hodges’s academic career has focussed upon the archaeology of the later roman world and the early middle ages in western europe. many of his excavations and publications have highlighted the transformation of classical antiquity and the birth of europe. beginning with dark age economics (1982), he reviewed the changing regional patterns of urban phenomena – especially emporia – in the making of north-west europe. following this, with david whitehouse, in mohammed, charlemagne and the origins of europe (1983), he reappraised henri pirenne’s celebrated historical thesis about the collapse of antiquity and the rise of europe in the carolingian age. perhaps his most significant contribution to this theme was the 18-year (1980-98) excavations at san vincenzo al volturno, an italian benedictine monastery of the carolingian renaissance, where together with the art historian, john mitchell, the history and culture was unearthed and set within a european context. in the many reports on these excavations the architectural history and the art history, including well preserved cycles of paintings in the crypt of san vincenzo maggiore, were situated within the changing social and economic circumstances of 9th-century italy.