ABSTRACT
By the end of the third century, hilltop villas were being abandoned in favor of lowland sites, particularly those near a village or a waterway, which were sites of prehistoric Celtic settlement. This chapter analyzes the 'classic' villa in the Carolingian inventories which was an unusually centralized and efficient form of agriculture. It was feasible only in areas of high population density and soil fertility, where lords were strong enough to impose village organizations and centralized control on the peasants. This type of farm organization is unusual except between the Loire and Rhine rivers and in the English Midlands after the Norman Conquest. The chapter describes Huy town which illustrates the fact that even in towns that were on major rivers, which were the main arteries of long-distance trade, settlement developed first along smaller streams or land routes leading into the interior. It also discusses the Charlemagne's time which was an economic nadir, as commerce declined and production became agrarian.
