Introduction

This chapter begins by portraying a special role for medieval archaeology in perpetuating the myths of ethnic identity so essential to the consciousness of modern nationality. Sociospatial study and representation of the material cultural regions of medieval Europe in the context of a pan-European ideology and organization could be one of the legitimate objectives, not just of an academic medieval archaeology but also of a transnational Museum of Europe and a European Archaeological Service. In medieval archaeology apart from the very earliest, protohistoric periods in Europe, territory and levels of economic activity could be revealed from documents, either by retrospective analysis of postmedieval map evidence or by cartographic representations of economic or political information from documents. Historical geography or topographical history was better equipped than archaeology to provide this kind of information.