Advances in our understanding of the nature of early medieval trade and the development of rural regions in the VIIth to IXth centuries in England have made it necessary to reexamine our perceptions of emporia-hinterland interactions during in this period. It is argued that previous attempts to reconstruct this relationship, concentrating on the analysis of patterns of traded items, can only ever provide a partial understanding with strong caveats for interpretation. A new thematic approach is suggested using evidence from within the emporium alongside that from the broader region in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of hinterlands and the changing relationships between these early urban sites and the countryside.
