Viking Age Rural Settlement in Lowland North- West England: Identifying the Invisible?

ABSTRACT Recent surveys have highlighted the lack of research into the early medieval rural archaeology of north-west England. From the end of the Roman period until well after the Norman Conquest, the very sparse material culture and lack of recognisable cropmark signatures make it very difcult to locate rural settlements and, once found, to establish a chronology. As a result, most early medieval activity has been found accidentally when excavating sites of earlier or later periods.