Reflections on “The Archaeology of Inland Markets, Fairs and ‘Productive Sites’ c.650-850”, Worcester College, Oxford, 15th-17th December 2000

Current interest in Middle Anglo-Saxon (c.CE 650-850) settlement topography, economics and archaeology is being reflected in a number of recently published papers.Former archaeological and theoretical foci on the large semi-or proto-urban trading settlements, known generically as either wics or emporia, such as have been located at London (Lundenwic), Ipswich, Saxon Southampton (Hamwic) and York (Eoforwic), have shifted to include the regional hinterland beyond these specialised settlements.In part, this change in emphasis has come about in order to model the effect of urbanisation, specialisation and monetisation throughout a region.Arguably of more important influence however, are the increasing number of sites currently being identified by metal-detector clubs and the active need for archaeologists to address the issue of regional settlement hierarchies including these settlements.Given these trends, it is unfortunate that an important conference addressing the issue of Middle-Saxon markets, fairs, and so-called 'productive sites', ended with a general call for definitions.The failure of the well-attended conference to either redefine the archaeological nomenclature or to actively theorise the nature of these sites, may however have as much to do with the nature of most of the presented data, as it does with current trends away from simplistic characterisations of Anglo-Saxon economics.If anything, the pan-European, multi-disciplinary perspective presented in the broad range of papers, detailed the wide variety such micro-economic casestudies can take.Contributions from colleagues from throughout northern Europe provided a useful reminder of the Early Medieval world-system, in which developments in rural integration and socio-economic intensification can be paralleled from regions as far apart as Italy and Norway.It is just a pity that the large and detailed excavations of settlements such as that by Lake Tissø, Denmark (Dr Lars Jørgensen, National Museum, Copenhagen), Gross Strömkendork, Germany (Astrid Tummuscheit, University of Kiel) or even smaller excavations such as Wijnaldum, in the Netherlands (Caroline Tulp, University of Groningen) cannot be matched by similar investigations in this country.Indeed, the emphasis on 'productive sites', settlements generally identified by metal-detector enthusiasts and defined as potential inland markets on the basis of the large number of coins and other non-ferrous metal artefacts found, calls into question whether the functional characteristics of a settlement can be defined without further excavation.This point formed the thematic basis of most of the first day of papers; "Markets, Fairs and Productive Sites in England".Examples from West Norfolk (Dr

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