Summary How were early medieval people connected to each other and to the wider world? In this collection, archaeologists and historians working in very different areas of early medieval Europe explore diverse evidence - from landscape and burial archaeology to charters and chronicles - to discuss the relationships that constituted neighbourhoods and the roles these played in the processes of state formation that can be observed in the peripheries of the Frankish world. What these case-studies teach us, the contributors argue, is that polities are formed not through the exclusive operation of either top-down or bottom-up agencies, but from the interplay between them. By exploring the ways in which local knowledge, social ties, and understandings of landscape interacted with higher-level authorities and institutions, we can gain real insights into the nature of early medieval power and people's experiences of it. Marking the culmination of a collective effort that has spanned over a decade and three funded projects, this volume brings together case-studies from Spain, Italy, England, northern Frankia, Norway, and Iceland to offer a comparative view of polities and neighbourhoods in early medieval Europe. Drawing on new research, and offering new perspectives driven by an interdisciplinary approach, this volume is of relevance to a range of disciplines including archaeology, history, onomastics, geography, and anthropology. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction - JULIO ESCALONA, ORRI VÉSTEINSSON, AND STUART BROOKES Polities, Neighbourhoods, and Things In-Between - JULIO ESCALONA, ORRI VÉSTEINSSON, AND STUART BROOKES Understanding the Identities and Workings of Local Societies in Early Medieval England, AD 800-1100 - GRENVILLE ASTILL Peasant Communities and Landscape Change in Northwest Iberia - MARGARITA FERNÁNDEZ MIER Early Medieval Burials and Settlements: Some Reflections on Northern Italian Archaeological Evidence - ALEXANDRA CHAVARRÍA Ancestors and Landscape: Early Medieval Burial Sites in the Central-Western Regions of the Iberian Peninsula - IÑAKI MARTÍN VISO The Thing and the King: The Formation of the Norwegian Medieval Kingdom - FRODE IVERSEN Meeting Places, Markets, and Churches in the Countryside between Madrid and Toledo, Central Spain, c. AD 500-900 - ALFONSO VIGIL-ESCALERA State Formation and World View: Commonwealth Iceland as a Part of the Norwegian Realm - ORRI VÉSTEINSSON 'Est haec effera gens': Landscapes of Negotiation on the Former Island of Walcheren, the Netherlands - LETTY TEN HARKEL Territoriality and Social Stratification: The Relationship between Neighbourhood and Polity in Anglo-Saxon England - STUART BROOKES AND ANDREW REYNOLDS Regions and Micro-Regions of Scribal Practice - WENDY DAVIES The Use of the Term Villa in Early Medieval León: A Review of the Economic Base of the Astur-Leonese Monarchy, Ninth-Eleventh Centuries - ÁLVARO CARVAJAL CASTRO Dense Local Knowledge: Grounding Local to Supra-local Relationships in Tenth-Century Castile - JULIO ESCALONA Local Places and Local People in Anglo-Saxon Wessex - ALEX LANGLANDS Conclusion - JULIO ESCALONA, ORRI VÉSTEINSSON, AND STUART BROOKES Index