This book provides an introduction to the Shapwick Project's objectives, geographical background and previous work in the Somerset. It deals with excavations in the outlying parish and focuses on work in the village at Shapwick House.

This meticulous survey of the origins of medieval rural settlements is based on an in-depth analysis of topographical and archaeological evidence and, as such, varies from more usual document-based analyses. Focusing on evidence from three contrasting areas of Somerset (Chew, Carhampton and Whitley), Corcos discusses Roman and Saxon remains, the development of the hundred and its links with the church, place-names, boundaries and charters, Domesday and the wider significance of this localised study.

This work is an examination of the transitional period spanning the end of Roman Britain and the beginning of the medieval period, in a small region centred on South Cadbury Castle, Somerset, England. It aims to set this well-known post-Roman settlement in its proper landscape and regional context through a landscape archaeological survey of the, previously poorly studied, hinterlands. Through this method the study moves towards a better understanding of the socio-economic processes effecting social and political change from the 3rd to 10th centuries AD. A multi-disciplinary approach is employed involving cartographic and documentary evidence; extensive geophysical survey and sample excavation revealed a remarkable continuity of land division in the rural landscape from the late prehistoric period to the modern day.

The area that borders the Severn estuary is known as the levels and forms one of the most distinctive types of landscape in the UK. Stephen Rippon examines the ways in which this area has evolved.

All communities have a strong sense of identity with the area in which they live, which for England in the early medieval period manifested itself in a series of territorial entities, ranging from large kingdoms down to small districts known as pagi or regiones. This book investigates these small early folk territories, and the way that they evolved into the administrative units recorded in Domesday, across an entire kingdom - that of the East Saxons (broadly speaking, what is now Essex, Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and south Suffolk). A wide range of evidence is drawn upon, including archaeology, written documents, place-names and the early cartographic sources. The book looks in particular at the relationship between Saxon immigrants and the native British population, and argues that initially these ethnic groups occupied different parts of the landscape, until a dynasty which assumed an Anglo-Saxon identity achieved political ascendency (its members included the so-called "Prittlewell Prince", buried with spectacular grave-good in Prittlewell, near Southend-on- Sea in southern Essex). Other significant places discussed include London, the seat of the first East Saxon bishopric, the possible royal vills at Wicken Bonhunt near Saffron Walden and Maldon, and St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea, one of the most important surviving churches from the early Christian period.