| title: | Possible influence of landscape on the "regular" planning of the German colonists' town: an example of New-Pernau |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5979 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
6.1. History (incl. Archeology) |
| status: | accepted |
| institution: | Pärnu Museum |
| head of project: | Aldur Vunk |
| duration: | 01.01.2004 - 31.12.2006 |
| description: | There is one of the most important research questions how the towns in Estonia are constructed and developed in early stages. It is not under discussion that the foundation of the towns or formation of pre-urban settlements to the trade towns took place in the 13th and 14th cc. in Estonia in connection to the colonization of Old-Livonia. And it is more often researches found traditions and skills imported from the Northern part of Western Europe used in the constructing towns than the natural conditions or local dissimilarities. Despite the roots and nationality of settlers of the towns on the Slavic and Baltic areas was traditionally and important question after the II WW. The aim of this project is to make the developing process of the colonists' urban settlement, as well the origin of material culture, more clear for us. The aim of project is to find out the influence of real conditions (e.g landscape, climate, etc) to principles of forming the medieval trade town (Pärnu) and to falsify the theory of town planning. Hypothesis is, that the urban settlement of Pärnu, constructed in the end of 13th century was developed to the town with regular checkerboard of streets only in the 15-16th cc. (It was not planned this way from beginning). And to describe the evolution and changing topography Estonian hanseatic town in the Middle Ages, up to the 16th century. The method is to collect and to summarize the data of excavations, to systematize the dating of mediaeval buildings and pavements and to create the model describing the evolution of mediaeval Pärnu. And to compare the preliminary results to data from other mediaeval trade towns, erected on the similar base (on sand drifts). In addition to dating the buildings using unearthed artifacts, it's possible to use the geological methods e.g ground penetrating radar (GPR) and earth boring because of good results using them in surveys so far. As well the written sources survived mostly from the 16th century to make clearer the different functions of town parts in the final stage of the evolution of the mediaeval town. The final result is the publishing of the monograph in the 2006 describing the results of the surveys and the research topics. It must be possible to compare the project thesis to the results of research the colonists' towns' topography in Eastern or Western Europe. The project is the direct way to falsify one of the oldest theories about constructing colonists' towns. |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Inna Jürjo | Ajaloo Instituut | teadur | |
| 2. | Erki Russow | Ajaloo Instituut | teadur | |
| 3. | Aldur Vunk | Pärnu Museum | Director of the Museum of Pärnu | |