The Use of Archaeological Finds and Historical Sources in Historical Research of The Middle Ages (shown on the example of Bled and of the development of the Brixen estate there)

Abstract

The author has tried, by combining written and material sources, to examine the continuation of the villages round the lake of Bled at the tran-sition from the 10th to the 11th century, and from the prefeudal society to the feudal society. The author has found that some villages (e. g. Grad—Pri lipi, Zeleče, Rečica—Grimščice), which vvere mentioned very early in vvritten sources, which had an old ground-plan, which are said to have been inhabited by freeholders (»kosezi«), and which had an old Slavic cemetery situated close to the centre of the village, have existed continuously from the old Slavic period. The treatise finishes vvith the survey of the territorial development of the Brixen estate at Bled up to the year 1253. The appearance of the nobility vvas conditioned by the fall of the old Slavic prefeudal social structures.