REFLECTIONS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE DANUBETISZA INTERFLUVE REGION

Abstract

The counties of Bács, Bodrog, and Solt are among the counties of the Kingdom of Hungary
which, as the literature review has shown, are relatively poorly researched in terms of
history, geography, and archaeology. All three of these counties were left out of the focus of
historical-geographical studies in the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the case of undeveloped interiors in open areas, remote sensing (satellite imagery,
archive, and contemporary aerial photography, low altitude drone imagery), and the 18–
19. century manuscript maps provide information on the location of medieval settlements.
Settlement structure data can mostly be obtained from satellite and aerial photographs.
Investigations have shown that aerial and satellite images taken during the plowed period
outside the growing season are the most suitable for the study of deserted settlement
morphology. It is important, however, that the streets and houses thus observed indicate
the “maximum” of the inner area of the settlements, that is, the area that has been built for
many decades (and sometimes abandoned). The summary of these is not suitable for
inferring the population and the size of the settlement. However, the main structural
features of the settlement can be deduced by visual analysis. The exact determination of the
settlement morphology also requires field research, during which the topography and other
landscape elements can be examined together. A comparison of the results of the counties
showed that in the north-south direction, in the sample areas of approximately 300 km,
there is a significant difference in the forms of settlement. In Solt County, only the row
settlement type could be observed. To the best of my knowledge, there are no data on the
spindle-shaped or aggregated form. In the area of Bodrog County, the row form is also
predominant, however, there are sporadic data on villages and market towns with a
spindle-shaped layout. Further south, in Bács County, more than half of the settlements have
spindle-shaped forms, and the rest have a row layout