The Middle Ages

Description

Several centuries elapse between Late Antiquity, characterized by isolated and poor rural settlements, and the middle centuries of the Middle Ages, when settlement is organized into parishes and fortified villages. The near absence of written sources makes it difficult to draw the evolutionary picture of this historical period, and archaeological investigation does not help. In some areas of Tuscany, the so-called process of encastellation began as early as the 7th century A.D. Here, then, the population moved back to the heights, into settlements protected by wooden palisades with a defensive function. The artifacts from this period found in the Mugello area offer a very varied picture, in terms of the type and quality of products circulating in the markets and those manufactured locally. The contexts in which the finds pertain, however, have never been systematically researched, except for the case of San Martino a Poggio. Rather, they are surface recoveries due to emergency works, carried out at the sites of ancient fortified centers.