Středověké plužiny Velké Británie a jejich význam pro poznání zemědělského vývoje v českých zemích

Extensive medieval and Early Modern field systems have been preserved in English countryside. The article aims at achieving synopsis on English research for the purpose of explaining similar traces of past agricultural activities in the Czech Republic. In England, majority of preserved field systems consist almost exclusively of ridge and furrow, whilst in the Czech Republic strip lynchets and field boundaries are mostly detected. However, local ridge and furrow is mentioned many times in Bohemian documentary evidence. Comparison with British field systems already helped to put Czech research into a broader context (Dohnal 2003; 2006). The author therefore recommends employing British research in explaining Bohemian archive and iconographical materials on local ridge and furrow. The article describes the main results of exploring English ridge and furrow, its appearance, date of origin, purpose and variations. Other remnants of medieval landscapes (strip lynchets) are discussed as well. Special attention is paid to “reversed S” shape of many medieval fields, hardly explained phenom-enon related probably to complicated maneuvering with plough teams.