In the ninth century AD, Moravia (now in Czechia) was the heartland of the first Slavic state-like formation in Central Europe. Traditionally, the archaeology of the region has been interpreted via historical records only; the FORMOR project aims to broaden this view by using archaeometry, archaeogenetics, bioarchaeology and introducing new theoretical approaches.

Why, how and when villages emerged across medieval Europe are enduring questions for archaeologists and historians because of the wider social and economic transformations implied—and because many of these settlements persist to the present day. Most archaeological investigations have focused on the nucleated centres of these communities; here, instead, the authors examine the role of agroscapes. Focusing on an agricultural area near the village of Tobillas, changes in soil chemistry are used to document the creation and maintenance of common fields attesting to collective agrarian practice pre-dating the foundation of the medieval village. Reversing the accepted narrative, the authors argue it was these pre-existing agrarian communities who coalesced to constitute villages such as Tobillas.

Nitra-Lupka is an important site from the Great Moravian period in Slovakia. A fortified hillfort which was supposed to be from this period, a battery of pottery kilns, and an Early Medieval cemetery were found on the site and researched during 1959–1975. Further, a few small-range excavations took place on the site at the beginning of the 21st century. At the same time, the dating of the hillfort to the Early Medieval period has begun to be questioned. There was also a problem with the localization of settlement that would belong to the battery of pottery kilns. The settlement was discovered recently in 2021 during development-led excavations at Nitra-Šindolka. It was found at the place of the construction of the ecoduct. Two ovens and four other features with numerous ceramics and other findings were discovered. Some of the bones (phalanges of cattle and goat/sheep) were dated by radiocarbon dating being the first 14C data obtained from this site and therefore of high importance for its precise dating.

This paper focuses on unravelling the 1st millennium AD in the present-day Netherlands and the applicability of modelling when studying the past. By presenting the results of several studies analysing changes (or persistence) in connectivity and habitation patterns, the significance of these findings for (spatial) modelling is derived. The transition between the Roman and early-medieval periods is particularly interesting in this respect as it is characterised by severe pan-European political, socio-economic and demographic changes. Additionally, recent studies in geosciences increasingly point to marked climatic and landscape changes, such as river avulsions and floods, occurring at the same time. The extent to which these environmental and cultural dynamics were entwined and mutually influential is generally unknown, especially on larger-scale levels. Lowlands, such as the Netherlands, are especially suited to study these complex interactions since boundary conditions, i.e. the set of conditions required for maintaining the existing equilibrium in a region, in such areas are particularly sensitive to change.

In this paper the combined results of several recently developed landscape-archaeological models are presented. These models spatially analyse natural and cultural dynamics in five manifestations: route networks, long-distance transport, settlement patterns, palaeodemographics and land-use systems. Combined, these manifestations provide information on connectivity, persistence and habitation, key concepts for the cultural landscape as a whole. Results show that only by integrating these modelling outcomes is it possible to reconstruct boundary conditions and high-resolution spatio-temporal frameworks for cultural-landscape change. Equally, these models invite reflection on their applicability and, as such, point to the need for new theoretical framing and the development of more multi-proxy, evidence-based and transdisciplinary research approaches in archaeology. The evident interrelationship between cultural and natural-landscape dynamics necessitates a more integrated and transparent research attitude, covering multiple scales and studying the cultural landscape as a whole. Only then can models reflect historical reality as closely as possible.

The results from analyses of botanical remains (pollen, wood, charcoal, seeds) from several archaeological features excavated in Kluizen (northern Belgium) are presented. The region was largely uninhabited until the Iron Age and Roman period when a rural settlement was established, resulting in small-scale woodland clearance. The site was subsequently abandoned from c. AD 270 till the High Middle Ages. The results of the archaeological and archaeobotanical analyses provide information on changes in land use and resulting dynamics of woodland cover and composition between c.600 BC and AD 1200, with a spatial and temporal resolution unrivalled in northern Belgium. Especially the long period of woodland regeneration following abandonment of the site around AD 270, covering the Late Roman and Early Medieval period, could be reconstructed in detail. Abandoned fields were first covered with pioneer woodland (Salix, Corylus and Betula), then Quercus-dominated secondary forest and finally a late-successional forest with Fagus sylvatica, Carpinus betulus and Ilex aquifolium, an evolution that took over 300 years. The results also indicate that the observed increase of Fagus during the Early Middle Ages, which was never an important element in the woodland vegetation in northern Belgium before, was related to climatic changes rather than anthropogenic factors.

This study presents an annually resolved dendrochronological reconstruction of hydrological impacts on the Roman and early-medieval landscape in the Low Countries of northwestern Europe. Around 600 hydrologically sensitive ring-width patterns, mostly oak (Quercus robur/petraea) as well as some ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and elm (Ulmus sp.), were selected from an initial dataset of >5000 and compiled into two chronologies that span the first millennium AD. Their content and (dis)similarities to established tree-ring chronologies from this and surrounding regions were used to assess their provenance, which in both cases is in the area where the majority of the wood was recovered. Instances of high groundwater levels and/or inundation were catalogued by identifying multi-year intervals of strongly reduced annual growth that occurred simultaneously throughout the research area. The resulting record contains 164 events dated between AD 1 and 1000, of which 21 have a recurrence frequency ≥50 years. One-third of the ≥50-yr events date between AD 185 and 282, making this the most flood-intense interval of the first millennium. The severest reconstructed impact of the first millennium dates to AD 602. A comparison to historically documented river floods/sea breaches and drought/heat spells shows that the predominant cause of the inferred impacts in the research area was river overflow. Synchronous inundation responses of oaks preserved in former bogs in Lower Saxony (NW Germany) indicate that half of the reconstructed events occurred on a supra-regional level, pointing to regional precipitation as a main forcing. River floods documented in written sources do not seem to have affected tree growth in Lower Saxony in a significant manner, indicating that the majority of documented floods most likely were caused by hydrological circumstances upstream of the catchments of the Rhine and/or Meuse. Reconstructed flood impacts during the Early Middle Ages coincide remarkably well with construction and repair of Rhine revetments at the early-medieval site of Leiderdorp-Plantage in the western Netherlands.

In this study we apply an evidence-based approach to model population-size fluctuations and their corresponding impact on land use during the Roman and early-medieval periods in the Rhine–Meuse delta in the present-day Netherlands. Past-population numbers are reconstructed based on Roman and early-medieval settlement patterns. Corresponding impacts of these demographic fluctuations on potential land use are calculated by integrating the newly developed demographic overviews with archaeological and geoscientific data using a new land-use model termed ‘Past Land-Use Scanner’ (PLUS). The primary aims are to reconstruct first-millennium palaeodemographics and to explore the potential of simulation modelling for testing the feasibility of archaeological hypotheses regarding past land use. Results show that in the study area the first millennium AD was characterised by two periods during which major population growth occurred: the middle-Roman period (AD 70–270) and early-medieval period C (AD 725–950). A major demographic decline of 78–85% occurred during the late-Roman period (AD 270–450), after which first-millennium population numbers never again reached middle-Roman period levels. The modelling outcomes demonstrate that the impact of population fluctuations (growth vs decline) on the limits of the natural landscape during the first millennium in general was low. During these thousand years, the natural landscape almost without exception (only scenario D deviates) provided sufficient options for arable farming, meadows and pastures and was not a limiting factor for population growth. These results underline the added value of simulation modelling for testing the feasibility of archaeological hypotheses and analysing human–landscape interactions in the past.

This paper reviews the position of old age in the societies of post-Roman Europe, from the fifth to the 10th centuries. Drawing on both primary and secondary literary and material sources of the period, I suggest that living beyond the age of 60 years was an uncommon experience throughout the early Middle Ages. Not only was achieving old age a minority experience, it seems to have been particularly concentrated among the senior clergy. This, together with the growing importance of the Christian Church as the institution that stabilised post-Roman society, the decline of urban living and its attendant culture of leisure and literacy, and the transformation of kinship into a symbolic ‘family under God’ contributed to a more favourable status for old age, or at least one that was particularly favourable for older men. This was based not so much upon the accumulation with age of wealth and privilege, but upon the moral worth of old age as a stage of life. The early Middle Ages, the so-called ‘Dark Ages’, was in this respect a relatively distinctive period in the history of old age. With all around instability and the future uncertain and often threatening, survival into old age was a rare but frequently revered attainment.

High in the mountains between Norway and Sweden, archaeological survey has brought to light a trail marked by standing stones at regular intervals and tall enough to show above the winter snows. In the absence of any cultural material, the erection of the stones was dated by the diameter of the lichen spreads upon them, and corroborated by a study of the documents and radiocarbon dates. The authors argue that this was not an indigenous trail but one constructed by a Norse chieftain probably around the ninth century AD to gain safe access to the fur-trading Sami.