Historical approaches to the written sources have changed in many ways and at several analytical levels. New evidence, new lenses, have become available. This chapter presents a short survey of the ways in which those forms of evidence are approached and the sorts of questions which they can, and cannot, answer. The most common form of historical writing, broadly defined, was related to ecclesiastical history: hagiography. A common source for post-Roman social history is the series of law-codes issued in the period. Another source of information for the period takes the form of letters. Poetic writing in this period took a number of forms. The theological writings are increasingly of interest to historians of the early Middle Ages, certainly far more than was the case a hundred years ago. The chapter discusses developments in archaeological theory, numismatics and epigraphy, and towns and trade. The study of medieval rural settlements provides many ways of examining social structure as well as economy.