Проучавање "централних насеља" у историјској географији византијског царства на Балкану и могућности примене нове методологије
Study of “Central Places” in the Historical Geography of the Byzantine Empire in the Balkans and Possibilities of Applying the New Methodology

Author(s): Jelena Mrgić
Subject(s): Historical Geography, 6th to 12th Centuries, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Vizantološki institut SANU
Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to further promote the historical-geographical studies of urban centers in the medieval Balkans, by highlighting the results achieved by Johannes Koder in the field of Byzantine studies, and pointing out further possibilities of applying his research methodology. In his numerous works, Koder both improved the methodology of historical geography, and in practice, conducting the project Tabula Imperii Byzantini (TIB) for over four decades proves how it is possible to enlarge our knowledge of medieval social and cultural landscapes. Those works for me were the ‘gate’ to obtain a proper insight into this particular scientific discipline and showed me the prospects of yielding new results in the field of my own research — medieval Bosnia. By applying his methodology of combining various historical sources (narrative, diplomatic, travelogues, topographical, cartographical etc.) with certain theoretical concepts, such as von Thunen’s location theory and ‘central place theory’, it was possible both to establish a much denser urban settlement network in the regions of Western and Northern medieval Bosnia, as well as to analyze correlations between the city and its agrarian hinterland, with or without the centers with a lesser impact, i.e. lower hierarchical level. Therefore, there are numerous future prospects of improving the research methodology of urban studies in medieval Serbia, together with more extensive archaeological research.

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