ABSTRACT
With considerable support from natural sciences, archaeology can, of course, answer the sort of questions aimed directly at the type of evidence with which archaeology deals: questions about material and technology, form and size, function and use. With this comes the possibility of an essential understanding of humans' past en vironment, including not only their mortal remains, but also the topography and structure of their settlements and of the buildings, infrastructure, and agriculture of those settlements. The same is true of manufacture and technology, raw material extraction and agri cultural production, trade and traffic, as well as the daily needs of such things as clothing, weaponry, nourishment, and household goods. On these foundations, medieval archaeology, with its own sources of evidence and its own research results, is able to con tribute to complementary problems posed by the historical discip line; clearly with varying degrees of success.
