The state of and perspectives on archaeological research on the sociotopography of Toruń

Abstract

The state of and perspectives on archaeological research on the socio-topography of Toruń summarizes the research project ‘The spatial development of Toruń to the beginning of the 19th century (including the environment and pre-incorporation settlement)’, carried out by the interdisciplinary Team for the Study of Medieval and Post-Medieval Toruń. The aim of the research was to recreate selected socio-topography features of the town from the period of its incorporation to the end of the 18th century. The study takes into account  the environment of the later town area and the range of the pre-incorporation settlement. Systemic analysis of the socio-topographic space in the framework of the project took into account the transformation of the structure, organization, relations and interactions between various components of the socio-topography of Toruń in the Middle Ages and early Post-Medieval period. Detailed interdisciplinary studies in the fields of archaeology, history, anthropology, archaeozoology, archaeobotany and paleopedology were undertaken. The results of archaeological work based on archive documentation from excavations (in total 284 archive files, registered on over 15 800 photographs) allowed for the identification of more than 500 units – archaeological sites, individual archaeological trenches, construction trenches, which then were collected in a database. This impressive collection of data underwent an evaluation in terms of the realization of objectives of the project ‘The spatial development of Toruń to the beginning of the 19th century’. The next step was to carry out work aimed at determining the chronology of individual stratigraphical units and their visualization on cartograms as well as analysis. In this paper, apart from the presentation of the state of research on the socio-topography of Toruń the research needs in this regard are also highlighted.