Is Historical Cartography a Useful Tool for Landscape Analysis? A Perspective from Inland Spain (Zorita de los Canes, Guadalajara) from the Middle Ages to the Present

Pilar Diarte-Blasco () and Manuel Castro-Priego
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Pilar Diarte-Blasco: Department of Archaeology and Social Processes, Institute of History, Spanish National Research Council, C/Albasanz, 26, 28037 Madrid, Spain
Manuel Castro-Priego: Department of History I and Philosophy, Alcalá University, C/Trinidad, 1, 28801 Alcala de Henares, Spain

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Historical cartography continues to be an essential resource in developing strategies for the analysis of anthropised landscapes. In recent years, the digitisation and conversion of a large number of pre-20th-century maps to modern geographic coordinate systems and data hierarchisation in GIS-integrated databases have opened up huge possibilities. In this paper, we highlight some of the advantages and issues that we observed in using historical cartography in the Iberian Peninsula heartlands by comparing archaeological data, textual sources and maps and various levels of information obtained for our area of study: the southeast of the present-day province of Guadalajara, Spain. Using the longue durée approach conceptualised by Fernand Braudel (1976), historical cartography enabled us to delve deeper into two essential aspects, land use and the road network, while providing elements of diachrony that suggest changes in the landscape in specific and disruptive periods.

Keywords: map regression analysis; medieval landscape; historical cartography; Reccopolis; longue dureé analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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