Deserted medieval villages and fields in Germany,a survey of the literature with a select bibliography

In Germany research into deserted settlements developed into an important branch of settlement history. It was realized that the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, following on a period of high-medieval expansion of settlement and cultivated land, were themselves a time of great decline. The theoretical explanation for this development is the late-medieval agricultural crisis, a concomitant of the late-medieval fall in population. We must distinguish between a high-medieval phase of settlement desertion associated with a concentration of population into larger villages and towns without a drop in absolute population figures, and a late-medieval desertion period when settlements and fields contracted because of loss of life due to famines and the Black Death. Different research methods have been used to locate deserted settlement sites, both from documentary evidence (Rückschreibung) and by doing field-work. By mapping the relict features of deserted villages and fields our knowledge of the evolution of settlement- and field-patterns was increased. In particular, the evolution of the three-field-system has been explained as part of the concentration of population into larger settlements. A classification of the desertion process has helped with the terminological clarification of the subject, although there remain areas of dispute. The introduction of the desertion quotient made it possible to map the distribution of the deserted settlements. In the light of most recent research based on medieval archaeology this map needs corrections. It is now obvious that the late-medieval desertion quotient was not only high in areas of marginal land quality but also in fertile areas with a long history of settlement continuity. In those areas vestiges of earlier occupations were literally ploughed into the ground. This example illustrates that future research on deserted settlements must be of an interdisciplinary nature.