Assessing accuracy of forest cover information on historical maps

Author(s): Urs Gimmi,Christian Ginzler,Matthias Müller,Achilleas Psomas / Language(s): English / Issue: 146/2016

Assessing the uncertainty of historical map information is a prerequisite for using this source type for land cover reconstructions. We assessed the accuracy of forest cover information from 1930 / 1940 Swiss topographic maps (Siegfried maps) by comparing them with forest cover gained from orthophotos and terrestrial photos from the same period. Orthophotos were considered to contain the true forest cover information and consequently inconsistencies between historical maps and orthophotos were considered as true errors (over or underestimation of the forest cover on the map ). Terrestrial photos reflect the surveyors perspective in the field and we therefore used this source type to develop hypotheses on potential reasons for inaccuracy of map information. Generalized linear models were used to test the hypotheses. The results confirmed our expectation that disagreement between maps is more likely to occur near forest edges, at higher altitudes and in less accessible and visible areas. Contrary to our expectations terrain slope did not play a significant role to explain surprisingly high rates of inaccuracy occurred in forest core areas.

Atlas Fontium

Author(s): Marek Slon / Language(s): English,Polish,German / Issue: 5/2017

Atlas Księstwa Połockiego – wprowadzenie

Author(s): Jakub Niedzwiedz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1 (42)/2017

The paper is divided into two parts. In the first one the author discusses a discovery and reception of The Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk in the 19th–21st centuries. In the other the content of six papers about the Atlas is commented.

Atlas Księstwa Połockiego Stanisława Pachołowieckiego (1580): propaganda, genologia i tworzenie wiedzy geograficznej

Author(s): Jakub Niedzwiedz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1 (42)/2017

This paper is dedicated to the maps of Stanisław Pachołowiecki (2nd half of the 16th century) printed in Rome by Giovanni Battista Cavalieri in 1580. In August 1579, the Polish-Lithuanian army retook the city and the voivodeship (principality) of Polotsk from Russian hands. Pachołowiecki, a cartographer working for Stephen Báthory, prepared maps depicting the Siege of Polotsk, the whole principality of Polotsk and plans of six other fortresses and cities conquered by Báthory’s army. This study presents an answer to the following question: What means were used in the development of the new geographic knowledge by people engaged in the preparation and use of Pachołowiecki’s atlas? Jakub Niedźwiedź takes a closer look at the application of rhetoric, mainly figures and tropes drawn (or translated) from literature into the cartographic text.

Atlas Księstwa Połockiego Stanisława Pachołowieckiego z 1580 roku – transkrypcja i przekład

Author(s): Grzegorz Franczak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 1 (42)/2017

This paper contains a transcription (modernized according to the norms set out by Academia Latinitati Fovendae) and a Polish translation of titles, inscriptions and Latin explanations, from eight cartographic relics that constitute The Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk, of Stanisław Pachołowiecki (1580).

Atlasul Etnografic Român – capăt de drum

Author(s): Nicolae Constantinescu / Language(s): Romanian / Issue: 28/2014

The fifth volume of A. E. R. (=„Atlasul Etnografic Român”, „The Romanian Ethnographic Atlas”) puts an end to the work of three generation of ethnographers, from the late Romulus Vuia, Romulus Vulcănescu, Paul Petrescu, Ion Vlăduţiu to the youngest researchers of the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore „Constantin Brăiloiu” of the Romanian Academy (e. g. dr. Emil Ţârcomnicu, dr. Lucian Aurelian David, dr. Ionuţ Semuc, Cătălin Alexa, drd. Laura Ioana Negulescu, dr. Adelina Dogaru, Cristina Mihală Douglas) who, alongside their older colleagues (e.g. Alina Ioana Ciobănel, Cornelia Belcin Pleşca, Paul Drogeanu, Ofelia Văduva et al.), directed by dr. Ion Ghinoiu, finished one of the most important work instruments of the Romanian ethnology – the Atlas. A masterpiece of scientific work, the AER deserves all our admiration and consideration.

BASIC RULES IN GEOGRAPHICAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Author(s): Bogdan Olariu,IULIAN SANDULACHE,CATALINA SANDULACHE / Language(s): English / Issue: 18/2018

Photography plays a key role in geographical studies but also in teachinggeography. For the geographical photography there are some important aspects regardingthe photographic technique: setting the correct size of the image, white balance, ISOsensitivity, image format, time exposure, aperture, knowing the functioning of theincorporated light bulb, focalization, the optic and digital zoom, measuring the luminosityin the scene that is about to be photographed. In this study, there will be presented the mostimportant types of photography that are used in geography, while in the last part of the study,the most important rules that must be respected when framing and shooting are described.In the end it is presented a glossary which includes 29 terms of speciality that are used in thispaper.Photography plays a key role in geographical studies but also in teaching geography. For the geographical photography there are some important aspects regarding the photographic technique: setting the correct size of the image, white balance, ISO sensitivity, image format, time exposure, aperture, knowing the functioning of the incorporated light bulb, focalization, the optic and digital zoom, measuring the luminosity in the scene that is about to be photographed. In this study, there will be presented the most important types of photography that are used in geography, while in the last part of the study, the most important rules that must be respected when framing and shooting are described. In the end it is presented a glossary which includes 29 terms of speciality that are used in this paper.

BECOMING MODERN: NORTH AEGEAN THRACIAN COMMUNITIES ADOPTING WHEEL-MADE CERAMICS

Author(s): Petya Ilieva / Language(s): English / Issue: 21/2016

The second half of the 8th and the early 7th century BC appear to be the time when the Thracian communities inhabiting the Northern Aegean littoral went through significant transformations. The material manifestation of the novelties in lifestyle during that period is best visible through the changes in ceramics. In this paper I explore the introduction of G 2-3 Ware as evidence of cultural transformations which took place among the Thracian communities. Various sites as case-studies are considered and aspects of its repertory of shapes, distribution and consumption are discussed. I focus on comparing the evidence from the pre-colonial levels registered in several coastal sites located between the lower courses of the rivers Strymon and Hebros. Many of the native communities got involved in a dynamic exchange with their neighbours from the Thermaic Gulf and the Chalcidice Peninsula to the west and with those from the eastern corner of the Aegean basin from the mid-8th century BC onwards. As a consequence, many of the Thracians living along the Aegean coast of Thrace were already using fine, wheel-made, painted tablewares for the needs of the cult, as well as in domestic context by the late 8th/early 7th century BC.

BETWEEN MYTH AND STEREOTYPE: THE METHOD OF STUDYING THE IMAGES OF RUSSIA IN THE VISUAL MEDIA CULTURE OF JAPAN

Author(s): Yulia V. Yashchenko,Anatoly V. Yashchenko,Anastasia S. Fadeeva / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2018

The main sets of symbols of Russia in the visual media culture of Japan are formed in the XX century. This period was saturated with military conflicts and under the conditions of a bipolar political system; reactionary images with noticeable militaristic influence were formed. This study was performed on the materials of visual media culture in Japan, sources such as anime and manga were studied, in which a high concentration of Russian images is observed. During the study of these sources, a complex of several hundred visual and verbal images of Russia was identified, which seems to be a unique phenomenon. Since such an interest in the country-opponent in foreign policy issues is nowhere else observed. The purpose of this study is to identify markers that denote the space of Russian images in individual visual sources and determine their place in the media culture as a whole. Accordingly, the main objective of the study became the development of methods based on approaches of Digital Humanities and Visual Studies. This study allows us to determine the most economically viable images of Russia in the Japanese media industry and makes it possible to use the results of the research in Russia’s state image by stimulating Japan’s visual media culture sector for representation the most auspicious images.

Bjelovar u srednjovjekovnim vrelima

Author(s): Goran Jakovljevic / Language(s): Croatian / Issue: 2/2008

The analysis of the occurrence of the name Bjelovar in the available mediaeval written or cartographic sources has essentially changed the so-far accepted contemporary historians’ theses and dismissed the conventional opinions, according to which, in the first half of the 15th century, Bjelovar was but a “small fair settlement in the Rovišće county”. The first mentions of Bjelovar are to be found in source materials as early as in 1320; however, until 1482, when confirmed by the topographic names of the surrounding mediaeval estates, documents had referred either to Bjelovar in the Zelina county or to “King Bela’s town”. This is moreover supported by the genealogic data of persons mentioned in the source materials, since they belonged to the local gentry, whose estates had been located to the west from Križevci and Mali Kalnik. In cartographic sources, Bjelovar was first mentioned in Johann Winkler’s map in 1639, when the Krajina border was defined; cartographic symbols further help us analyse its transformation from a mere estate through a fortification to a bigger countryside settlement. According to the available information, Bjelovar was not granted any status symbols (such as guild- and fair-related privileges) before the town had actually been founded, i.e. in 1770 (1772).

Bjelovarski ring u kontekstu europske gradogradnje

Author(s): Damir Krajnik / Language(s): English,Croatian / Issue: 9/2015

Though the bastions of the city of Bjelovar were of symbolic character, and thus primarily presented more an indication of an urban entity borderline and less a real defence system, the manner in which they were transformed essentially defined the urban structure morphology. Levelling and transformation of the forts was realised within a fairly brief period at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, whereby – following the best European examples – a representative urban stretch with a round street circling the former town centre, concentrated public town spaces and buildings of public use was formed. By analysing features of town planning according to the model defined in the author’s doctoral dissertation, it was established that Bjelovar belonged to the group of towns of integral type 1-B, characterised by a prevailingly mixed structure combined with buildings of (mostly) public use in the insulae, with a round street as a part of the traffic system in the area of the former forts, thanks to which the town-planning interpretation of space in the place they presently take in the urban matrix was enabled. The comparison with examples of Croatian and European cities (Varaždin, Vienna, Riga, Wroclaw and Würzburg), which belong to the same integral type according to town-planning features of space on the locations of bastion fortresses, has clearly indicated to the significance of the location rightfully referred to as the Bjelovar ring, and to the common town-planning principles of shaping cities in Croatia and Europe in the 19th century. It may therefore serve as an element in defining planning postulates of future town-planning interventions in the subject area.

Book review: Meiţă V. M., Tache A.-V. (Eds.) (2018), Evaluarea policentricităţii şi a zonelor metropolitane din România (Assessing Romanian Polycentrism and Metropolitan Areas), Editura INCD URBAN-INCERC, Bucharest, Romania, 348 pp., ISBN 978-606-816

Author(s): Andrei Mitrea / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

No abstract available. This is a book review.

Borders of the German Occupation Zone in Serbia 1941-1944

Author(s): Zoran Janjetovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2012

The article deals with the delimitation of the territory of Serbia under German occupation during WWII. Although the topic has been dealt with in Serbian and foreign historiography it is far from exhausted. The article reviews geographical, political, economic, strategic, military and other factors that contributed to drawing of Serbia’s borders under German rule.

BRINGING BOSCH ALIVE THROUGH MULTIMEDIA

Author(s): Voica Puscasiu / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

When one talks about “digital art” there are a great number of very different manifestations that could potentially fall into this category. One of the first things to keep in mind is the fact that as a term “digital art” does not refer to any particular style or aesthetic, thus the great variety. Much rather it is a medium through which artists choose to present their ideas. However as with all things digital, this can take on a lot of different facets, the digital turn has provided not only the opportunity for art archival and dissemination, but also as an extensive creative tool whose only limit lies in the imagination and/or technical skill of the author. To put it simply, digital art can range from works created entirely with the use of a computer and software, to alteration done with the help of the digital medium. It can include appropriation of other classical works that receive new life and meaning through this approach.

BUILDING LIFE COURSES AND EXPLAINING LIFE CHOICES WITH THE HELP OF DIGITAL PROSOPOGRAPHY

Author(s): Vlad Popovici,Rada Varga / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2018

Digital tools have enhanced the possibilities of historical prosopographic researches, bringing to light facts and connections unnoticed before. Showcasing two very different databases – in structure, timeframe and employed sources – we will try to highlight how structured data can prove useful and revealing for the prosopography of the people living in all historical periods and areas. In order to make our point, we will first present the two databases from architectural and technical points of view, then we will focus on case studies extracted from each of them. The aim is to highlight the gain in historical knowledge brought forth by the employment of digital tools and technologies and how these means actually increase our insightfulness when facing the sources.

Bulgarian Mosaic

Author(s): Rossitza Guentcheva / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2017

The article is dedicated to the travel notes on Bulgaria, Down the Donkey’s Path.Bulgarian Mosaic, written in 1978 in East Germany by the East German writer Kurt Bizalski and republished in 2001 in united Germany without any changes, explanations or supplements. Bizalski based the book on his experience in Bulgaria in 1977 when he paid an official visit at the invitation of the Union of the Bulgarian Writers.However, the Embassy of People’s Republic of Bulgaria in Berlin criticizes the travel notes, stigmatizes the author and recommends not to translate the book into Bulgarian.The Committee for State Security accuses the work in distorting the socialist reality and prevents its distribution in Bulgaria. This article presents Down the Donkey’s Path as a mobile book – restricted but not everywhere, prohibited but not completely,occupying the extra-national art space extended across the political borders within the socialist bloc from the 1970s and the 1980s. Analysing the author of travel notes as an anthropologist, Bulgaria as a field of research and the Bulgarian readers as a local critical public allows us to look at the problem of the relation between anthropology, literature and political censorship from another angle.

CARTOGRAPHIC MODELING OF THE POPULATION DENSITY IN THE FUNCTION OF RESEARCH OF SPATIAL–DEMOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS

Author(s): Jasmina Jovanovic,Dragica Živkovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2005

Cartographic modeling of the population density by a diagram map method (comparative way of semioscale mapping) and by a method of cartogram, enables presentation of the information about current spatial-demographical relations in asystematic, comparative, metrical, synoptic and suitable way, relevant for different aspects of specific research. Through methods of the cartographic information forms various types of population density are included: general, general agrarian, specific agrarian, agrarian-productive density and valorized agrarian population density. Chosen and applied cartographical methods, by modeling of the population density, enable to view them and express in a more apparent spatial graphical-analytical way. Applied semiometrics tends to realize the results of the numerical values of the parameters of the subject area via figures of symbols. Different types of population density are shown on the coordinate graph which enables their comparison as well as their status regarding the average values of the subject area. Cartographic modeling of the population density enables analytic and synthetic approach in researching and evaluating of the quantitiesand quality characteristics of the presented categories, which are functionally connectedand determined, for the purpose of highlighting the typical, specific and essential. Application of the cartographic methods in modeling of the population density is shownin the example of municipalities in districts of Bor and Zajecar for 2002, where thespatial differentiation of the population density was explicit.

Cartographic Recognition With Elements Of Planography Of Medieval Square Macho

Author(s): Lepota L. Kuzmanovic / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2013

Paper reserch some important geographic issues in the light of classical historical argument. Attempt to unify the different mapping systems in the presence of international consensus of cartography regarding the position of the square and town Macho. Foreign, Hungarian and Bulgarian mappings clearly indicate the location of the town, in the continuation of research the international and time comparisons of entered map values are made, creating necessary geographical and historical synthesis.In cartographic displays, there is no doubts, the name Gradac appears as Slovenian counterpart of recognized name Macho.

CARTOGRAPHIES OF MEMORY: 14TH ISTANBUL BIENNIAL: SALTWATER: A THEORY OF THOUGHT FORMS (2015) AND ABY WARBURG’S MNEMOSYNE ATLAS (1924-1929)

Author(s): Mehmet Berkay SÜLEK / Language(s): English / Issue: 04/2018

The question of memory has been a prominent subject of study in contemporary art scene during the last few decades. One can argue that it is important to look at moments when this increased interest was expressed at full. Therefore, I would like to analyze two projects which were produced hundred years apart from each other with different intentions. These are Aby Warburg’s Mnemosyne Atlas and Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev’s 14th Istanbul Biennale: Saltwater Theory of Thought Forms (2015). Although those projects were constructed in different manners, they share similarities at the structural end. One can argue that both of those projects were constructed around the questions of memory and invisible memory in particular. Furthermore, they raise these questions around the notion of memory in a specific way. In this thesis, I would like to argue that it is the willingness to create a map and how it interacts with the photographic and cinematic ways of communications.

Cartography as a tool of nation-building in Hungary and means of legitimizing Hungarian ethnic borders and spaces

Author(s): Róbert Keményfi / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2010

This paper focuses on the set of ideological means and systems of scholarly argumentation presented by the field of geographical science between the two world wars in an attempt to prove the unity of the Hungarian national space and demonstrate the impracticability of the spatial confines within which the state had to exist due to the ruling implemented after the Paris Peace Treaty. Specifically, I will elaborate on the geographical myths used to legitimize the so-called Hungarian state space, with special attention devoted to ethnic mapping as an ethno-political device and means of articulating discourses of power discourse.