The fringes of the early medieval village or the marginality of the common rural elite
Abstract
The Petits Ormes early medieval rural settlement at Saint-Parthus is characterized by a geographical, functional, perhaps even symbolic, marginality which questions the very definition of a village. Between the 5th and the 11th centuries, changes in the settlement’s structure point to a control of resources typical of so-called common rural elites. Analysis of seemingly conflicting material signals invites requestioning of interpretive models, particularly surrounding the poorly understood small elite religious sites of the early medieval period.