The volume combines works that examine the prerequisites and the initial stage of the genesis of feudalism in Western Europe. The essay about the ancient Germans describes their economy, forms of settlements and social organization in the last centuries BC. e. and in the period immediately preceding the Great Migrations of Peoples in the 5th century. Widespread use of data from archeology and the history of ancient settlements will provide an opportunity to shed new light on the features of the ancient German social structure. The central part of the volume is the monograph “Problems of the Genesis of Feudalism in Western Europe.” It develops the problems of economic anthropology, which connects the processes of economic development with the culture, beliefs, value system and social behavior of people of a distant era. A significant part of the volume is formed by the monograph “Viking Campaigns”, for the initial stages of the development of feudalism were closely intertwined with the conflict between Western European civilization and the civilization of the Normans.