Historic Landscape Characterisation: Kobarid, Staro Selo, Drežnica, Ladra.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CATEGORIES
Map 1: Historical Landscape Characterisation (Relict Landscape, 1828)

© Benjamin Štular
Institute of Archaeology, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts

Semi-urban

• Semi-urban 1820: (Semi) urban areas including gardens as mapped on Franciscan Cadastre.
• Industrial: Mining, sand-quarrying, etc.

Field

• Field - other: Fields (i.e. 66% or more fields versus pastures) that cannot be classified.
  Sometimes (the case of Tonvcov grad) may be a relic of pre-medieval fields systems; in that case high rate of historical or relict field boundaries is expected.
• Field - regular: Fields comprised of the best land with rectangular (large and medium cluster) field boundaries; on rugged terrain small clusters with irregular borders may appear . None (or little - probably indicative for 'later' colonisation of less favourable areas) pastures among fields, excellent integration in path/road network as well as field place-names (the place-name includes word 'polje') are indicative. Areas are very often directly adjacent to the settlement. Cluster of fields may have irregular borders as well, particularly small clusters. The area is mapped and described (best land) as such on Franciscan cadastre, most likely still in use, hence a high survival rate of historical boundaries is typical.
  Interpretation: fields (probably) used in the same form since the establishment of the adjacent settlement.
• Field - strips: Large or medium long and narrow fields with regular field boundaries. None or little pasture among fields. The cluster of fields tends to have (at least some) regular borders. The area is mapped as such in 1820s, nowadays most likely used as pastures.
  Interpretation: fields, possibly on medium-quality land, the first common (pastures) to be divided.
• Field - assarted: Mixed field and pastures (up to 50%); pastures (irregular boundaries) surround small patches of field (regular boundaries, possibly divided into strips). Patches of wood and wood place-names are indicative.
  Assarted wood clearance (indicated by irregular boundaries of pastures); assartion is indicative of non-communal activities. Where applicable: probably older than Pasture, Field - assarted on account of better suitability for field-use.
• Field, Pastures - regular: Regular, rectangular (large or medium) or long and narrow (medium sized) fields, mixed with pastures (up to 50%). On rugged terrain the parcels will adjust to geomorphology. The cluster of fields has a tendency towards regular borders as well. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, commonly still used as pastures.
  The distinction from the category Field - regular is the pastures between the fields.
  Interpretation: fields on previously common pastures. The origin of land division is the same as Field - regular and Common - pastures. The land is not as suited for fields as with the former but better, or - more common - closer to the settlement than the former.
• Field, Pasture - irregular: Fields comprised of the best land with regular (large and medium cluster) or irregular (small cluster) field boundaries. Mixed use for fields and pastures (25-66%). Cluster of fields may have irregular borders as well, particularly small clusters. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, nowadays most likely in use as pastures.

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Pastures and Meadows¹

• Pasture - regular: Large or medium pastures with rectangular borders. Some fields (up to 25%) may occur among pastures. On rugged terrain the parcels will adjust to geomorphology. The cluster of fields has a tendency towards regular borders as well. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, most likely still used as pastures.
• Pasture - strips: Medium-sized pastures in narrow strips. Some fields (up to 25%) may occur among pastures. On rugged terrain the parcels will adjust to geomorphology. The cluster of fields has a tendency towards regular borders as well. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, most likely still used as pastures.
• Pasture, Field - piecemeal: Medium or large fields with irregular field boundaries. Mostly pastures (more than 50%) with lower quality fields; wood place-names (Brezje, Hrastje, Dob, Bukovje, Gozd...), remaining patches of wood as well as rugged terrain (depends on the particular environment) are indicative. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, nowadays used as pastures or abandoned (reforestation).
  Interpretation: assarted by wood clearance prior to wood division, therefore the likely date is late-medieval to early post-medieval, definitely prior to 1820s.
• Pasture - assarted: Large irregular parcels of pasture-land, some isolated fields may occur. Commonly found on rugged terrain and surrounded with or incorporating patches of wood. The area is mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre, nowadays most likely reforested.
  Interpretation: wood clearance prior to 1820s. Difference with Pasture - undivided undefined (other than the colour-difference-hence-pasture-quality-difference on Franciscan Cadastre; it seems that the economic value of both was the same since cleared forest is more remote from the settlements).
• Pasture - undivided: Large irregular parcels of pasture-land, marked in pale green on Franciscan cadastre. May include some patches of wood (reforestation). Interpretation: both land-division - or rather the lack of it - and the colouring on the map indicate very poor pastures, probably exploited (if at all) as common. (Patches of wood, where present, may indicate erosion/overgrazing problems in the past that are being gradually overcome in 1820s).

Wood

• Wood - undivided: Marked as wood on Franciscan cadastre; large parcels. Interpretation: wood in existence in 1820s; huge parcels usually indicate large secular or church estate.
• Wood - strips: Wood divided into narrow strips of medium parcels. Mapped as such on Franciscan cadastre. Minor regular-shaped clearances are possible.
  Interpretation: Previously common forest consensually divided (among the "villagers"). Where common wood is scarce these woods are carefully managed as they represent the necessary minimum needed for obtaining the raw materials.
• Wood - reforested 1820: Medium sized parcels of wood with irregular borders. The borders of cluster are typically irregular as well; the cluster typically appears in patches with pastures and/or wood (undivided or common) adjacent.
  Interpretation: wood, that has been cleared by assertion at some point, but was reforested by 1820s. This can be indicative of unsuitability of landscape for other agricultural uses.

Wasteland

• Wasteland: Wasteland (in the real sense of the word), light gray in colour on the Franciscan cadastre indicates very scarce vegetation. Huge, irregular parcels are indicative.
  Where nowadays overgrown with (poor) wood it may be indicative of overgrazing in the past.
• Wasteland - degraded: Degraded to wasteland. Area mapped as poor pasture or wasteland but internally divided with small or medium sized parcels; often, this division is similar to surrounding pastures or woods. This division is a reminiscence of earlier agronomic use and hence of earlier non-wasteland state (most probable chain of events is woodland - pasture - (overgrazing) - wasteland).

Water

Water: : bodies of water.

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¹ HLC methodology doesn't allow to distinguish between the meadows and pastures throughout the entire history of known use, especially since combined use was common in the past. Therefore, we use the term pasture in the sense Pasture and / or Meadow

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