This collection, the product of University College London Institute of Archaeology's 2010 conference, brings together sixteen interdisciplinary case studies from ten western European countries and explicates the processes by which local, royal, and trans-regional elites in the early Middle Ages used church building to express and manifest power. The volume showcases the marked increase in reliable archaeological data in recent decades and promotes a much-needed comparative approach to overcome the national and regional foci in which archaeology frequently is entrenched. The contributions reflect several important trends in current scholarship, including the interrogation of the year 1000 and its significance in post-Roman social organization and the establishment of feudalism, as well as the application of social theory to understand places as locales of power. Together the chapters show the social diversity of the early and central Middle Ages and how within the context of complex networks and changing strategies for establishing and maintaining status, ecclesiastical foundations of all types acted as centers of ideological and practiced power.

The volume is divided thematically into four parts, but as the editors indicate, there is significant overlap among the contributions. The chapters in part 1, “Churches as Channels for Power Relations,” examine public and private churches as conduits for negotiating power among various early medieval social groups—including different levels of local and regional elites—and bishops. In a process numerous contributors note, Juan Antonio Quirós and Igor Santos show how the Asturian monarchy established economic supremacy and social hegemony in the northern Spanish territory of Álava by controlling the churches and associated assets that had acted as spatial and political reference points for the diverse society of the ninth through eleventh centuries. Alexandra Chavarría's assessment of the Christianization of northern Italy's countryside in the fourth through eighth centuries is one of several chapters to incorporate analysis of non-church settlement and the transformations of the period (Christian Delaplace's thorough analysis of Gaul provides another excellent example). By placing these processes into larger social, religious, and economic frameworks and using a comprehensive methodological approach, Chavarría demonstrates the complexity of ecclesiastical networks and challenges “generic” assumptions that lay aristocrats were the primary actors in church construction (87). Tomás Ó Carragáin's inclusion of multivallate ringforts and various church types, including lesser sites such as proprietary churches, in his analysis of the relationship between kingship and church hierarchy in early medieval Ireland also highlights the importance of examining various settlement patterns.

Part 2, “Churches and the Transition of Power,” considers churches within the context of political transformations and military conquests and how newcomers and existing local elites used them to secure and legitimize rule. Aleksandra McClain's valuable contribution on the development of England's parochial system asserts the role the lesser elite had in this process primarily through more affordable contributions to local churches. David Petts exemplifies the benefit of using written and archaeological evidence; even with a sparse source base, using both types contributes significant nuance to the traditional narrative of Viking devastation of Christianity in Normandy. Not only was the network of pre-Viking churches more extensive than previously thought, it largely survived the attacks and expanded rapidly after them. Like McClain and others in the volume, Petts recognizes the importance of looking at elite of various levels; in the case of Normandy, he attributes the flowering of church building in the eleventh and twelfth centuries to the strategies a diverse group of elite used to express their power.

Part 3, “Churches in Landscapes of Power,” places churches within their larger settlement and territorial contexts to reveal their function in relation to other places of power. Duncan W. Wright focuses on agricultural exploitation and intensification in the Middle Saxon period to show that stable monastic and church communities associated with non-producing populations established permanent and organized demesne farms that leading authorities could utilize to consolidate power relations and perceptions of the social order in early medieval England. Luís Fontes's balanced analysis utilizes historical sources and the comprehensive output of the Unit of Archaeology of the University of Minho since the 1970s to show the complex social processes by which Braga and its surrounding territory in northern Portugal were reorganized around parish churches in the ninth and tenth centuries and the intermediary role local elites and bishops played.

Part 4, “Churches as Centres of Power,” focuses on churches as “places of economic and ideological power” and social display, particularly for royal authorities (21). Two chapters in this section employ new pre-Charlemagne archaeological evidence to refine the narrative of Carolingian alignment with the Church. Gian Pietro Brogiolo convincingly shows that the Carolingians, and especially Charlemagne, were able to exploit the ideological and economic components of royal, “dynastic” church building in northern Italy that Lombard kings and queens had developed within the context of elite use of religion as a reference point for social legitimization. Andreas Schaub and Tanja Kohlberger-Schaub show that rather than a de novo foundation at Aachen, Charlemagne likely built over an existing settlement and church and the rather quick construction of his palatine church starting in the late eighth century reflects his imperial ambitions. Finally, Michael Shapland contends that the Carolingian model was influential as Anglo-Saxon kings used church buildings at royal residences to assert their power, especially in the ninth and tenth centuries.

While the analysis of archaeological and historical sources is not always balanced and the presentation of some material data is less accessible to non-specialists, the majority of chapters in this volume demonstrate the value of an interdisciplinary approach. José C. Sánchez-Pardo's study of Galicia represents the volume's success. Sánchez-Pardo, like other contributors, uses recent archaeological evidence to prove that a so-called marginal region actually was integrated into larger religious, social, and economic systems, which forces a reevaluation of regionally and nationally specific narratives (Guðrún Sveinbjarnardóttir's assessment of Iceland is another example). The volume's comparative component elucidates that while specific contexts created important variations, in Galicia and elsewhere ecclesiastical centers were effective means of creating networks, and social and economic complexities shaped the processes and outcomes.