Richard Hodges, one of Europe’s preeminent archaeologists, has, throughout his career, transformed the way we understand the early Middle Ages; this volume pays tribute to him with a series of reflections on some of the themes and issues which have been central to his work over the last forty years.

This third volume in the series publishes the specialist finds reports on artefacts recovered from the 1980-86 excavations in the vicinity of the 12th century abbey. Each section is devoted to a different artefact type and a catalogue of every item found is preceded by an introduction: Roman inscriptions (John Patterson); Late Antique and early medieval carved inscriptions (John Mitchell); early medieval tiles and modillions (John Mitchell); personal names from inscriptions (N F Onesti); Roman and early medieval sculpture (John Mitchell & Amanda Claridge); window glass (F Dell'Acqua & D James); vessel glass (J Stevenson); early medieval enamel (John Mitchell); painted plaster (H Howard); pottery (H Patterson); soapstone (H Patterson); silver and copper alloy (P Filippucci & J Mitchell); iron (S Tremlett & C M Coutts); lead (C M Coutts); money (A Rovelli); sword-belt mounts (John Mitchell); sword-guard of Nephrite (John Michell); ivory and bone (C M Coutts, R Hodges, J Mitchell & I Riddler); worked stone (K Francis); bird bones (S Sutherland); molluscs (C O Hunt); the people of San Vincenzo (V Higgins); the Codex Beneventanus

The papers in this volume are contributed by leading historians, art historians and archaeologists and focus on 5 key themes: the evolution of settlement patterns in the Byzantine empire; the impact of barbarian elites in Spain, Gaul, Italy and Pannonia; the role of the Church in the definition of new links between town and territories; the situation in culturally homogenous territories such as Constantinople and the minor Langbard polities; the situation in economically defined territories. Contributions include papers by Gian Pietro Brogiolo, Pablo C. Díaz, Michel Fixot, Gisela Ripoll and Javier Arce, Sauro Gelichi, Wolfram Brandes and John Haldon, Nancy Gauthier, Gisella Cantino Wataghin, Ross Balzaretti, Martina Caroli, Neil Christie, Bryan Ward-Perkins and John Mitchell.

Excavations at the site of the medieval chapter house of St Albans Abbey in 1978 uncovered fragments of decorated floor tiles of the Anglo-Saxon abbey and associated burials, along with the magnificent floor of relief-decorated tiles of the medieval chapter house, and the graves of 16 known figures of the late 11th-to 15th-century abbey.