Mapping Natural and Human Made Borders

Minerva Repository > Case Studies > Mapping Natural and Human Made Borders

Introduction

The small, mountain historical and geographical region of Visoka consists of a few dozens of small pastoral villages along the Visočica River, which flows on the Stara Planina Mountain, and north to the Nišava River. The local picks and ranges separate the highland region of Visoka from the neighboring small-size geographical units, making it distinct and seclusive. The area is now divided between the Republic of Serbia (biggest part) and the Republic of Bulgaria based on the borderlines set in 1878 and 1920 with no regard for the local ethnographic or ethnic situation at the time of partition.

One may observe and research the region of Visoka both as a historical and geographical/environmental phenomenon.

Aims

Creation of a digital map which will contain three layers:

All villages belonging to the Visoka region
Villages of the Znepolje region that are bordering the Visoka
Villages of the Vidin Sandzak that are bordering the Visoka

Methodological and Didactic aspects:

Creation of a research question and digital products that may help to resolve them, and test the suggested model. In this case, the position of settlements should indicate the geographical limits of the Visoka region and help us discuss the natural and human-made factors which crucially contributed to this situation

Level of Competence

Basic to advanced.

Skills to Be Learned

Extracting geodata from written historical sources;
Extracting geodata (longitude, latitude, elevation);
Modeling data;
Creation of digital maps with different layers;
Creation of a 3D terrain model
Interpreting digital maps

Workflow

flowchart TD subgraph Raster id1([Online Raster Provider]):::box -->|Getting a DEM!| id2([DEM]):::box -->|A smaller Raster| id3([Local and smaller DEM]):::box end; subgraph Vector id4([KML]):::box -->|Moving from KML to GPKG!| id5([GPKG]):::box end; Raster --> id6([3D View]):::box; Vector --> id6; click id1 "https://oleroy.gitpages.huma-num.fr/minerva/project/dl_dem/" click id2 "https://oleroy.gitpages.huma-num.fr/minerva/project/prepare_dem/" click id4 "https://oleroy.gitpages.huma-num.fr/minerva/project/kml_to_gpkg/" click id6 "https://oleroy.gitpages.huma-num.fr/minerva/project/3d_view/" classDef box fill:#fcb900,color:#fff,stroke-width:0px; style Raster stroke-width:0px; style Vector stroke-width:0px;

Dictionary of less-known terms and expression

Sanjak - An administrative region under the Ottoman Empire, a subdivision of a Vilayet. Sandjak was consistent with several nahiye.

Nahiye (alternatively - Nahia) is a regional or local type of territorial/administrative division that usually consists of several villages or sometimes smaller towns.

Rossitsa Gradeva, Administrative system and provincial government in the Central Balkan territories of the Ottoman empire, 15th century, H. C. Güzel, C. C. Oğuz, and O. Karatay (eds), The Turks, vol. 3, Ottomans, Ankara 2003, 498-507.
Siniša Mišić: Srpsko selo u srednjem veku, (Belgrade: 2019).