What was the nature of so-called 'emporia' such as Donestad, Southampton/Hamwic, Ipswich in the 7th Century? Did Viking raids contribute to their decline? How are Anglo-Saxon burhs different from emporia in terms of trade, is it as simple as just sticking a wall around a market?

by HarryCochrane

So I've been flicking through the relevant sections of Dark Age Economics: the origins of towns and trade AD 600 - 1000 by Richard Hodges all day and it's just way too dense. My mind is mush and I've only been able to gleam the definitions that archaeologists give to determine what a town is (page 21) and that the Viking raids from 840-870 forced the need for "centralised leadership" and that burhs were a military strategy to quell the Vikings (page 159).

Aerandir

You're probably better off with Hodges' DAE: A new audit (2012) or some of Søren Sindbæks work, such as Networks and nodal points (2007). Hodges' early work, while fundamental, was still way too much coloured by an evolutionary view of the development of urbanism, while the modern view of urbanism (or proto-urbanism) is quite a bit more nuanced.