ABSTRACT
If archaeologists were not aware of the date of the Norman Conquest from other sources it is highly unlikely that they could have deduced it for them selves. For many of the major factors that distinguish late Saxon from medieval England do not become apparent until the twelfth or thirteenth century. After 1066 life in town and country alike continued much as before, only under new management. But in the long term the Conquest set into action forces that intensified wide-ranging social, economic, political, technological and cultural changes that were destined to transform Britain. The introduction of the castle, feudalism, the encouragement of urbanization, closer contacts with Europe, the reform of the church and the expansion of monasticism would change the face of the land.
