Ladislav Čapek
I am lecturer (assistant of professor) in medieval archaeology, specialising in the medieval archaeology, urbanism, material culture and settlement patterns. I deal with several research topics: material culture assessment and its social-economic interpretations (especially medieval and post-medieval pottery and additionally other items made of metal and glass), pottery technology and using in its live cycles (in châine opératoire perspective), formative and post-depositional processes of archaeological records through quantitative and statistical analysis of artefacts (in behavioral archaeology framework), comparative study of urbanism and communal infrastructure (waste management) between medieval cities and medieval rural settlement in woodland environment (non-destructive survey of deserted villages and using test-pits excavation in South Bohemia, LiDAR data processing).
I am currently the leader of project NAKI II: Late medieval pottery as part of movable cultural heritage (2018-2021), supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Address: Department of Archaeology
Faculty of Philosophy and Arts
University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
Sedláčkova 38, 306 14 Pilsen
Czech Republic
I am currently the leader of project NAKI II: Late medieval pottery as part of movable cultural heritage (2018-2021), supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.
Address: Department of Archaeology
Faculty of Philosophy and Arts
University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
Sedláčkova 38, 306 14 Pilsen
Czech Republic
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investment in production.
associated in Czech historiography with the ‘Crisis of the
Late Medieval Period’ and characterized by depopulation,
abandonment, and economic decline, which is recorded
in several land registers and archaeological evidence
of deserted medieval villages. In the post-medieval
period, significant changes in the rural milieu took
place. A phenomenon of the sixteenth century was a
decrease in the income from peasant tenancy rents,
while the interest of landlords in the economic use of
their estates was gradually strengthened. The lords in
southern Bohemia established the structures of demesne
lordship (Gutsherrschaft) that played an essential role in the
agricultural revolution and economic boom of the sixteenth
century. The main sectors of demesne lordship were
beer production, fish farming, and manorial farms. In the
sixteenth century, there was a peculiar symbiosis between
the economic activities of the landlords and peasants, who
participated in commercialized production for markets. The
revenues of the manorial economy were invested in the
reconstruction of manor houses, residences, and also in
the self-representation of the aristocratic courts. Individual
structures of demesne lordship shaped the formation of the
early modern (Renaissance) landscape.
Online publication is not possible due to Brepols publishing restrictions
Complete article available from the author
The complete book available on https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503597058-1
investment in production.
associated in Czech historiography with the ‘Crisis of the
Late Medieval Period’ and characterized by depopulation,
abandonment, and economic decline, which is recorded
in several land registers and archaeological evidence
of deserted medieval villages. In the post-medieval
period, significant changes in the rural milieu took
place. A phenomenon of the sixteenth century was a
decrease in the income from peasant tenancy rents,
while the interest of landlords in the economic use of
their estates was gradually strengthened. The lords in
southern Bohemia established the structures of demesne
lordship (Gutsherrschaft) that played an essential role in the
agricultural revolution and economic boom of the sixteenth
century. The main sectors of demesne lordship were
beer production, fish farming, and manorial farms. In the
sixteenth century, there was a peculiar symbiosis between
the economic activities of the landlords and peasants, who
participated in commercialized production for markets. The
revenues of the manorial economy were invested in the
reconstruction of manor houses, residences, and also in
the self-representation of the aristocratic courts. Individual
structures of demesne lordship shaped the formation of the
early modern (Renaissance) landscape.
Online publication is not possible due to Brepols publishing restrictions
Complete article available from the author
The complete book available on https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503597058-1
This contribution charts the sixty years of the systematic study of pottery of the high and late Middle Ages in Bohemia, and introduces the basic subjects and methods developed along with the progress of archaeology of the late Middle Ages. Medieval pottery involving the most widespread artefacts and various approaches to their study illustrate the development of Czech archaeology of the late Middle Ages influenced by contemporaneous archaeological paradigms, and initially also by ideological concepts associated with Marxist historiography. The history of the study of pottery of the high and late Middle Ages can be divided into five main areas: the antiquarian period and the beginnings of study; the typological phase; further development of the typological study focused on regional sequences of pottery, and the present, ongoing contextual phase with emphasis on a more comprehensive approach to the study and more profound socio-economic issues. A similar trend in the development of the study of medieval pottery can be observed in west-European countries. In the paper the development is also demonstrated on the basis of the critical assessment of studies dedicated to pottery of the high and late Middle Ages published in two leading specialist Czech periodicals, Archeologické rozhledy and Archaeologia historica.
(Kámen) aus der Sicht der Archäologie
Das Ziel des Beitrags ist es, die archäologischen Funde aus der unweit Blovice (Katastralamt Měcholupy) liegenden Lokalität Velká skála (Kámen) – Großer Felsen (Stein) – auszuwerten. Die ältesten festgestellten Funde kommen aus dem Zeitalter der Chamer Kultur. Das äneolithische Fundgut enthält eine Kollektion
durch Besenstrich verzierter keramischer Bruchstücke, weiter wurde Verzierung durch Ritzlinien in Form
von Bändern und Dreiecken festgestellt, dann auch durchbrochene plastische Leisten und Bänder mit
V-Profil. Unter die steinernen Artefakte sind ein Schleifstein und Quetschstein und zwei gekantete Äxte aus grünem Spilit einzureihen. Eine neue Feststellung ist die Anwesenheit von Besiedlung von Velká skála im Zeitalter der jüngeren Urzeit, konkret in der Bronze- und Hallstattzeit. Während der Untersuchung wurde
auch ein kleiner Satz mittelalterlicher Keramik gewonnen; die Keramik ist es möglich ins Spätmittelalter
zu datieren. Einige Bruchstücke sind aber bereits ins 13. Jh. einzureihen. Interessant ist das Vorkommen
von Graphittonkeramik, die ein Hervordringen aus der Region Südböhmen darstellt. Neben der Keramik
wurden kleine eiserne Gegenstände (Hufeisen- und Nagelbruchteile) und einige Schlacken gefunden, die
die Eisenproduktion (Eisenverhüttung) in der Region belegen können; ihr Vorkommen in einer so exponierten
Lage ist verhältnismäßig überraschend. Die Funde mittelalterlicher Artefakte belegen, dass die
Lokalität Velká skála auch im Mittelalter zu gelegentlichen Aktivitäten und Besiedlung (?) genutzt wurde.
in the historical landscape archaeology, for example in the research
and documentation of deserted Medieval villages in forested
landscape. In this study attention is paid on the woodland
area north of the České Budějovice district in South Bohemia,
where there have been documented several of deserted Medieval
villages that belonged in the Middle Ages to the estate of
Hluboká caste. During documentation of the settlement forms
and wider rural hinterland the LiDAR data has been extensively
used, provided for this purposes by the the Czech State Administration
of Land Surveying and Cadastre (ČÚZK) in the form
of so-called Digital Terrain Model of the 5th generation (DMR
5G). For representation of digital terrain models visualisation
methods were used offered by the open-source program Relief
Visualisation Toolbox – RVT, such as Hillshading from multiple
direction and Anisotropic Sky-view Factor. Both visualisations
have proved suitable for studying village forms and their hinterland.
For the interpolation of digital elevation/terrain models
and investigating the topography of settlement in landscape
relief also used the Surfer program has been used with hillshading
and three-dimensional visualisation.
LiDAR data are a palimpsest which contains traces of past
human activities that have been deciphered and interpreted
thanks to the use of appropriate visualisation methods and surface
surveys. Outputs from LiDAR data were used in verification
of anthropogenic relief formations that have been previously
mapped by non-destructive research; during surface survey
several other new relief formations and patterns have been
identified – e.g., field system, hollow way bundles, mining areas
and enclosure of a manorial farm.
archaeological objects (contexts) in urban-built environment.
A preliminary model based on the study of medieval urban refuse areas was tested through archaeological method. Handling with refuse may be regarded as an activity or event that is caused by both intentional and non-intentional behavior of the population
occupying the medieval towns. Differences in diverse refuse handling may be identified by evidence (in terms of behavioral archaeology of inferences) in the structure of artifacts deposited within archaeological contexts and their functional differentiation.
The processes of refuse deposition in archaeological context are managed through a series of cultural formation processes and behavioral activities such as loss, removal, storage, rejection, leaving, abandonment etc. Variety of categories of refuse areas was characterized in the paper – primary, secondary, tertiary and de facto according to M. B. Schiffer and other authors that have
specific inferences in the types of archaeological contexts and in the structure of pottery deposited in them. Tested were mainly formal, spatial and chronological dimensions of refuse areas. The basic premise was based on the assumption that the individual refuse areas may be distinguished through qualitative and quantitative properties of pottery assemblages using the descriptors closely related to the formation and postdeposition
process, so-called postsystems descriptors. Outline of the model of formation and postdepositional process in urban stratigraphy
was tested on the case study of the analysis of medieval pottery from the 13th – 15th century from two original medieval town plots A and B in the court of a nowadays town hall on the square of Premysl Otakar II. in České Budějovice. Differences in the structure of pottery assemblages within functionally distinct
archaeological contexts were identified through the study of entropy, fragmentation and diversity of pottery deposited in them. The synthetic model for distinguishing between structures of different categories of refuse areas was based on hypothesis testing using multidimensional statistical methods of factor and cluster analysis. Different categories of mainly secondary and tertiary refuse areas on the medieval town plots were identified
through these methods. Knowledge about formation process of pottery assemblages and their diversity and fragmentation allowed creation of a chronological model of development of medieval
pottery based on independent interaction of chronologically sensitive morphological and technological elements – rims – fabric – decoration in relation to its archaeological contexts using statistical methods of seriation and correspondence analysis.
We were able to reconstruct spatial development of medieval town-plots in six phases of municipal settlement from the beginning of foundation of the town after the year 1265 up to the end in the 15th century on the basis of the knowledge of ways of
refuse handling and its distribution. In connection with evaluation of dynamics of formation and postdepositional processes it was possible to date and interpret various stratigraphic processes reliably involved in the formation of layers and fills of features and outline possible genealogy practices, activities and events in the different phases of medieval settlement on both town plots. Individual residential and occupational phases are characterized by the action of specific stratigraphic processes and events such as
rising, cutting, storing, adding, removing, cleaning and leveling in relation to the social and economic behavior of inhabitants of medieval town-plots and their culture transformation of the built environment. It was possible to make a general concept of the behavioral and socio-economical activities and events that took place on urban town-plots in the courtyard of the nowadays town hall in České Budějovice in various phases of urban medieval settlement during the period of 13th and 15th century on the basis of the analysis and evaluation of stratigraphic dates.
– 16th/17th century) based on the comparative study of selected ceramic assemblages from urban and rural households. The issues concerning the function of Early Modern pottery will be also discussed.