Vegetation Accompaniment of Small Monuments and its Interpretation in Landscape Archaeology

Abstract

In the geographical and historical space of Central Europe, small monuments or built artefacts connected with trees are generally considered a typical identification feature of landscape. Besides the connection between the built object and its vegetation accompaniment, the presented paper points out to the significant relation to the specific place and landscape. The text covers a phenomenological definition of such places defining the space (landscape) towards a structural understanding of the relation of place – small monument – tree. Small monuments and trees explain the space that is concentrated within them and their mutual interconnection reflects the character of the landscape, history of the place, perception, and preference of values in the society. On a background of the basic historical excursion covering vegetation as an accompaniment of small monuments, the methodology concentrates on structural investigation and covers the aspects of typology, evolution, and landscape design. In terms of typology the text presents a basic listing of woody species that commonly accompany small monuments in the Czech Republic, and defines the prerequisites of a relation between the individual species to a specific type of built monument.