholarship established by the first, providing crucial details on the evolution of Capito's thought to Reformation scholars.

"Mining in a Medieval Landscape" explores the history and archaeology of the late medieval royal silver mines at Bere Ferrers in Devon's Tamar Valley and examines their significance for mining history as a whole. Comparing their impact on the landscape with that of less intensive, traditional mining industries, this authoritative volume analyzes maps and documents together in light of recent archaeological field surveys, allowing the mining landscape to be reconstructed in remarkable detail.

What does the 'Dark Ages' mean in contemporary society? Tackling public engagements through archaeological fieldwork, heritage sites and museums, fictional portrayals and art, and increasingly via a broad range of digital media, this is the first-ever dedicated collection exploring the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages (5th-11th centuries AD). Digging into the Dark Ages builds on debates which took place at the 3rd University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference hosted by the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 13 December 2017. It comprises original perspectives from students integrated with fresh research by heritage practitioners and academics. The book also includes four interviews offering perspectives on key dimensions of early medieval archaeology's public intersections. By critically 'digging into' the 'Dark Ages', this book provides an introduction to key concepts and debates, a rich range of case studies, and a solid platform for future research.

This volume brings together 22 of the papers presented at a conference held in Esztergom, Hungary, in May 2018 to coincide with the 800th anniversary of the crusade of King Andrew II of Hungary to the Holy Land in 1217-18. The theme, Bridge of Civilizations, was chosen to highlight aspects of the links and contrasts between Europe and the areas around the eastern Mediterranean that were visited and occupied by western crusaders and settlers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, giving special attention to the evidence provided by archaeology and material culture, as well as historical sources. The results of the joint Syrian-Hungarian Archaeological Mission (SHAM) to the Hospitaller castle of Margat (al-Marqab) highlighted in this volume include an up-to-date overview of the structural development of the site from 1187 to 1285, as well as particular studies of the wall paintings, cooking installations and pottery. SHAM's recent rescue work at Crac des Chevaliers also provides the basis for studies of the water-management system and medieval burials revealed in its courtyard, while other papers examine the masonry marks and surviving evidence of medieval trebuchet damage at both castles. Other papers focus on the medieval castles of Karak (Jordan) and Jubayl (Lebanon), the medieval buildings of Latakia (Syria), the impact of the Crusades on buildings in Cairo, historic bridges in Lebanon, the medieval chapels of Yanouh-Mghayreh and Edde-Jbeil (Lebanon), piscinas in Crusader churches in the East, the images of donors found in medieval Lebanese churches, and the activity of late thirteenth-century Western metal-workers in Cyprus. Papers focusing more particularly on historical sources include a new edition of a late eleventh- to twelfth-century pilgrimage itinerary from Hungary to the Holy Land, a discussion of two minor military orders in Hungary, and the portrayal of Sultan al-Kamil in a contemporary western account of the Fifth Crusade.

Medieval Settlement Research is the journal of the Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG), a long-established, widely recognised and open multi-disciplinary research group that facilitates collaboration between archaeologists, geographers, historians and other interested parties. The Group is dedicated to developing understanding of rural settlements and their associated landscapes between the 5th and 16th centuries AD. To achieve these aims, the MSRG organises Spring and Winter Seminars each year, offers research and travel grants, awards the annual John Hurst Memorial Prize for the best postgraduate paper, and publishes an annual journal, Medieval Settlement Research. The journal is an internationally recognised publication containing research papers, scholarly articles, fieldwork reports, news and reviews. Although the MSRG's interests are concentrated primarily on British and Irish medieval landscapes between the 5th and 16th centuries AD, it actively encourages wider chronological and pan-European perspectives. Medieval Settlement Research therefore welcomes papers relating to Britain, Ireland and the rest of Europe that help us to improve our understanding of medieval settlements and landscapes from the level of individual sites to the international scale.

King Arthur is probably the most famous and certainly the most legendary medieval king. From the early ninth century through the middle ages, to the Arthurian romances of Victorian times, the tales of this legendary figure have blossomed and multiplied. And in more recent times, there has been a continuous stream of books claiming to have discovered the 'facts' about, or to unlock the secret or truth behind, the 'once and future king'. Broadly speaking, there are two Arthurs. On the one hand is the traditional 'historical' Arthur, waging a doomed struggle to save Roman civilization against the relentless Anglo-Saxon tide during the darkest years of the Dark Ages. On the other is the Arthur of myth and legend - accompanied by a host of equally legendary people, places, and stories: Lancelot, Guinevere, Galahad and Gawain, Merlin, Excalibur, the Lady in the Lake, the Sword in the Stone, Camelot, the Round Table. The big problem with all this is that 'King Arthur' might well never have existed. And if he did exist, it is next to impossible to say anything at all about him. As this challenging new look at the Arthur legend makes clear, all books claiming to reveal 'the truth' behind King Arthur can safely be ignored. Not only the 'red herrings' in the abundant pseudo-historical accounts, even the 'historical' Arthur is largely a figment of the imagination: the evidence that we have - whether written or archaeological - is simply incapable of telling us anything detailed about the Britain in which he is supposed to have lived, fought, and died. The truth, as Guy Halsall reveals in this fascinating investigation, is both radically different - and also a good deal more intriguing.

Distinguishing between the bones of sheep and goats is a notorious challenge in zooarchaeology. Several methods have been proposed to facilitate this task, largely based on macro-morphological traits. This approach, which is routinely adopted by zooarchaeologists, although still valuable, has also been shown to have limitations: morphological discriminant traits can differ in different sheep/ goat populations and a correct identification is highly dependent upon experience, as well as the availability of appropriate reference collections and the degree to which a researcher is prepared to 'risk' an identification. The Neglected Goat provides a new, more objective and transparent methodology, based on a combination of morphological and biometrical analyses, to distinguish between sheep and goat post cranial bones. Additionally, on the basis of the newly proposed approach, it reassesses the role of the goat in medieval England. There are several historical and archaeological questions concerning the role of this animal that have so far remained unanswered: why is the goat commonly recorded in the Domesday Book, when it appears to be so scarce in the contemporary archaeological record? Is the goat under-represented in the archaeological record or over-represented in the Domesday Book? Why is this animal, when identified in English medieval animal bone assemblages, almost exclusively represented by horncores? Through the investigation of a number of English sheep and goat medieval assemblages, this study sheds light on these questions, and suggests that the goat was indeed rarer than the Domesday Book suggests.

This volume, produced in honour of Professor David A. Hinton's contribution to medieval studies, re-visits the sites, archaeologists and questions which have been central to the archaeology of medieval southern England. Contributions are focused on the medieval period (from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Reformation) in southern England, to reflect the research of Professor Hinton. The contributions largely re-examine important debates believed to have been settled long ago, or explore the implications of changing research traditions for the interpretation of archaeological sites. The volume begins with two considerations of archaeologists themselves, the antiquary Richard James (Tom James) and those who have shaped our understanding of Anglo-Saxon Hamwic (Mark Brisbane and Richard Hodges). Both studies show the role of individuals, and the times in which they worked, on the questions and interpretations advanced by archaeological study. Staying in the Anglo-Saxon period, Barbara Yorke re-opens the debate about the Jutish archaeology of Wessex, Martin Biddle re-visits the archaeology of Winchester Old Minster and Katherine Weikert explores the household of early medieval Facombe Netheron. Moving into the later medieval period, Duncan H. Brown re-assesses the evidence from the important site at Cuckoo Lane, Southampton, with a focus on ceramics, and Maureen Mellor examines the evidence of church floor tiles from Oxfordshire, an early research interest of Professor Hinton. Two chapters deal with medieval food, Mark Robinson discusses wheat cultivation and Dale Serjeantson et. al. revisit the animal bones from excavations at Eynsham Abbey, comparing them with those from St Albans to explore the issue of the Saxon-Norman transition. Finally, staying with the archaeology elite culture, the volume concludes with Matthew Johnson's contribution on recent work on late medieval elite landscapes in south-east England. Together, these contributions combine historiography, new evidence and emerging ideas, helping us to understand how the landscape of research has developed, whilst showing the importance of re-visiting old sites and questions to advance the discipline of medieval studies.

This book is the result of more than a dozen years of research in the field of the hitherto unstudied medieval settlement pattern of the Syrian coastal region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The conclusions presented in this work were reached with the combined use of several source types including medieval documents, travellers' accounts, former research, map evidence, toponymy, archive and satellite photographs, oral sources and extensive archaeological field surveys accompanied by documentation between the years 2000 and 2015. After enumerating the historical events that influenced the settlement pattern of the coast, its centres, including the towns and castles (with special regard to the smaller fortifications of the countryside that seem to have been a Frankish introduction to the area) are analysed. Following the detailed examination of the written sources and the architectural material preserved at these lesser sites, a closer look at the villages and their environment aims to draw a general picture on the density of settlements and their basic characteristics. The book also discusses communication lines and provides an assessment of the medieval population that inhabited the region in the 12th and 13th centuries. The text is accompanied by a collection of maps, plan drawings, tables and illustrations on a selected number of sites visited during the field surveys.

This monograph examines one specific hoard horizon, which is connected to the Mongol invasion of Hungary (1241-42). With this catastrophic event, the historical context is both well-known and much discussed by contemporaries and modern scholars. This opportunity to examine material connected to a sole event, but across a broad spectrum of geographical space and social class, is unique for hoard horizons in Hungary, and, for that matter, in Europe. Though this study focuses on hoards connected to the Mongol invasion, it is also relevant beyond this specific context. The work addresses issues concerning hoard finds and material culture, and examines how finds are related when found in different contexts (a hoard, grave, or settlement feature), thus the questions raised and conclusions reached are important for other medieval hoard finds. By comparing hoards related to a single historical event to a contemporaneous site - containing a village, a church, and a cemetery - assessments can be made regarding how hoards reflect social issues such as stratification, wealth, status, and fashion.

This publication honours Birgitta Hardh on her 70th birthday. Birgitta Hardh is one of the leading experts on European Viking Age, engaged in diverse research projects, and also a vital collaborator in various networks specializing in the period. Through time, Birgitta has extended her research to comprise other periods of the Iron Age. A feature common to all Birgitta Hardh's research is that she has been able, through analysis of a body of finds, to broaden the perspective, not least geographically through her profound knowledge of phenomena in Northern Europe and indeed all of Europe. Therefore, this book has been given the title Small Things - Wide Horizons. A total of fourty titles have been submitted to the volume. The presentations include a number of perspectives mainly of Iron Age. Themes as silver economy, coins, trinkets, burials, crafts, farms and fields, centrality and transformations give a view of the variation of contributions nationally and internationally.

A biography of Bryan Faussett, F.S.A., (1720-1776), pioneering Kent genealogist, archaeologist and antiquary who, at his death, had amassed the world's greatest collection of Anglo-Saxon jewellery and antiquities. The material was famously rejected by the British Museum, saved for the nation by a Liverpudlian philanthropist, and now resides in the Liverpool World Museum. This episode led directly to the British Museum's setting up departments devoted to British Antiquities. This volume is the first to focus on Faussett, presenting comprehensive genealogical sections on the Faussetts and Godfreys; a history of the family seat near Canterbury; and an introduction to antiquarianism and how the history of the world was imperfectly viewed in the 18th century. A detailed biography of Bryan Faussett's life covers his education, career and scholarly circle, with detailed descriptions of the sites he excavated. Surviving archaeological notebooks offer insights into his working practice, and family account-books reveal a great deal about his personal life and interests.

This book seeks to address the journeying context of pilgrimage within the landscapes of Medieval Britain. Using four case studies, an interdisciplinary methodology developed by the author is applied to four different geographical and cultural areas of Britain (Norfolk, Wiltshire/Hampshire, Flintshire/Denbighshire and Cornwall), to investigate the practicalities of travel along the Medieval road network including the routes themselves, accommodation, the built environments and natural topographies encountered. An introduction, assessment of current theory and scholarship is provided, followed by an explanation of the methodology used. The four case studies are then presented (Ely to Walsingham, Salisbury to Winchester, St Asaph to Holywell, and Camelford to Bodmin). Within each case study, both the selected starting point for the pilgrimage (typically either a locale confirmed in the historical record as linked to the pilgrim destination, or a settlement of some significance within the local area and thus well connected to the route network), and the site of the saint cult itself are analysed for their growth, reaction and accommodation to the pilgrim phenomenon. Also addressed are the route networks of the county as a whole, relationships to economic centres and their impact on travel possibilities, the topography, the distribution patterns for saint dedications in parish churches within the area, material culture and the ecclesiastical built environment (for example pilgrim badges, monasteries), and the physical landscapes through which the pilgrim travels. Here, the interaction between the pilgrim and the environments through which they move is addressed. Considerations include fatigue, exertion, panoramas and way-finding, route visibility, sight lines to monuments, folklore within the landscape, and the potential echoing of Christian scriptural motifs within certain landscape types/features (e.g. wilderness and sanctuary).

This book offers a new and surprising perspective on the evolution of cities across the Roman Empire in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages (third to ninth centuries AD). It suggests that the tenacious persistence of leading cities across most of the Roman world is due, far more than previously thought, to the persistent inclination of kings, emperors, caliphs, bishops, and their leading subordinates to manifest the glory of their offices on an urban stage, before crowds of city dwellers. Long after the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, these communal leaders continued to maintain and embellish monumental architectural corridors established in late antiquity, the narrow but grandiose urban itineraries, essentially processional ways, in which their parades and solemn public appearances consistently unfolded. Hendrik W. Dey's approach selectively integrates urban topography with the actors who unceasingly strove to animate it for many centuries.

The twelfth century was a time of new ideas and creative innovation spurred on by patron-monarchs like King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, poets like Marie de France and Chr tien de Troyes, lovers and intellectuals like Abelard and Heloise, and religious thinkers like Bernard of Clairvaux and Hildegard of Bingen. In his thoughtful introduction, Novikoff explores the term "twelfth-century renaissance" and whether or not it should be applied to a range of thinkers with differing outlooks and attitudes. With reference to this ongoing historiographical debate, Novikoff embraces the harmony of disharmonies and allows the authors of the twelfth century to define the period for themselves. He situates classic works against a broad backdrop of other sources, many appearing in translation for the first time, in order to highlight the period's diverse currents of thought. Sixteen black-and-white images are included.

Carmarthen Castle was one of the largest castles in medieval Wales. It was also one of the most important, in its role as a centre of government and as a Crown possession in a region dominated by Welsh lands and Marcher lordships. Largely demolished during the seventeenth century, it was subsequently redeveloped, first as a prison and later as the local authority headquarters. Yet the surviving remains, and their situation, are still impressive. The situation changed with a major programme of archaeological and research work, from 1993 to 2006, which is described in this book. The history of the castle, its impact on the region and on Wales as a whole are also examined: we see the officials and other occupants of the castle, their activities and how they interacted with their environment. Excavations at the castle, and the artefacts recovered, are described along with its remaining archaeological potential. This book puts Carmarthen Castle back at the heart of the history of medieval Wales, and in its proper place in castle studies and architectural history, the whole study combining to make a major contribution to the history of one of Wales's great towns.

Rome in the Pyrenees is a unique treatment in English of the archaeological and historical evidence for an important Roman town in Gaul, Lugdunum in the French Pyrenees, and for its surrounding people the Convenae. The book opens with the creation of the Convenae by Pompey the Great in the first century B.C. and runs down to the great Frankish siege in A.D. 585 and its aftermath. Now the town of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, Lugdunum is one of the best-known Roman towns in Gaul, with a rich selection of monuments at the town itself and important remains in the countryside, such as the classic villa at Montmaurin or the votive altars, cinerary caskets and sarcophagi in the local marble. The book traces how the Convenae used their marble to help create their identity, invisible before Pompey but amongst the richest and most distinctive in Gaul by the second century A.D. Drawing on his own excavations at Saint-Bertrand and the extensive earlier and recent work there, Simon Esmonde Cleary combines a clear description of the buildings and monuments of Lugdunum and of its countryside with a discussion of what they can tell us about the impact of Rome on this remote corner of its empire. This book will be extremely valuable to ancient historians, classicists and students of Roman archaeology, and contains a guide to the visible Roman remains of the area.

This collection of papers, first delivered at the BAA's annual conference in 2002, celebrates medieval Rochester, including both cathedral and castle, an outstanding pair of surviving monuments to the power of contemporary church and state. The contributions demonstrate the great interest of these understudied buildings, their furnishings, and historical and archaeological contexts: from the rich documentary evidence for the Anglo-Saxon town to the substantial surviving fabric of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Shrines, monuments, woodwork and seals are all fully covered, as well as the medieval monks themselves. There is also a piece on Archbishop Courtenay's foundation of the nearby collegiate church at Maidstone, Kent.

Reading crusader fiction against the backdrop of Mediterranean history, this book explains how Iberian authors reimagined the idea of crusade through the lens of Iberian geopolitics and social history. The crusades transformed Mediterranean history and inaugurated complex engagements between Western Europe, the Balkans, North Africa, and the Middle East in ways that endure to this day. Narratives of crusades powerfully shaped European thinking about the East and continue to influence the representation of interactions between Christian and Muslim states in the region. The crusade, a French idea that gave rise to Iberian, North African, and Levantine campaigns, was very much a Mediterranean phenomenon. French and English authors wrote itineraries in the Holy Land, chronicles of the crusades, and fanciful accounts of Christian knights who championed the Latin Church in the East. This study aims to explore the ways in which Iberian authors imagined their role in the culture of crusade, both as participants and interpreters of narrative traditions of the crusading world from north of the Pyrenees.

Urban Transformations is a theoretical and empirical account of the changing nature of urbanization in Germany. Where city planners and municipal administrations had emphasized free markets, the rule of law, and trade in 1871, by the 1930s they favoured a quite different integrative, corporate, and productivist vision. Urban Transformations explores the broad-based social transformation connected to these changes and the contemporaneous shifts in the cultural and social history of global capitalism. Dynamic features of modern capitalist life, such as rapid industrialization, working-class radicalism, dramatic population growth, poor quality housing, and regional administrative incoherence significantly influenced the Greater Berlin region. Examining materials on city planning, municipal administration, architecture, political economy, and jurisprudence, Urban Transformations recasts the history of German and European urbanization, as well as that of modernist architecture and city planning.

The cult of relics, encouraged by, among others, the emperor Constantine, Pope Damasus and the bishops Ambrose of Milan and Paulinus of Nola, led to the transformation of the Late Antique Italian landscape, and of suburban areas in particular. The process of gradual enhancement of the martyrs' tombs led to the creation of extensive sanctuaries, generally composed of funerary and cultic buildings, as well as service structures, pilgrims' lodgings and monasteries. The most important sanctuaries, such as those of Saints Peter in the Vatican, Paul on the Ostiense, Erasmus in Formia, Alexander in Nomentum, Felix in Cimitile, Gennaro in Naples, Felix in Venosa, Marcianus in Syracuse, and the Apostles in Concordia Sagittaria, became so popular that they justified Jerome's phrase: movetur urbs sedibus suis et currit ad martyrum tumulos. Between the 5th and 6th century, sanctuaries spread also in rural areas, usually along important roads, as documented by the site of San Canzian d'Isonzo. Analysing hypogeal and subdial contexts, Santuari e spazi confessionali nell'Italia tardoantica outlines the evolution of loca sancta, in a process that led the venerated tombs to become first memoriae, then places of worship and finally articulated sanctuaries. For the first time, the contexts of Rome are organically compared with those of the rest of Italy.

The Archaeology of Death: Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of Italian Archaeology held at the National University of Ireland, Galway, April 16-18, 2016 includes more than 60 papers, with contributors from the British Isles, Italy and other parts of continental Europe, and North and South America, which consider recent developments in Italian archaeology from the Neolithic to the modern period. Each region of Italy is represented, with specific sections of the volume devoted to Etruria, South Italy, and Sicily. Other sections have a chronological focus, including Italian Prehistory, the Roman period, and Post Antiquity. Following the primary theme of the meeting, the majority of papers revolve around the archaeology of death; numerous contributions analyse the cultural significance of death through examinations of funerary rituals and mortuary practices, while others analyse burial data for evidence of wider social and political change. Various papers consider new and recent discoveries in Italian archaeology, while others ask fresh questions of older datasets. In addition, a number of contributions showcase their employment of new methodologies deriving from technological innovations. The volume opens with a dedicatory section to mark the achievements of the Accordia Research Institute, and to celebrate the careers of two of its founders, Ruth Whitehouse and John Wilkins. The following paper(s) are available to download in Open Access: Cremation structures and funerary dynamics in Roman Veneto. New perspectives from Padua/Patavium - Cecilia Rossi and Irene Marini: Download

Los yacimientos olvidados: registro y musealizacion de campos de batalla is a project that aims to encompass all aspects of battlefield archaeology, in order to be a reference work in this study area. Therefore, a detailed historiographical study about this branch of archaeology has been made, from early origins until the present day, allowing us to gain a deeper understanding of the evolution of battlefield archaeology. Two methodologies, archaeological and museographical, are proposed for the treatment of this particular type of archaeological site. In order to prove the viability of both methodologies, a theoretical application has been carried out in two research examples from different periods, demonstrating both the project's methodological validity and reinforcing our theories. Two registers were made regarding battlefields - one historical and another archaeological. The purpose of this was to catalogue all possible existing sites in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula from Roman times through to the Spanish Civil War, which will hopefully serve as a point of reference for future researchers. Through this book, people will be able to understand the great potential of Spanish battlefields and their heritage. Furthermore, Spain could be regarded as a very important country regarding battlefield archaeology. Spanish Description: Los yacimientos olvidados: registro y musealizacion de campos de batalla es un trabajo que recoge todos los aspectos referentes a la arqueologia de campos de batalla, con el objetivo de ser una obra de referencia en esta area de estudio. En ella se ha llevado a cabo un estudio historiografico pormenorizado de esta rama de la arqueologia, remontandose hasta los origenes de la misma, permitiendo comprender su evolucion hasta nuestros dias. Se han planteado dos propuestas metodologicas, arqueologica y museografica, para el tratamiento de esta tipologia de yacimiento. Para comprobar la viabilidad de ambas metodologias se realizo una aplicacion teorica en dos casos de estudio de distinta epoca, lo que nos permitio ver su validez y reforzar nuestras teorias. Para esta obra elaboramos dos registros de campos de batalla, uno de tipo historico y otro de tipo arqueologico, con el objetivo de catalogar todos los posibles yacimientos existentes en interior peninsular desde la epoca romana hasta la Guerra Civil, sirviendo asi de punto de partida para futuros investigadores. A traves de este libro se puede comprobar el gran potencial que posee Espana en campos de batalla y que podria situarse entre los paises mas destacados.

Ancient aqueducts have long commanded the attention of archaeologists, both for their intrinsic, monumental importance and for their significance as infrastructures closely related to the concept of civilisation. An aqueduct, in fact, is an artefact that has a great potential for providing information concerning at least two major aspects of ancient society: those relating to structural, technical, and engineering matters, and those relating to building and construction technology. These topics have enjoyed considerable attention in past studies, and in recent years they have also been integrated with a multi-disciplinary and contextual approach. They have further increased the potential of the analysis of ancient hydraulic systems, turning them into historical subjects capable of expanding our knowledge of the urban and social transformation of ancient cities and their territories. The current study of the early Byzantine aqueduct of Gortyn (Crete) follows this tradition, but starts from a viewpoint related not so much to the aqueduct itself, as to a series of questions about the city: what was the appearance of Gortyn in the early Byzantine era? How did the inhabitants live? Where did they live and what did they do for living? The aqueduct was born with the Roman city and accompanied it for its entire lifetime, constituting the backbone around which the various forms of urban settlement were redrawn at each major historical stage. Its vital link with everyday life makes the aqueduct a key witness for the study of the transformations of the city over the long term.