Abstract
This paper considers the story of the French archaeological research on early medieval rural settlements in the past four decades. The primary issues of this research have been presented and illustrated by examples from throughout France.
Highlights
HISTORIOGRAPHY OF THE RESEARCHInitial findings and early research The first discoveries of early medieval rural settlement remains in France date back to the late nineteenth century
Resumen El presente artículo aborda cuatro décadas de investigación arqueológica de los asenta mientos rurales altomedievales en Francia, con una presentación de los principales problemas encontrados y ejemplos recogidos de todo el país
The actual beginning of the archaeology of early medieval rural settlement can be dated to the 1970s, a time when French medieval archaeology underwent a significant boom, marked by the first publication of the journal Archéologie médiévale
Summary
Initial findings and early research The first discoveries of early medieval rural settlement remains in France date back to the late nineteenth century. They mainly revealed Sunken-Feature Buildings (SFB) (Vauvillé 1894; Robert 1905; Forrer 1937). It was not until 1949 that the subject of Merovingian settlements was clearly discussed in Volume I of La civilisation mérovingienne written by the renowned scientist Edouard Salin (Salin 1949). Salin primarily relies on written sources and on German examples when referring to dwellings. Some discoveries were mentioned in the 1950s and the 1960s in Alsace, Bourgogne, and Champagne-Ardennes as well as in southern France, at Lombren (Fig. 1) where a hilltop settlement has been excavated (Chamarsson 1962)
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