The bases of this publication are the early medieval rural settlements of Lower Austria. Initially, the single structures were classified according to their form and size and functionally interpreted with the help of ethnographic analogies. Besides the well known early medieval pit houses and underground storages, we could define also short-term storage pits. In the second level, the economic surrounding of the rural settlements, the so-called site catchment areas, was reconstructed. It became obvious, that one half of the early medieval rural settlements was situated on marshy soils respectively close to water meadows, whereas the other half of the studied settlements were founded on hilly lands, preferably on loess and braunerde soils. This result clearly shows that the water meadows played an important role in the early medieval economic live. Finally, summing up the results of the different levels, they were applied on entire Lower Austria on a macro-level. The catchment areas were compared to each other and interrelated with the early medieval settlement patterns that are central places, former Roman settlements, cemeteries, and the land routes. Due to multiple overlapping of catchment areas, we have to consider semi-permanent settling in early medieval Lower Austria. Providing a database of early medieval settlement structures in Lower Austria, methods and theories of settlement archaeology have been applied on the archaeological record. As a result, new aspects and questions concerning early medieval settling in Lower Austria arose, which might be subject of future research.