Chris Wickham, in the authoritative survey of the post-Roman world, "Framing the Early Middle Ages" (2006) argues that these were settlements of prosperous peasants which have few or no specifically urban features.
Chris Wickham, i den erkända undersökningen av den post-Romerska världen, Framing the Early Middle Ages (2006) hävdar att dessa var framgångsrika bönders bosättningar som hade få eller inga urbana kännemärken.