Browsing by Subject "villages"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
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(Sidestone Press, 2023)In the late Middle Ages, the settlement pattern in coastal Uusimaa, southern Finland, was based on Swedish-speaking small villages. It has been thought that most of these villages were founded by Swedish colonists who arrived in the region from the late 12th century onwards. However, based on place name evidence, there were also Finnish inhabitants in the area during this time, although their role in establishing the villages has not been discussed to an equal extent. As the number of excavated village sites has increased, it has now become possible to discuss the development of the villages in the region from new perspectives, as is done in this paper. Based on archaeological material and place name evidence, both Finnish and Swedish-speaking people were involved in founding the historical villages in Uusimaa. In central Uusimaa, this seems to have first happened during the period of Swedish colonization, but there are notable differences between different parts of the region. In western Uusimaa, the historical villages may have been settled already during the Iron Age. Although many of the historical villages were settled by the late 13th century, based on archaeological evidence the pattern of more regulated village landscapes with several farms located on a shared plot was first established during the 15th century.
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(2020)As globally important forested areas situated in a context of dramatic socio-economic changes, Siberia and the Russian Far East (RFE) are important regions to monitor for anthropogenic land-use trends. Therefore, we compiled decadal Landsat-derived land-cover and land-use data for eight dominantly rural case study sites in these regions and focused on trends associated with settlements, agriculture, logging, and roads 1975-2010. Several key spatial-temporal trends emerged from the integrated landscape-scale analyses. First, road building increased in all case study sites over the 35-year period, despite widespread socio-economic decline post-1990. Second, increase in settlements area was negligible over all sites. Third, increased road building, largely of minor roads, was especially high in more rugged and remote RFE case study sites not associated with greater agriculture extent or settlement densities. High demands for wood export coupled with the expansion of commercial timber harvest leases starting in the mid-1990s are likely among leading reasons for an increase in roads. Fourth, although fire was the dominant disturbance over all sites and dates combined, logging exerted a strong land-use pattern, serving as a reminder that considering local anthropogenic landscapes is important, especially in Siberia and the RFE, which represent almost 10% of the Earth's terrestrial land surface. The paper concludes by identifying remaining research needs regarding anthropogenic land use in the region: more frequent moderate spatial resolution imagery and greater access to more finely resolved statistical and other spatial data will enable further research. Social media abstract Landsat reveals long-term anthropogenic land-use trends in Siberia and Russian Far East
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(2015)The medieval hamlet Mankby in Espoo, Southern Finland, excavated from 2007–2013, has revealed a landscape that reflects the complex development of the region – from the initial Swedish colonization to the emergence of an established medieval village, a village that was abruptly dissolved in 1556, when the freeholding peasants were forced to leave their land to the royal demesne that the Swedish king Gustavus Vasa founded on this spot. This study explores this landscape change, and the different layers in the landscape through analyse of historical maps combined with data from archaeological field work. The land use in the area gives a quite stable impression from the end of the middle ages to the enlightenment, even though a drastic change in the experienced landscape appeared when the demesne took over the land. In contrast, the medieval hamlet period from the 13th to the mid-16th century show shifts in the land use and movements within the toftland that reflects the dynamics of the medieval period and shifts in agricultural technique.
