Villa to Village challenges the historical view that hilltop villages in Italy were first founded in the tenth century. Drawing upon recent excavations, the authors show that the makings of the medieval village lie in the demise of the Roman villa in late antiquity.

The book describes the lively debate between archaeologists and historians on this issue. It also examines the evidence for the first manorial villages of the Carolingian era and describes how these were transformed into the familiar feudal villages that are characteristic of much of Italy. Useful maps, plans and reconstructions illustrate this useful text.

Riccardo Francovich is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Siena, Italy.
Richard Hodges, OBE, is Professor and Director of the Institute of World Archaeology, University of East Anglia, Director of Archaeology for the Butrint Foundation, UK, and Director of the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, USA. He is the editor of the Debates in Archaeology series; and his publications include Dark Age Economics, The Anglo-Saxon Achievement, Towns and Trade in the Age of Charlemagne, and Goodbye to the Vikings, all published by Bloomsbury.