No abstract

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. Furthermore, we have observed the different adaptations of field pattern types to similar environmental conditions, as well as the impact of social and political factors on the processes of landscape formation. Our paper provides the first detailed analysis of the geographical distribution of traditional field systems on the scale of an entire modern state, and emphasizes the importance of transdisciplinary research on cultural landscapes.

The Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology (LAPE), of the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (USB) was founded twenty years ago. The department is closely linked with the Institute of Archaeology of the USB in terms of staff and projects, which are mainly focused on the issues of paleoecology, archaeobotany and archaeozoology. The present paper discusses the teaching of environmental archaeology and projects focusing on Europe, but also on some areas of Africa. The text provides background information on the teaching and research projects that have taken place over the last ten years, but also on the research and scientific directions that the department is currently pursuing.

Plužina, historický pojem a v přeneseném slova smyslu výrazný krajinný prvek nejen v České republice, ale i v celé střední Evropě, byla do nedávna z pohledu archeologie opomíjenou součástí historické kulturní krajiny. Zájem archeologů se upínal především na intravilán zaniklých vsí. Až díky pronikání metod environmentální archeologie do terénního výzkumu sledujeme v posledním desetiletí soustředění na hospodářské zázemí vesnic reprezentované plužinou. Jde nejen o soudobé metody dálkového průzkumu Země, ale především o kombinované metody datování dosud opomíjených polních systémů. Dalším novým prvkem je detailní rekonstrukce přírodního prostředí středověké a novověké vsi pomocí archeobotanických metod. Projekt "Identifikace a ochrana dochovaných pozůstatků historických plužin" si tak klade za cíl poskytnout informace a vyvinout nástroje směřující k jejich ochraně. Výsledky poskytují podklad pro kvalifikovanou ochranu historických polních systémů, ale i jejich pochopení v kontextu vývoje historické krajiny. Text je přehledem problematiky v rámci současných znalostí o plužině a agrárních terasách a je zaměřen především na poznatky krajinné archeologie a krajinné ekologie. Klíčová slova: terasové pole-plužina-environmentální archeologie-krajinná archeologie-krajinná ekologie. Archaeological research into field systems and agrarian terraces as the phenomena of the historical landscape in the Czech Republic

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.