The relationship between towns, or urban centers, and the countryside
around them is a complex one. Beneath the striking cover of this book
lies the results of a research project that promotes new ways of
thinking about, and investigating, this relationship. The Urban
Hinterlands Project of the Universities of Leicester and York (1997-8)
sought to investigate the social and economic dependencies between town
and country and sees the latter as the major source of power for the
elite who imposed urban centers on the landscape to serve their needs
and aspirations. This report combines theoretical and methodological
approaches, which are largely based on archaeological finds, it
highlights the quality and quantity of archaeological evidence available
and presents a series of case studies from areas such as East Anglia,
London, Hampshire and Yorkshire.