engleski

Istria, Croatia : Ancient settlements in landscape

The Istrian peninsula has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic, but only Bronze / Iron Age hilltop settlements have had a significant impact on the landscape. More than 400 sites have been identified, and it is not difficult to establish a relationship between the geomorphology of the land and the anthropized / anthropic landscape. A radical change occurred in the landscape with the roman conquest and Romanization: hilltops were abandoned and new settlements appeared. Urban settlements were organized for the first time, while the countryside was dotted with farms (villae rusticae). The number of sites remained roughly the same, but their distribution is quite different. The Roman Age villas were positioned mainly along the western coast and within a few kilometres from it, and almost all on flat land suitable for Mediterranean agriculture. During the transition to the Middle Ages some open sites were gradually abandoned, others were nucleate with the formation of villages, some hilltops were resettled and fortified. These processes had an important impact on the formation of the modern Istrian landscape.

Istria ; Prehistory ; Antiquity ; settlements ; landscape

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