The Peasant Mode of Production and the Early Medieval Economies of Italy

This article examines the concept of the peasant mode of production in early medieval Italy. Wickham’s categorization of the peasant mode echoes earlier understandings of Italian economic structures. Recent archaeological advances, including fine-grained analysis of small settlements, bioarchaeological studies, and research on storage facilities, have expanded our understanding of early medieval peasant life, suggesting that peasants may have occupied the landscape in even more dispersed ways than previously considered. Limited coin circulation and changing storage practices in the early Middle Ages might reflect shifts in economic organization. The integration of textual evidence with archaeological data, including organic remains and environmental data, permits an increasingly nuanced picture of rural society in post-Roman Italy.