R.J. VAN LANEN1 | B.J. GROENEWOUDT2
(1Utrecht University, the Netherlands / 2Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, The Netherlands)
Abstract:
Routes should not be regarded as straightforward, simple connections between individual settlements. Routes link settlements on a variety of scales (e.g. local, regional, supraregional), and form the connection between cultivated and uncultivated landscapes. Therefore route networks are the product of, and are influenced by both cultural and landscape dynamics. In order to fully understand the complex interaction between settlements and landscape dynamics route networks are key.
This study for the first time investigates the stability of route networks in the Netherlands, by determining their persistence through time. Environmental, archaeological and historical data are used to reconstruct and compare route networks in the past. By using network friction, archaeological data on settlement patterns, route networks and old maps we were able to model route-network persistence (not necessarily continuity) from the Roman to early-medieval periods and from the Early Middle Ages to early-post medieval period.
Results show that around 67.6% of the early-medieval routes in the Netherlands are persistent with routes in the Roman period. Covering a much larger surface area of the Netherlands, 24.5% of the early-post medieval routes show a clear persistence with early-medieval counterparts. Besides the differences in surface area, this downfall can largely be explained by cultural dynamics, with 71.4% of the EPM-route network following early-medieval movement corridors.
Keywords: Early Middle Ages, Roman Period, Early-Post Medieval Period, Historical Routes, Geographical Information Systems, Route Persistence