The fringes of the early medieval village or the marginality of the common rural elite

Séverine Hurard (1)

1 Inrap - Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives

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.

Keywords: settlement; rural settlement; Early Middle Ages; Seine-et-Marne; Saint-Pathus; religious monument; village; elite; rural elite; resources; planning; levels of investment; religious foundations; waste management

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Archaeology and Prehistory

Séverine Hurard. The fringes of the early medieval village or the marginality of the common rural elite: The example of the Petits Ormes site at Saint-Pathus (Seine-et-Marne - 5^th-11^th centuries). Revue archéologique d'Île-de-France, 2021, Actes de la table ronde « Archéologie du village en Ile-de-France », Nanterre 17-18 janvier 2019, 12. ⟨hal-03664043⟩