Abstract
The East Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve (ECHCMR) possesses a new irrefutable evidence that the orthogonal systems of land division in the Eastern Crimea are not to be ancient. This document is the economic plan of the lands of the Kerch- Enikale city administration, created after 1887, based on the 1857 milestone map made after the Colonel Betev’s 1837 plan (Inv. No. KMTI – 2474). The plan shows the boundaries of 838 plots by size of 12-dessiatinas (measure of land = 10,900 sq. meters or 2.7 acres). This cadastral plan of the Kerch-Enikale city administration provides the documentary evidence that traces of orthogonal land division near Kerch are dated back to the 19th century. Similar land division was carried out in other parts of the Kerch Peninsula and the Northwestern Crimea in the second half of the 19th century. The boundaries of plots are shown on the maps of the end of the 19th century, and their traces are visible even now on aerial photographs and satellite images. When analyzing the visible traces of land use in the 19th century, it is necessary to prevent their baseless interpretations as the ancient systems.
Keywords
Orthogonal land division in the 19th century, economic plan of the land of the Kerch-Enikale city administration, ancient land division.
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