Abstract
This paper is the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary presentation of stone walls in the Central European mountains from the perspective of landscape archaeology based on field surveys and analysis of cartographic and LiDAR data. The stone walls in the Izera Mountains of southwestern Poland are the largest ones in the region, as they represent a rare case of fully enclosed fields in the Sudetes. The niches constructed within the walls are not found anywhere else. The paper discusses the origins, functions, chronology, construction techniques, spatial distribution, and diversity of stone walls and also their significance for the cultural landscape, which was subject to substantial land abandonment after World War 2. Stone walls marked field boundaries, protected arable lands from erosion and their niches provided storage places, and provisional dwellings. Nowadays they are spectacular remnants of past land-use and unique features of the regional cultural landscape.
Highlights
Adapting upland and mountainous areas to the needs of agriculture usually requires special techniques and much work (Klápšte and Sommer 2009)
Other materials were sometimes used to supplement stone, like wooden fences. They are an important element of the cultural landscape of the region, which lets us define the area occupied by agricultural activity in the past. It is even more significant in relation to profound changes in land use that were introduced in the region after World War 2 – stone structures are often the only evidence of traces of past agriculture that can be seen in the landscape
586 segments of stone walls were discovered, part of which previously functioned as field/plot boundaries
Summary
Adapting upland and mountainous areas to the needs of agriculture usually requires special techniques and much work (Klápšte and Sommer 2009). Other materials were sometimes used to supplement stone, like wooden fences They are an important element of the cultural landscape of the region, which lets us define the area occupied by agricultural activity in the past. The first recently released publications were focused on structures that can be found in the Carpathians (Affek 2016b; Wolski 2007) as well as the Sudetes on the Polish (Latocha 2009, 2014; Migoń 2012a, 2012b) and Czech sides (Spurný 2006) Such constructions usually have the form of stone heaps (prisms) and walls, not closed fences. Despite the uniqueness of these forms in the Sudetes region, they have been only briefly discussed, and solely in popular science literature (Łuczyński et al 2015; Migoń 2012a, 2012b)
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