Ecological and historical factors behind the spatial structure of the historical field patterns in the Czech Republic

作者：Václav Fanta, Jaromí­r Beneš, Jan Zouhar, Volha Rakava, Ivana Šitnerová, Kristina Janečková, Ladislav Šmejda, Petr Sklenička · 发表于：Scientific Reports · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1038/s41598-022-12612-8 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Historical and Archaeological Studies、Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction、Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies

Historical field systems are an essential part of the traditional cultural landscape of societies with primarily agricultural subsistence. They embody many functions and values, as they affect the productional, ecological and hydrological functioning of the landscape, its cultural values, the way people perceive the landscape, and their impact on present-day farming. As an aspect of the historical landscape, field systems are a topic investigated in landscape archaeology, environmental studies, historical geography, landscape ecology, and related disciplines. Historical field systems can form many complex spatial structures, shapes and patterns. This paper focuses on identifying environmental and historical/cultural driving forces during the formation and the historical development of various field pattern types. We worked with 523 settlements established in the medieval to the early modern period (approx. 900-1600 AD) in the present-day Czech Republic. We have determined the proportions of different field pattern types in the examined cadastres and have statistically compared them with a variety of environmental and geographical predictors. Our results indicate a strong influence of environmental predictors (terrain undulation, cadastre size), the impact of specific historical events and associated social changes (e.g. land confiscations by the state in the seventeenth century), and a significant relationship between field pattern types and settlement layout types. Furthermo...