The potential of environmental evidence in the archaeological record for investigating the links between towns and their rural hinterlands is the focus of this volume. Most papers use evidence from Roman and Medieval Britain but there are also case studies from Paris, medieval Holland, and Oslo. Essential reading for specialists, this book also amply demonstrates the relevance of environmental evidence to central theoretical debates in historic archaeology. Contributors include: E Schia (Urban Oslo and its relation to rural production in the hinterland: An archaeological view) ; R I Macphail (The reworking of urban stratigraphy by human and natural processes) ; M Hill (Insect assemblages as evidence for past woodlands around York) ; H Kenward & E Allison (Rural origins of the urban insect fauna) ; H van Haaster (Plant resources and environment in late medieval Luebeck) ; M Maltby (The meat supply in Roman Dorchester and Winchester) ; Bob Wilson (Mortality patterns, animal husbandry and marketing in and around medieval and post-medieval Oxford) ; B Noddle (The under-rated goat) ; D Brothwell (On the possibility of urban-rural contrasts in human population palaeobiology) ; P Ciezar et al (In Suburbano: New data on the immediate surroundings of Roman and early medieval Paris) ; W Groenman van Waateringe (The menu of different classes in Dutch medieval society) .