The Flemish hide as a constitutive element of field patterns in East-Central Europe in the Middle Ages and the problem of its alternatives - a case study on Bohemia (Czech Republic)

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of innovative measuring techniques and their adaptation and spread in the High Middle Ages. More precisely, the extremely regular spatial module of the Flemish hide and its modalities, which shaped settlements and agricultural landscapes in a large part of East-Central Europe. We sought to determine whether the application of the Flemish hide can be evidenced in regions where it is not explicitly mentioned in written sources. Specifically, we focused on Bohemia (Czech Republic) and analysed relevant medieval charters, a selection of cadastral plans and the surface remains of three deserted medieval villages. We concluded that different types of hides were used in high medieval Bohemia, which seem to have been identical to the Flemish hide. The use of the Flemish hide as a unit of land measuring was adapted and further improved in the Bohemian lands, which partly explains why rural settlement forms were, on the one hand, very heterogeneous, while on the other hand, some were close parallels to the ones evidenced in other regions of Central Eastern Europe.