The thesis studies a particularly dynamic and revolutionary period in Scandinavian history. During the Early Middle Ages, major social changes took place such as village formation, urbanization, state formation, feudalization and Christianization. In Halland, these phenomena have proved difficult to analyze. The emergence of towns, villages and the cultural landscape seems to have been characterized by discontinuity, which distinguishes Halland from large parts of the rest of southern Scandinavia. The research project sheds light on medieval village formation based on newly excavated settlement archaeological source material. The concept of village formation has had a vague definition in archaeological research, but refers to the period when villages are formed in the transition between the Younger Iron Age and the Middle Ages. This is when the historically known villages are established. The main questions are: what was the built and social environment in the countryside during the Early Middle Ages? How was the village and landscape organized and who were the actors? Through an interdisciplinary approach, which includes archaeological and historical sources as well as cultural-geographical and quaternary geological analyses, completely new aspects of rural organization in the early Middle Ages are exposed. Based on studies of some villages in Halland, a picture emerges of an early medieval village landscape, completely different from what we see in the historical maps. Here, different social groups make themselves known, which can be linked, for example, to village agriculture, trade and craftsmanship, and local and regional power.