This text examines the important continuing discussion of the rebirth of urbanism in Carolingian Europe. Drawing upon a good deal of new archaeological evidence from southern and northern Europe, Richard Hodges looks at the end of towns in Roman antiquity, the phenomenon of the Dark Age emporium, and the hotly disputed mechanisms which led to the inception of market towns during the age of Charlemagne. Much use is made, in particular, of recently excavated evidence from the Mediterranean, as well as from England.