| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper presents an introduction to the study of the medieval communications between Adriatic (Dalmatian) coast and its hinterland. Although these areas are divided by the high mountains, during the Middle Ages they represented united and unique cultural horizon. The roads that led from the Dalmatian towns on the coast (Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split, Dubrovnik) to the hinterland played the key role in the making of that cultural horizon. People and ideas travelled in both ways along with great quantities of the most diverse trade goods. Some of the above mentioned roads were built during the Roman Empire, in the first decades of the 1st century. Most of them were still in use during the Middle Ages, but in that period some new roads were built as well. The written sources about those communications are kept in the archives of the Dalmatian coastal towns while material evidences and archaeological remains can still be found in the highlands.
Paper -b:
The aim of this project is to use the spatial analysis and the aerial photos for the reconstruction of the ancient roads, in particular medieval roads. As a first step, we created a Digital Terrain Model, consisting in a series of variables, that recreate the ancient landscape and simulate the environmental conditions. In order to rebuild the medieval roads we applied the cost surface analysis on this digital model. As a second step, we analyzed a high number of vertical aerial photos, in order to find possible anomalies in the computer reconstructed road. When it was not possible to use the aerial photos, because of the particular type of soil, we compared the computer reconstructed roads with the ones marked out in the historical maps and cartography.
Paper -c:
As can be seen in my forthcoming BAR volume, charters are vital sources for the study of travel and communications in late Saxon Wessex. Witness lists give indications of the size of meetings. Boundary clauses illuminate the routes themselves. Charters include references to hospitality and duties relating to the movement of goods and people. However, some charters seemingly relevant to my work are spurious. This leads to questions about what one can do with the material in them. This paper will explore such problems and discuss how we, as early medieval historians, ought to use spurious charters.
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