Original scientific paper
Typology of the Medieval Urban Settlements in the Lower Drava-Sava Interamnium
Danijel Jelaš
; State Archive in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
The paper discusses the issue of typology of the medieval urban settlements in the lower interamnium of Drava and Sava. Historiographical research of the subject in Hungary and Croatia has yielded two basic approaches towards the typology of the medieval urban settlements in Pannonian basin. The first is mainly based on legal and terminological criteria according to medieval and early modern tradition of simply dividing the urban settlements into two basic categories: cities and towns. The main problem with the traditional approach is its simplicity that does not enable a more precise division of settlements. Also, there is a huge problem of legal and terminological inconsistency in the medieval resources, which often makes it very difficult to differentiate between the two basic types. Clearly, a combination of different criteria, such as terminology, legal status, social development, and the development of various central functions, is necessary for the basic division. Recently, historians such as Neven Budak and András Kubinyi have developed more complex models of dividing the urban settlements based on their central functions into several types. The advantages of such models lie in possibilities to develop a typology that is more precise than the traditional one. A complex typology allows implementation of other methods, for example implementation of Chistaller’s graphical and mathematical model of central places. These models, on the other hand, require a thorough research of a great number of historical resources, and it takes a lot of time to collect and process the relevant data. Another possible disadvantage of these models may be their complexity, because not all the researches on urban history require an elaborate typology. The model proposed in this paper is somewhat simpler than the aforesaid two because it defines only three types of urban settlements (cities, towns and emerging towns), which is not that different form the traditional division. Still, it is based on various indicators of urban development, which makes this model a step forward from the traditional approach.
Keywords
city; town; civitas; oppidum; typology; terminology; Lower Interamnium
Hrčak ID:
105329
URI
Publication date:
8.7.2013.
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