Page 256 - Changing Living Spaces

Aleksander Panjek and Gregor Kovačič

environmental and social sustainability than modern forms of use. Diego
Moreno (1990), combining historical, geographical and archaeological re-
search methods, affirms that forests, especially in the Mediterranean,
should not be considered simply as natural phenomena subject to human
exploitation, but that historically they are ‘an artefact and must be stud-
ied as such’. This does not mean that trees are just part of the scenario in
the theatre of history, but rather, as Oliver Rackham (1996, 298) says, ac-
tors, and each of them has their role.
With its long history in the relationship between man and the envi-
ronment, the Mediterranean region – and the Karst within it – represents
an ideal observatory to address these issues, as it is a particularly fragile
and sensitive environment, which at the same time represents the arche-
type of all Karst areas in the world (Grove and Rackham 2001). The con-
cept ‘Karst’ itself, referring to all karstic phenomena, environments and
landscapes in the world, is named after the Classical Karst, where our re-
search is located.
In recent decades, both karst and the Karst have attracted more sci-
entific attention from geographers than from historians. To underline
the specificity of the anthropization forms of the karst areas, Jean Nicod
(1987) proposed the concept of ‘agro-karstic landscapes’. Giorgio Valussi
(1965) placed the karst landscapes in the ‘landscapes of effort’, that is,
in the environments that require continuous effort from humans to be
inhabited. The landscapes of the Mediterranean and sub-Mediterranean
karst areas share a number of characteristics and elements. One of them
is the agricultural use of the depressions of the land where the earth accu-
mulates. Another is the existence of particular water collection systems,
necessary due to the combined effect of climatic and geomorphological
conditions (Nicod 1987, 107).
The same is true for the Classical Karst. In order to be cultivated, do-
lines must be considerably adapted, which is why the dolinas convert-
ed into cultivated areas were called ‘worked dolines’ (Gams, Lovrenčak
and Ingolič 2001, 228). There were also artificial ponds, often created
within the dolines in the ground made impermeable by the overlay of
stone and clay layers, and fed by rainwater (Pagnini 1966, 117, 125, 133;
Moritsch 1969, 130–1; Pagnini Alberti 1972; Belingar 2007). Moreover,
due to its geomorphological characteristics, the soil is particularly ex-
posed to the erosive action of atmospheric agents (wind, rain, snow, ice),
and deforestation accelerates these processes (Gams 1991a, 1–3; Gams
1991b, 9, 15–6).

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