image/svg+xml103XI/1/2020INTERDISCIPLINARIA ARCHAEOLOGICANATURAL SCIENCES IN ARCHAEOLOGYhomepage: http://www.iansa.euSoil Chemistry to Support Old Map Analysis of the Built-up Area of an Abandoned Settlement. Case Study from the Romanian BanatMarkéta Šantrůčkováa*, Jan Horákb, Václav FantabaSilva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Květnové náměstí 391, 252 43 Průhonice, Czech RepublicbFaculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Prague 6 – Suchdol, Czech Republic1. IntroductionThe landscape is still changing, and many authors (Antrop, 2005; Dossche et al., 2016; Wulf et al., 2016) have stressed that landscape changes in Europe have accelerated from the end of the 18thcentury. Landscape studies focused on land use and land cover changes have a tradition in all parts of Europe (Jepsen et al., 2015; Kuemmerle et al., 2016), as well as in selected regions and land categories (Forejt et al., 2017; Skaloš et al., 2011; Šantrůčková et al., 2015; Wulf et al., 2016). The Romanian mountains seem to be a stable area in macroscopic analyses on a European scale (Jepsen et al., 2015; Kuemmerle et al., 2016), but important settlement and land use/land cover changes have occurred there since the nineteenth century (Cepraga, 2014; Romportl et al., 2014; Šantrůčková, Fanta, 2014; Kovář et al., 2019). These changes were connected with the resettlement of Romanian mountains at the beginning of the nineteenth century, which caused an intensifcation of agriculture and mining activities (Šantrůčková, Klvač, 2014). On the other hand, the Romanian mountains are still one of the hotspots of the traditional cultural landscape in Europe due to their isolation, geographical conditions and ethnographical diversity (Solymosi, 2011). The study of the frst settlement activities and landscape changes at the beginning of the nineteenth century requires the combining of diferent sources and methods. Our paper proposes the combination of geochemical methods used by environmental archaeology with the study of cartographical sources and old grey literature.The relationship between human settlement activities and the soil part of the biosphere has been intensively studied over the decades, which has introduced a wide spectrum of topics: the infuence of the soils on the placement of human activities in the landscape; the interaction between human activities and the soils; the role of soils as one of the basic archives of archaeological evidence; and the role of human activities as a pedogenic factor (Bork et al., 1998; Walkington, 2010; Fanta et al., 2018). Nevertheless, there are also incentives for a more comprehensive research, as many projects are still focused on either an historical or a Volume XI ● Issue 1/2020 ● Pages 103–115*Corresponding author. E-mail: santruckova@vukoz.czARTICLE INFOArticle history:Received: 23rdMay 2019Accepted: 8thJune 2020DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2020.1.8Key words:multi-element analysisXRFGIS interpolationsettlement developmentold mapsabandoned villageABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the combination of geochemical methods and old map analysis to study landscape and settlement development. It is well known that historical land use of abandoned rural settlements afects soil chemistry and vegetation composition. We wanted to fnd out whether it is possible to distinguish various historical land uses when we know the current chemical composition of the soil; in particular, whether it is possible to recognize the presence of an abandoned village. Geochemical measurement was combined with old maps and grey literature analysis. The model area in the Romanian Banat Mountains is well documented by preserved old maps and is even documented by a land allocation plan from the beginning of the 19thcentury colonization. This unique document was compared with other old maps, and the spatial development of the rural settlement in the Romanian Banat was analysed. The geochemical methods revealed interpretable patterns, but in situations of little-known historical context (we do not know which households were really inhabited); the use of other supporting methods (archaeological topography, geophysics) is recommended.
image/svg+xmlIANSA 2020 ● XI/1 ● 103–115Markéta Šantrůčková, Jan Horák, Václav Fanta: Soil Chemistry to Support Old Map Analysis of the Built-up Area of an Abandoned Settlement. Case Study from the Romanian Banat104natural perspective, without the two perspectives being brought together. For example, Rainer Schreg (2014) writes about the need to use an ecological approach in landscape archaeology, where the traditional approaches typically aim only at the reconstruction of the environment. We see the topic from another side: a lack of archaeological and paleoenvironmental methods being combined with purely historical topics – and with medieval and modern periods (at least in the central European area, where environmental archaeology chiefy researches prehistoric times).Soils at archaeological sites are studied in many ways: macroscopically (Kristiansen, 2001); micromorphologically; and geochemically. Some studies have focused on using phosphorus (Holliday, Gartner, 2007), and other studies have focused on using multi-element analyses. These analyses have mostly focused only on the diferentiation of basic archaeological features (houses, felds, hearths, etc.), on the verifcation of human activities, and on analysing the spatial distribution of these activities (Davidson et al., 2007; Nielsen, Kristiansen, 2014; Roos, Nolan, 2012). The topic of the spatial extent of particular activities (e.g.manuring) or land-use types (arable feld, pastures, meadows, gardens) has also been studied (Entwistle et al., 1998; Entwistle et al., 2000; Salisbury, 2013). A study coming from Romania (Pîrnău et al., 2020) has also been published.It is well known that historical land use of abandoned rural settlements afects soil chemistry and vegetation composition, even over the long term (Hejcman et al., 2013; Hejcman et al., 2013; Součková et al., 2013). Therefore, our question was whether it is possible to distinguish various historical land uses if we know the current chemical composition of the soil; in particular, whether it is possible to recognize the presence of an abandoned village. The present study focused on the settlement development of Eibenthal village in the Romanian Banat, which was colonized in the 1820s by Czech inhabitants. This village was selected to be a model area because the village history is well documented by preserved old maps (even by a land allocation plan from the beginning of this colonization). Moreover, the story of recolonization, place translations and shifts are typical for many settlements in such history (Hill, 2013; Klápště, 2012).Our aims were the following: 1) to determine if the Eibenthal settlement was realized to the full extent as recorded on old maps and 2) to determine how this question can be answered using spatial analysis of geochemical patterns. To sum up, we want to examine whether simple geochemical analysis can be helpful for the historical geographical research on abandoned settlements and what are the limitations of this approach.Figure 1.Location of the study area and Eibenthal village. Map sources: ESRI, Word (2017), Romanian topographic map 1:25 000 (probably 1970s).