Geographia Polonica (1978) vol. 38

Abstract

For good reasons the Eastern Alps have been considered to be a regionin which the medieval settlement expansion process in general — and that ofthe High Middle Ages in particular — have proved to be of great importance.Settlements which date back to that time constitute a high percentage of thetotal number of settlements in the Eastern Alps. Numerous special investigationsmade by several authors have always confirmed anew that feudal landlordsor sovereigns initiated and regulated the process of settlement expansion.Therefore it seems understandable that the settlement expansion process directedby landlords is still today considered as the significant type of innercolonization in the Eastern Alps during the High Middle Ages.What has been scarcely noticed, however, is the fact that at the same timethere existed still other types of settlement expansion. Recent publicationshave produced a number of individual examples for this fact; particularly forthe central region in the south of the Eastern Alps. Therefore previous conceptionsof only one type of inner colonization characteristic for the time ofthe High Middle Ages will necessarily have to be modified — at least as faras the region investigated is concerned.On the basis of our present knowledge a first attempt to systematize the differenttypes of medieval settlement expansion for the south of the EasternAlps shall be made and put up for discussion. In addition to that I shall tryto outline the exceptional position of the different types under some aspects ofsocial geography in this special historical period.

Maria Dobrowolska, College of Pedagogy, Cracow

Abstract

The peculiarity of Polish source materials in relation to WesternEurope (till the beginning of the 12th century we can speak nearly exclusivelyof archaeological materials) induces particular stress on excavation research.Owing to intensive archaeological works, conducted initially by the Managementof Studies on the Beginning of the Polish State, and for the following 25 yearsby the Institute of History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences,further by the Archaeological Departments of Poland's Universities and Centralas well as Regional Museums — the material base has now grown to be an imposingbody, exceeding by far the achievements of our neighbours. Comparativematerials from Czechoslovakia and the German Democratic Republic alreadyallow to appreciate that kind of sources as the most useful in our research.After having regarded these materials as written documents (very scarce forthe area of Poland up to the 13th century), to toponomastic materials, applyingretrogressive methods and making use, as far as possible, of specialistic geographic-historical research, we have managed to achieve several synthetic conceptionsthat give a lively picture of a few particular microregions of Poland(among others the papers of W. Hensel, Z. Hilczer, H. Łowmiański, Z. Podwińskaand T. Wąsowicz).

Abstract

The purpose of the following remarks is to present and explain specificcharacteristics and regional differentiation of the rural landscape in Poland oftoday. It is rather complex and spatially extremely variable with several layersof completely different forms, types and patterns superimposed one on another.Their origin and dating is rather difficult to identify and their morphology issometimes very misleading with older forms transformed more or less or notat all by the successive social, economic and political upheavals — revolutions ormerely reforms, specially the agrarian ones. By queer paradox the greatestchanges have taken place there where at present the agriculture is the mostbackward and underdeveloped. In search of the historical relicts it is necessaryto turn to more advanced and progressive agricultural regions and the foreseeableand planned changes probably shall make this pattern and trends evenmore deeply implanted in the morphology of the rural landscape.

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Pierre Flatrès, Université de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes

Abstract

The two- and three-field system dominated and regulated the lives ofmany English communities for a period spanning, at the least, seven hundredyears. It was crucial to the levels of subsistence of individual families. Equally,because so much of central England came under its sway, it cannot bediscounted as an influence on the economic performance of the country atlarge. At one time itself a highly significant innovation, the system subsequentlycame to constrain the innovations of a later age. Its rhythm andinstitutions imposed heavily upon the lives of those who were caught upin it and, along with other phenomena which tended to coincide with it(such as strong manorial control and the practice of impartible inheritance),gave a sociological distinctiveness to communities where it prevailed. Ourunderstanding of the demography, technical development and sociology ofrural England in the past demands a full understanding of the system in allits contexts, no less of its functioning and ultimate decline than of its originswhich are the subject of the following discussion.

Abstract

What are the general traits characterizing urban agriculture? Do essentialdifferences occur between agricultural units which have been changed to isolatedfarmsteads on consolidated holdings and those that have remained in theirvillages? How is their future distribution expected to develop? With these problemsin mind the author carried out standardized interviews with all farmersat seven localities in the northern fringe of Frankfurt am Main.1As to natural and structural conditions, the area under investigation isslightly better than the average of Frankfurt's environs. The area under cultivation,insignificantly inclined and consisting of loess soils, is situated at 110 to180 m a.s.l. Annual precipitation varies around 600 mm, the mean annual temperatureis about 8.7°C.

Bodo Freund, Frankfurt am Main University

Maria Kiełczewska-Zaleska, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Abstract

The eastward expansion of fully-fiedged feudalism obtained itsrequisite substratum by means of a peasant colonization involving both Germanimmigrants and Slavic residents. This so-called East German Colonizationachieved its target by basically one tool, the Hufe, and the Hufen-regimeaccordingly came to dominate East Elbia more sweepingly than any other partof medieval Germany.

Abstract

The aim of this brief paper is to examine the characteristics of the karstcomplex which, incorporating the four main basins, occupies the highest partof the Cicolano Mts. The physical features of the district and the structure ofMan's temporary utilization of the area have determined the rise of its typicallyrural landscape. Here the particular types of agro-pastoral economy, which dateback at least to the Classical Age, have survived through the Middle Ages rightup to modern times and are still practised today. Though this kind of economyis not unusual in the higher part of the Apennines, in other districts it hasundergone such transformation that its specific socio-economic functions havebeen completely altered.

Jean Peltre, Institut de Géographie de Nancy

Xavier De Planhol, Université de Paris-Sorbonne

Janina Szewczyk, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Halina Szulc, Institute of Geography PAN, Warsaw

Aadel Brun Tschudi, Department o f Geography University of Oslo Oslo Norway