Session details
Organizer(s)
Niels Petersen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
Keywords
Transport, Network, Ancient Roads
Abstract
The specialist session addresses the lack of research in the field of pre-modern traffic infrastructure. Traffic can be interpreted as movement within a network, with settlements being the nodes and connecting routes the edges. This approach should foster new insights into the dynamic movement of information, persons and goods over time. This session shall focus on different aspects of the interrelations between the city as origin and destination of movement in the network, as settlement, as market or at the same time as obstacle for free movement and the road and river network that defined the speed and path of movement and communication. What was first? Settlement or pathway? And how then did the city shape and change the road (and river) network according to its needs? Soft factors shaping the network might include the agency of urban groups that define the very manifold and different needs for traffic infrastructure without an urban economy could not survive, for example staple rights, markets, toll stations or routes of conduct. And finally: Which role do the physical aspects play, most prominently the terrain, harbour and market infrastructure? Different methods can be applied for the analysis, from traditional approaches of historical research to digital analysis of movement and network, normally GIS, or questions of usage and conception of this traffic network.
Papers from all pre-modern epochs are welcome as the main focus of this session is to identify methods of analysis and get to know current mapping projects.
Papers
Staple Markets, Fairs and Tolls as Nodes in the Premodern Transport Network
Author(s)
Bart Holterman (University of Göttingen)
Keywords
Staple Markets, Fairs, Tolls
Abstract
Apart from the road and waterway system itself, there are three factors which should be taken into account for a correct estimation of commercial pre-modern travel routes, times and costs: namely staples, fairs and tolls. First, the many cities with staple markets would force travelling merchants to pass through the city and stay for a couple of days to offer their commodities on the local market. They might also be forced to transfer their commodities to a different vehicle or vessel in order to respect the privileges of the local transportation entrepreneurs. Second, annually organised fairs were the backbone of the long-distance exchange system and added a temporal dynamic to the transportation networks. Lastly, the many land and river tolls were defining for the transaction costs of transport and could therefore be defining for the choice between one route or another. The toll system was further complicated by the often fractioned nature of the political landscape and the importance of toll incomes for the princely states. This paper will address the question how to incorporate these factors in a digital map of the premodern transport network. It will look at their possibilities and challenges in terms of gaps in the historical sources, temporal dynamics and the implications for applying models of least-cost path analysis.
Life on the Road – Medieval Travelling Needs as Reflected in Traffic Infrastructure
Author(s)
Maria Carina Dengg (Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg)
Keywords
Medieval Travelling, Road-related Infrastructure, Route Formation
Abstract
The data gathered in the viabundus project provides an ample basis for researching primary and secondary trading connections. Via the tool of network analysis, major trading nodes and travelling edges may be identified, and others can be found which may have been unknown or less widely recognized up until now.
Assuming the fastest connection between two trading points to automatically be the travelling route between the two however, seems to oversimplify the formation of routes: Not only are travel routes dependent on geographical prerequisites, but also on political landscapes and have to fulfill the needs of the actors on the road. Such needs include supply, accomodation and safety, but also spiritual and religious needs cannot be ignored. Depending on the fulfillment of such needs, different travel routes may have been chosen. It is therefore important to first identify such needs and then understand in which way they were fulfilled along the medieval road – and which facilities were equipped to do so. In this context, castles, monasteries, chapels and inns need to be (re-)considered. It may also be a legit question whether the term "infrastructure" is applicable for pre-modern times and what it might have entailed compared to today.
By taking a closer look at road-related infrastructure it will therefore be easier to understand mediveal travel, the preaparation and fears connected with travelling and contemporary life on the road.
Medieval and Early Modern roads in Finland –Aspects of Seasonality and Seasons in the Logistics of Travelling and Transport in the North
Author(s)
Tapio Salminen (Tampere University)
Keywords
History of Roads, Finland, Seasonality
Abstract
Traditionally much of the interest on late medieval and early modern roads and routes in Finland has focused on two themes which have captured the interest of both historians and archaeologists on the matter. The first one is the old theory on the importance of water-based routes in inland long-distance travelling and transport, where older national romantic conceptions on the hegemony of waterways over roads were only abandoned as late as in the 1980’s. Today, a more balanced view over various needs, motives and means in past travelling and transport is suggested, and the studies emphasize the society’s adaptation to seasons and seasonally organised economic, social, and cultural activities which in turn produced different manifestations of roads and means of transport in different seasons and for different uses. The second mainstream problem has been the emerging of deliberately maintained common roads in Finland, where the organisation of roads and transport systems have been studied from the point of view of coercive authority, administration, and economy. In the paper both the aspects will be discussed from the point of view of seasonality and seasons, a feature essentially characteristic for the logistics of travelling and transport in medieval and early modern Finland. How did the local and transregional authority, administration, and economy adapt and make use of the variation between the winter and summer conditions set by the environment for different kinds of activities in transport? What kind of source material we have on this? The presentation also gives a short introduction to the project Viabundus Finland 1350-1650 launched in 2022.