Rural Impoverishment in Northern Gaul at the End of Antiquity: the Contribution of Archaeology

Abstract

The state of the rural population in Late Antiquity has traditionally-been described by textual scholars as one of crushing impoverishment, with a colonate suffering from social oppression. Archaeologists working in northern Gaul have tended to agree with this picture, on the basis of their field discoveries, yet the views of those textual scholars have now begun to change and recent archaeological work also suggests that new models are needed. A re-evaluation of both methodology and data results in a picture of continued economic and social complexity.