Wiejskie struktury osadnicze i ich przemiany w czasie. Przykład Nowosielca na dawnym pograniczu polsko-rusko-litewskim

Abstract

The article discusses the results of archaeological-onomastic research carried out for the village of Nowosielec, Łosice dist., situated in the Toczna river basin on the northern edge of Poland’s Siedlce Upland. Archaeological analyses of the chronological and spatial development of this micro-regional settlement showed this oecumene to have been continuously viable from the younger phases of the early Middle Ages to modern times. A trace of the continuity of settlement is preserved as the very place-name Nowosielec = Nowe Sioło (‘New Village’), which records memory of the existence of an older village. Its onomastic base indicates that it derived from the Old East Slavic term seło, which formed the core of many toponyms along the eastern frontier of contemporary Poland. The rise of the oldest settlement was probably related to the socioeconomic facilities of the nearby Dzięcioły stronghold – identified as the pre-location centre of the region (medieval Łosice). The example of Nowosielec and two other local micro-regions where settlement processes show similar patterns, offer insight into the regional settlement regress dated to the 2nd half of the 13th century. Results of the research carried out in the upper Toczna river basin show that its cultural landscape radically changed not earlier than during the 14th-15th centuries and was not caused by a demographic decline. Regional cultural continuity between the early medieval, late medieval, and modern times can be identified thanks to archaeological investigations and linguistic analysis of regional toponyms – in the case of microregions continuously functioning from the early Middle Ages till the modern period –derived from Old Russian apellatives and personal names.