Idoia Grau Sologestoa and Umberto Albarella are the editors of this volume, which comprises eight contributions dedicated to the archaeology of rural Europe in the sixteenth century. The contents are the result of a session entitled ‘The “Long” Sixteenth Century: Archaeological Evidence for Innovations in the Rural World (Technology, Agriculture and Husbandry)’, held at the 23rd EAA Annual Meeting (Maastricht, 2017). The aim of this session was to provide a complex overview of the interconnections between various transformations of the European rural world in the early modern period.
In the introduction, the editors underline the importance of the sixteenth century as a period of intense change in Europe. In particular, they focus on the profound socio-economic transformations that took place in the rural world, reminding us that it represented the majority of the population. Although many historians have undertaken research of this period, the authors point out that rural archaeology of the early modern period has not reached the same level of development as that of other historical periods. Despite great differences in each country, this affirmation is valid for the whole of Europe and justifies the need for the book and the session as spaces for discussion, allowing for the construction of new academic debates on a continental scale.
The eight papers in the book are organized around three main themes: (1) landscape transformation and land use; (2) agriculture and animal husbandry; and (3) technological changes.
In the first chapter, ‘Changes in Rural Milieu and Land Use on Estates in Southern Bohemia during the Sixteenth Century’ (pp. 23–52), Ladislav Čapek examines changes in settlement networks between the late Middle Ages and the early modern period in southern Bohemia (Czech Republic). It focuses mainly on deserted villages and the reasons for their depopulation, concluding that it was a multifactorial phenomenon in which the strategies of the manors would have played an important role. These manors, perhaps motivated by diminishing incomes, would favour a new mode of exploitation that was more market-oriented and more profitable for their interests. In this context, they would encourage tenants to leave their land, which would play a key role in the abandonment of some villages.
The second paper is entitled ‘Landscape and Settlement Evolution during the Sixteenth Century: A Multidisciplinary Study of Two Mountain Areas (Eastern France)’ (pp. 53–80) and is written by Valentin Chevassu, Emilie Gauthier, Pierre Nouvel, Vincent Bichet, Hervé Richard and Isabelle Jouffroy-Bapicot. The authors analyse the mountainous areas of Morvan and Jura, which underwent profound changes in the sixteenth century. The cross-referencing of data from archaeological surveys, written sources, and palynological analysis reveals a shift from a multi-productive landscape—cereal cultivation, livestock farming, metallurgy, etc.—in the late Middle Ages towards a specialisation with a boost in the production of timber and firewood for export and a major expansion of iron mining and blacksmithing. As in Bohemia, the settlements underwent significant changes: some were abandoned, while others were newly founded.
Jana Mazáčková and Petr Žaža are the authors of the third article, ‘Impact of Subsistence on Medieval and Early Modern Land Use in the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands’ (pp. 81—100). In this paper, the abandonment of settlements is again under the spotlight. The authors present some of the results of an interdisciplinary project that involved archaeology, written sources, and environmental sciences, to analyse the Bohemian-Moravian area. In particular, they describe a model created to identify medieval settlements by calculating the minimum agricultural area that each village would have needed, based on the number of houses recorded in the written sources. The authors point out, however, that the method has much greater potential, opening up new ways of studying subsistence strategies in different periods.
This first block of contributions, which could be included within the framework of landscape archaeology, highlights changes in settlement networks that played a central role in all three case studies. Settlement networks followed divergent processes although they were driven by similar global phenomena, such as increasing specialization in production and greater commercialization of surpluses. Thus, in the French mountain areas there was an increase in the number of villages, while in Bohemia the process of abandonment was intensified. The use of both global and locally-focused perspectives on the issue, analysing territorial diversity in detail and exploring indicators of vulnerability or resilience of settlements (Curtis, Reference Curtis2016), can be extremely interesting for understanding the historical and social depth of these phenomena of rural depopulation—one of the greatest challenges today in large parts of the continent.
The second block of papers begins with a contribution by Tamsyn Fraser, entitled ‘Livestock Improvement and Landscape Enclosure in Late and Post-Medieval Buckinghamshire, England’ (pp. 101–128). The author examines changes observed in livestock productivity based on zooarchaeological analysis of a site in Buckinghamshire. According to historiography, there was an increase in agricultural and livestock productivity in England between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. In this regard, zooarchaeological analyses in urban contexts show an increase in the size of sheep and cattle. Fraser concludes, however, that in Buckinghamshire there were no obvious changes apart from the height of the sheep. This evidence is used to discuss whether this contrast masks the selection and dispatch of larger animals to London abattoirs and markets. In this case, the animals kept in Buckinghamshire would represent only those unsuitable for sale.
The fifth contribution is written by the editors of the volume and is entitled ‘Improvements in Animal Husbandry between the End of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era in England and the Basque Country: A Zooarchaeological Comparison’ (pp. 129–55). This paper presents a comparative zooarchaeological study of several sites in England and the Basque Country. The aim is to observe local differences in livestock transformations (of cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry) between the medieval and early modern periods. The study shows changes in livestock size in both territories, but they were not always simultaneous and sometimes followed opposite trends. This shows an interesting territorial diversity that must be related to different local or regional dynamics. The authors highlight the need to extend this type of study to other European regions in order to assess the scale of changes and the extent to which local versus global constraints affect them.
Anna Maria Grasso, Silvia D'Aquino, Eligio Vacca, Marco Nicoli, Milena Primavera and Girolamo Fiorentino are the authors of ‘Innovation: Turning Something Old into Something New. Vicia faba var. major’ (pp. 157–75). This study has three objectives: to understand where and when Vicia faba (broad bean) varieties were selected, to contribute to the taxonomic discussion by studying seed size and shape, and to assess whether and how the new data can be related to the innovations that affected the rural world of Salento (Italy) in the sixteenth century. For this purpose, they analysed samples of Vicia faba from different archaeological contexts through morpho-biometric parameters and the morphological characteristics of the hilum. These analyses showed a first homogeneous group extending from prehistoric times to the twelfth century, and then an increase in size and change in shape from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. The study concludes that there was a process of varietal improvement of Vicia faba that led to the emergence of the major variety. This brings up interesting questions regarding whether the selection was deliberate or accidental as an effect of technical changes in agriculture. The authors lean towards the first option and hypothesise that the improvement may have been promoted by local elites.
The last two contributions consider the transformations in this period in terms of technology. Riina Rammo is the author of ‘Changes in Rural Textile Craft during the Sixteenth-Seventeenth Centuries in the Eastern Baltic Region (Estonian Example)’ (pp. 177–97). This paper examines changes in textile technology through the remains of textiles preserved from the eleventh century onwards. It argues that the change from the ancient loom, which was in continuous use since prehistoric times, to the modern loom may have come to the towns of present-day Estonia from the west in the thirteenth century. From this century onwards, two types of weaving coexist in rural areas, which would be the product of different loom models. While in the Middle Ages one type of weaving is completely dominant, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the other type clearly predominates. The author links this change to the spread of the modern loom into rural areas in the sixteenth century, at a time when there was a shift from domestic to more specialised production. She hypothesizes that this change is linked to the optimization and reorientation of production towards the market promoted by the manors.
Catarina Karlsson concludes the volume with the paper ‘Iron and Steel Implements: Increased Diversification during the Early Modern Era in Sweden’ (pp. 199–224). The author discusses the close relationship between iron production and agriculture, drawing on archaeological evidence, written sources, and experimental archaeology. In doing so, she reviews the development of iron production in Sweden during the Middle Ages and the modern era. She then demonstrates that not only was the expansion of agriculture a driving force behind the development of mines and towns, but also the other way round: the expansion of mining areas was essential for the expansion of agriculture. Of particular interest are the calculations of consumption and wear of iron in agricultural implements, which allow us to assess consumption levels and relate them to technological change.
Overall, this book provides a valuable overview of various aspects of early modern rural Europe and raises interesting theoretical and methodological questions. As highlighted by the editors (p. 17), the scarcity of archaeological studies concerning this period became apparent during the preparation of the book. For this reason, the volume champions the importance of early modern archaeology and, more particularly, rural archaeological studies.
I am less convinced, however, by the question posed as the key theme of the book. The editors ask whether the sixteenth century is more rooted in the late Middle Ages or is fully enmeshed in the later ‘agricultural revolution’ (p. 16). I think the search for great historical ‘turning points' can —fortunately not in this case— negatively condition archaeological research. The chapters of the book themselves show on many occasions that certain changes analysed in the sixteenth century are only stages of long multi-secular processes. These processes lie completely outside the conventional divisions of history and their origins can be established in the high or late Middle Ages. In this sense, I argue that the archaeology of the modern period must be integrated into a long-term understanding of rural areas and avoid the ‘closed compartments’ of more conventional history, as suggested by some authors (Newman, Reference Newman2005). Only in this way will we be able to effectively trace the roots—more or less ancient—of the current problems of rural Europe and contribute to the search for solutions (Fernández Mier & Flecha Rebollar, Reference Fernández Mier and Flecha Rebollar2022). Another theme that emerges strongly from reading the book is the need to work at different scales, in multiple territories, and diverse contexts. In this sense, the two chapters dedicated to zooarchaeological analyses perfectly illustrate the regional complexity of the historical dynamics we want to explore.
In conclusion, I find this book an extremely useful and interesting reading for all researchers involved in rural archaeology and the medieval and modern periods. Certainly, all the contributions leave the reader eager to read the future results of all these interesting projects.
