Why did enduring traditions of economic and political liberty emerge in Western Europe and not elsewhere? Representative democracy, constitutionalism, and the rule of law are crucial for establishing ...a just and prosperous society, which we usually treat as the fruits of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, as Western European societies put the Dark Ages behind them. In The Medieval Constitution of Liberty, Salter and Young point instead to the constitutional order that characterized the High Middle Ages. They provide a historical account of how this constitutional order evolved following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This account runs from the settlements of militarized Germanic elites within the imperial frontiers, to the host of successor kingdoms in the sixth and seventh centuries, and through the short-lived Carolingian empire of the late eighth and ninth centuries and the so-called “feudal anarchy” that followed its demise. Given this unique historical backdrop, Salter and Young consider the resulting structures of political property rights. They argue that the historical reality approximated a constitutional ideal type, which they term polycentric sovereignty. Salter and Young provide a theoretical analysis of polycentric sovereignty, arguing that bargains between political property rights holders within that sort of constitutional order will lead to improvements in governance.
Taking documents 19 and 47 as a starting point, other information from Lorvão’s cartulary is analysed, as well as certain silences and falsified data. Based on the suggestion that there is a ...complementarity between registers 19 and 33, it is concluded that the (re)founder of the monastery was the rebellious prince Bermudo Ordonhes. Both the Asturian type of the east end of the high-medieval basilica, discovered in 1984, and the style of the only surviving sculptural frieze, reminiscent of the art found in the diocese of Coimbra during the 9th century and early 10th century, contribute to support this proposal.
•Relicts of medieval landscape were identified using LiDAR survey.•Compositional analysis of geochemical data enabled to determine anthropogenic activities.•Medieval impact in a marginal landscape ...was connected to agricultural and industrial activities.•Past human activities can best be understood by linking archaeology and the soil sciences.
This study presents the results of a multi-element and multivariate geochemical analysis of a deserted medieval settlement and its agricultural landscape, including a monastic (Cistercian) manorial farm, situated in the Czech Republic. We used LiDAR survey and historic maps to detect relict landscape features and identify past changes in land use-patterns. Comparing archaeological evidence and soil chemistry, we found that geochemical signals - derived from samples collected in the courtyard of the farm and in the surrounding area and processed by PCA on log-transformed and isometrically log-transformed data - responded to different agricultural activities, which could be linked to the farm and - more broadly - to current and past land-uses. The results generally illuminate the environmental impact of monastic settlement in a marginal landscape, with regard to different economic activities, and the study also demonstrates that this type of analysis allows tracing anthropogenic and natural phenomena over a wider area, beyond the limits of the more narrowly defined archaeological site.
•Pb is an excellent indicator of land-use change over the last hundred years.•The location of the medieval settlement is characterized by anthropogenic soils contaminated in recent times with ...Cu.•Archaeological phenomena were noticeable through P, Ca, Mn, and Zn, and representing economic/settlement activities.•LiDAR images revealed that there are similar sites situated in the woodland area consisting of anthropologically enriched soils.
This study presents the results of a geochemical and LiDAR survey analysis carried out at the deserted medieval settlement and fortified manorial farm (motte-and-bailey) in Čečín, in Czechia (Western Bohemia, Plzeň-North District). Focusing on the site of the medieval fortification and surrounding areas, different techniques of compositional data analysis have been used in order to detect geochemical signals. The most significant anthropogenic signal was picked up within the area of the fortification itself (i.e. the motte, elements P, Ca, Mn, and Zn); in contrast to this, samples from other areas – part of the bailey/manor, and the nearby fields and forest – did return weaker, or no such signals, as was documented by individual elemental concentrations, and by the results of PCA. The analysis of historical topographical, cartographical and LiDAR data points to continuity in the economic use of the area in medieval and post-medieval times and to the possibly marginal, or secondary role of arable management at this site. One may hypothetically argue that geochemical observations (i.e. the relatively less significant enrichment and concentration of anthropogenic elements at Čečín, compared to other sites) may also substantiate the claim, or interpretation that this landscape, in the vicinity of the manor, was less impacted by farming and fertilization, and its economic functions were other than crop farming (e.g. meadow, pasture, orchard). There have been a few similar sites (i.e. fortified manorial farms) identified in the LiDAR survey of the estate of the Plasy monastery, in the woodland area and in the woodland edge zone, which have been/are currently used as meadows, in the vicinity of hunting lodges. Their historical role – as medieval manorial sites – likely contribute to the fact that they appear now, in geochemical surveys, as ‘fertile’ islands surrounded by temperate forests.
El texto de las denominadas Fórmulas Visigóticas se nos ha conservado únicamente a través de la copia que en el siglo XVI realizara Ambrosio de Morales, quien anotó algunas glosas a modo de ...comentarios sobre sus fuentes que nos pueden ayudar a entender cuáles pudieron ser los códices que sirvieron de modelo para establecer el contenido definitivo que conocemos en la actualidad. A pesar de las dudas que puede ofrecer dicha tradición textual, se ha intentado rastrear, a partir de algunos ejemplos, la proyección que dicho formulario de contenido jurídico y diplomático tuvo en la documentación hispánica del siglo XI, con la intención de apuntalar su uso durante la Alta Edad Media.
Srednjovjekovna utvrda Krčingrad nalazi se na šumovitom poluotoku između Kozjačkoga i Gradinskoga jezera u sklopu Nacionalnoga parka Plitvička jezera. Dosadašnja arheološka istraživanja potvrdila su ...da su danas vidljivi ostaci građeni na prijelazu 13. u 14. stoljeće, a široka kontekstualizacija sačuvanih povijesnih izvora ukazala je na to da su ga vrlo vjerojatno izgradili knezovi Babonići da bi zaštitili ulaz na prostor svoje političke i gospodarske domene. Krčingrad se nalazio na vrlo važnom prometnom pravcu koji je, prolazeći prostorom današnjih Plitvičkih jezera, spajao područja srednjovjekovne Drežničke i Krbavske, tj. Ličke županije. U radu se propitkuje teza Emilija Laszowskog da je Krčingrad bio prvobitno središte srednjovjekovne Drežničke županije, analizirajući pritom dosadašnja mišljenja u historiografskoj literaturi, kao i razmatrajući sačuvana srednjovjekovna pisana vrela, ali i različita kasnija svjedočanstva, te promatrajući geostratešku važnost plitvičkoga prostora u razvijenom srednjem vijeku kroz spektar središnjih funkcija nekoga naselja.
The medieval fortress of Krčingrad is situated on a wooded peninsula between the Kozjačko and Gradinsko lakes, within the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Archaeological investigations conducted so far have confirmed that the visible remains of the fortress date back to the late 13th or early 14th century, while a broad contextualization of the preserved written sources suggests that it was most likely built by the Babonić Counts to protect the entrance to their political and economic domain. Krčingrad occupied a strategic position along a significant traffic route that, transversing the Plitvice Lakes area, connected the territories of medieval Drežnik and Krbava Counties with Lika County. The paper explores Emilij Laszowski's hypothesis that Krčingrad was the original centre of the medieval Drežnik County, analysing the previous opinions expressed in historiographical literature while also taking into account medieval written sources, various later testimonies, and an assessment of the geostrategic importance of the Plitvice area during the High Middle Ages through the spectrum of the central functions of a settlement.
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