The Origins of European Villages and the First European Expansion
Fredric L. Cheyette
The countryside of Europe in the Roman period was one dispersed villas and farmsteads placed a regular grid. That post-Roman nucleated villages surrounded by irregular fields “spider's web” tracks. change occurred between sixth ninth centuries, when largely emptied its population. reasons for this should be explored, reconstruction start medieval economic expansion that gave density population intensity land exploitation it had never before achieved.
The Journal of Economic History