Annotation

The objective of this work is to inform you about our current research focused on construction of settlement structures in hinterland of Early Medieval stronghold in Mikulčice. The main principle of research is the analysis of the relationship between formal archaeological data and the respective geographic space. An important step is archaeological predictive modelling and testing of models created by inserting new data. The starting point is the first general model – definition of hypotheses that are to be tested. The second step is creation of the first preliminary model. The model is tested in two steps: in the first phase, the field research within defined microregions concentrates on areas with lower density of components; in the second phase, the field research concentrates especially on the areas that are optimal for Early Medieval settlements in terms of natural conditions. The aim of the research in define territory is to (re)construct the settlement forms and structures and study the development of the settlement system. The basic issues I will focus on in this work are as follows: A) empirical observation of the phenomena – quantification of the functional elements of the settlement structure at the level of the inanimate units of the archaeological culture; B) analysis of the phenomena as inanimate units of the archaeological culture – following the development of the relationship between the functional elements of the settlement structure and selected individual environmental variables and understanding the boundaries of the historical settlement complexes; C) interpretation in terms of live culture and historical society – (re)construction of the settlement pattern, understanding how the settlement structure reacted to cultural, political, and economic changes and exploration of the mental patterns in the settlement structure – the effect of cultural, political, and economic changes on symbolic aspects of the landscape.