| description: |
The project deals with the questions of central places, territorial division and communication in Southern Estonia in the final period of the Iron Age (11th - early 13th centuries). The starting point are the hill-forts which will be studied considering the general settlement pattern, natural borders and geographical conditions. The primary aim is to identify, which of the hill-forts were in use in the final centuries of the Iron Age - the existing data are most incomplete. On the basis of the distribution of archaeological monuments, attempts will be made to define the hinterlands of hill-forts, the borders of Late Iron Age settlement areas and larger administrative units. The project studies also the questions of power (the continuity of power centres at transition from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages; relations of medieval parish centres with the archaeological monuments of the Late Iron Age). On the basis of archaeological sites and historical maps attempts will be made to re-construct the Late Iron Age road network of Southern Estonia and to study the genesis of main roads, reflected on the maps of the 17th and 18th centuries. Also the question of transition from water roads to land-roads as main routes of communication will be studied. As source material, the database of place-related archaeological information of Estonia which is being composed at the Unversity of Tartu will be used. Also the cultural and ethnocultural aspects of power areas and communication will be considered. |