The physical appearance of Merovingian villa’s has been ignored by most archaeologists and historians. Three radically different images can be found in the sparse literature, something akin to a Roman villa, a forerunner of the medieval castle, or a village settlement such as the excavated site of Warendorf, Germany, to which a number of analogous sites have been found in the recent past. This argues for the continuity of Roman traditions, if not the actual physical buildings. In particular the absence of fortification

The common enclosures of Merovingian villas, far from being defensive, are seen as having symbolic meaning which was actively employed to define propriety, legal rights, and social relations. The maintenance of peace and personal safety depended on the adequate understanding by individuals of local politics and the ordering of their social world. An understanding expressed in the physical world of Merovingian architecture