Early medieval transformations: aristocrats and dwellers in the pagus Texandria: a publication programme

Since the early 1980s, the University of Amsterdam has been carrying out a research programme on the development of medieval society and landscape in the Middle Ages in the Kempen region. Early interpretations of the data of the excavations were related to how the region developed during its integration in the Merovingian and Carolingian ‘states’. Now, almost thirty years later, many new excavations, new theoretical developments in archaeology and the ongoing debate among historians on the characteristics of early medieval rural society make it necessary to reconsider the evidence. A series of articles presenting both new evidence and new interpretations of excavations will be submitted to the journal. This article - the first in that series - introduces the region and discusses the contemporary concept of the ‘pagus’. Various aspects of local and regional social organization are introduced in relation to the development of identities in the region after initial colonization in the second half of the sixth century. This debate relates to recent developments on local identities as presented by Wickham. Finally, the article presents a very short introduction to the history of early medieval archaeology in the region.