Over the period AD 700-1100 England emerged as a highly organised nation state from a world of fragmented warrior kingdoms. Drawing largely upon archaeological sources, this account of everyday life in early England explores the social and economic developments in town and country over these four centuries. Against the backdrop of the seventh century -- a land of newly emerging kingdoms, embryonic social systems and a new religion, Christianity - individual chapters address such themes as the archaeology of social scales; the organisation and administration of the landscape (including public assembly, civil defence and capital punishment); rural settlement and agricultural estates; the development of towns (including marketing, manufacture and trade). Finally the author looks at the impact of the Norman Conquest.