Analiza rozmieszczenia osadnictwa średniowiecznego względem cieków z wykorzystaniem darmowego oprogramowania GIS na przykładzie północnego Mazowsza

Artykuł poświęcony jest analizie odległości stanowisk archeologicznych od cieków. Obszarem badań jest zlewnia rzeki Węgierki na północnym Mazowszu. Do badań wykorzystano dane z Archeologicznego Zdjęcia Polski. Analizy wykonano z użyciem darmowego oprogramowania GIS – Quantum GIS 1.7.3 oraz ILWIS 3.7. Dzięki badaniom udało się stwierdzić istnienie różnic w wyborze miejsc dogodnych do osadnictwa w przeszłości.

Regional patterns of settlement are one of the most important subjects in archaeology. Analysis of such patterns were well spread in the research community before the GIS revolution. However, according to the usage of GIS tool in last two decades regional settlement analysis became more simple and less time-consuming. In following paper author presented one of such tools, which can be applied to the archaeological data. For the analysis, data from Polish National Record of Archaeological Sites (PNRAS) were used. The region was set on natural boundaries of river Węgierka catchment in Northern Mazovia region. Choice of the region was conditioned by relatively low human impact on riverbed. Data from PNRAS were digitized in QuantumGIS. Later sites were counted in equidistant zones from rivers in ILWIS 3.7. The result, after division by area of equidistant zone, were density maps of the region for three period: Early Medieval, Late Medieval and Post-medieval. Results shown changes in settlement pattern in three following periods of time. In direction from Early medieval to Post Medieval period the attractiveness of far-from-rivers regions grow. On the opposite the attractiveness of close-to-rivers part of studied area decreased in time. Probable causes of this changes were: technological development and changes in hydrology of these region.