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According to the core-periphery model of economic geography, the Medieval and Early Modern Czech lands can be called a semi-periphery. They are located in a hilly part of central Europe, in the shadows of the world's naval powers. Over the centuries this location has greatly influenced their domestic consumer society, in many ways lacking in self-sufficiency and often having to rely on the import of foreign and exotic goods through a global sales network; amongst these rare goods were different kinds of spices. These imported species, specifically assimilated, became not only an important part of the diet, but also a symbol of luxury. This paper presents the current state of research into exotic spices that have been discovered in archaeological contexts in today's Czech Republic, and illustrates their importance for the interpretation of trade in exotic goods and the historical socio-cultural level of local consumers.

Archaeological research in the town hall courtyard conducted in 1996-1997 disclosed parts of three or four urban plots with the economic hinterland of burgher houses that preceded a renaissance town hall built in the mid-16th century. The research yielded a large number of artefacts that were studied as examples of medieval and modern-age material culture. The paper focuses on artefacts divided, in terms of material, into medieval and modern-age utility ceramics (kitchenware, tableware and storage vessels), modern-age ceramic tobacco pipes, stove tiles ceramics, objects of glass, iron and non-ferrous metals, and coins. The series of artefacts provides the first comprehensive insight into the socioeconomic life of urban households in České Budějovice in the Middle Ages and the modern age.

Archives of historical photographs have a great potential for "geo-or spatial sciences", for they can provide highly relevant visual data on historical landscapes, populated places and settlement structures, including those now destroyed. Processing of these archives represents many challenges, among them the application of geoinformatic concepts and information technologies. The article presents the example of geo-referencing, crowdsourcing, and other computer-based technologies applied to the archival photographs of today-destroyed sites on the Czech -Bavarian border, where many villages, farm sites and monuments were destroyed in the 1950s or abandoned as a consequence of post-WWII development. In the situation of dramatically changing landscape and land use, historical photographs are an important source of documentation for both research and virtual reconstruction of disappeared places, landscape, and society.