Histoire des Alpes - Storia delle Alpi - Geschichte der Alpen (1997)/English summaries
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| source: Index:Labi 1997.djvu |
ENGLISH SUMMARIES
- MIHA KOSI, "SLOVENIA – AN ALPINE COUNTRY. GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION"
Is Slovenia an alpine country, too? A first glance at the map of Europe might well arouse doubts. The fact is, only the south-eastern tip of the Eastern Alps reaches Slovenia. But anyone who has ever travelled through Slovenia will have no doubt that this is the case of a definitely mountainous, and in one part, completely alpine region. The Alps cover 40% of the state surface. The article provides an introduction into the geography and history of this alpine region. It describes first of all geographical formation on the macro- and microlevel, together with the characteristics of climate and soil. Followed by a survey of the history of settlement and of recent and most recent developments in agriculture, industry, tourism and communications. The Slovene alpine region has thus undergone vast changes in the past few decades – with their resulting economic and ecological advantages and disadvantages, such as are to be met with in other parts of the Alps, too.
- DRAGO SVOLJŠAK, IVAN TURK, SLAVKO CIGLENEČKI, "THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMAGE OF THE SLOVENIAN ALPS"
After a review of the archaeological sites and periods the article presents us with two new and extraordinary excavations in the Slovenian Alps. Drago Svoljšak’s review from the Palaeolithic Age up until the 10th century A. D. reveals the wealth of archaeological sites. Quite otherwise than in the upper mountain areas, where up till now mere traces of human activity have been recorded, there are for the alpine valleys a host of evidence from varying periods. Ivan Turk presents the excavations of palaeolithic substances in the caves of Divje bave I in the Idrijca Valley. In 1995 these led to the unearthing of a flute-like bone, which may well be the oldest known musical instrument in Europe (45’000 B. C.). Slavko Ciglenečki describes the investigation of the fortified mountain settlement of Tonovcov grad, near Kobarid, begun in 1992.
[ 154 ]With its three or four churches it belongs to the most remarkable settlements of its kind dating from the late ancient period.
VINCENC RAJSP, "THE JULIAN ALPS ON OLD MAPS OF THE 16TH TO 19TH CENTURIES"
The first cartographical presentations of Slovenian territories are, at the same time, the first ones of their alpine regions. The region known today under the name of the “Julian Alps” appeared for the first time in the cosmography of Sebastian Münster of the year 1542 and was re-produced several times in the following decades. From the 17th and early 18th century, the increasingly accurate maps of the native authors Johann Weichard Valvasor and Disma Floriantschitsch deserve mention. The map-making of the Slovenian Alps took on a new quality in the 18th and early 19th centuries in the course of the military topographies. By these records the high mountain areas were genuinely received into the world of the accessible and the measurable. The surveyors now got as far as the alpine huts and even recorded paths that led the way over the high pastures.
DARJA MIHELIC, "ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE SLOVENIAN ALPS"
Based on the standard work on the economic and social history of the Slovenes, obtainable, too, in a shortened German version, this contribution provides a survey of the economic and, especially, the agricultural development of the alpine region from the Middle Ages up until the 19th and 20th centuries.
The presentations concern hunting and fishing, animal husbandry (rearing of domestic animals,poultry,bee-keeping),plant cultivation (arable, fruit, wine, hops, planting of mulberry trees, gardening), forestry, handicrafts and industry (from the ancient iron- and glass-industries up to modern energy production). The authoress documents the development of these varying economic activities and points out their connections with environmental constraints, changes in social structure, settlement and population development, available techniques and relevant conditions of transport and markets.
TONE CEVC, "POPULAR CULTURE IN THE SLOVENIAN ALPS"
This contribution provides a survey of the traditional rural economies, of settlement patterns and building types, of nutrition and clothing, and of sociability and popular art in the Slovenian alpine region. Special attention is devoted to rural architecture: herdsmen’s and shepherds’ huts, peasant dwellings and their farm buildings, shelters for woodsmen, charcoal burners and other occupational groups. Differences in settlement patterns (villages with 40 to 50 houses, hamlets with 10 to 12 houses and single farmsteads) can be interpreted especially according to age and elevation. The material culture is related by the author to social and economic aspects. Otherwise than in the dispersed settlements, the villages were characterized for example by the important role in public life played by groups of young men.
PETRA SVOLJSAK, "WORLD WAR I AND ITS EFFECTS UPON THE WESTERN BORDER OF THE SLOVENIAN ALPINE TERRITORY"
World War I had its most direct and brutal effect upon border regions. Thus battles between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the tributary zone of R. Isonzo from May to October 1917 not only cost 300,000 dead and countless wounded among the warring parties, but also caused colossal human and material loss among the native, mainly Slovenian, population. The article describes the run-up and the course of this military conflict, and then goes into its effects on the communication networks and the civilian population, and finally thematizes war-damages and frontier questions. The national borders were dislocated after World War I and, then again, after World War II. In 1975 negotiations between Italy and Yugoslavia resulted in a definite solution, formally confirmed after Slovenia acquired national sovereignity.
BOZO OTOREPEC, "TRIGLAV - A SYMBOLIC MOUNTAIN"
In the historical sources known and handed down, the word “triglav’’ (triple head) is first met with in 1320 A. D. As a designation of the highest mountain in the Julian Alps the expression is documented since 1612. As a Slovenian [ 156 ]symbol the Triglav was first used in 1934 on the mantle of Our Lady in front of the parish church in Bled by the famous architect Joze Plecnik. During World War II the Slovenian liberation front bore in its emblem a stylized Triglav. Since 1947 such a symbol has figured at one time in the arms of the Peoples Republic of Slovenia and since 1991 another variant has figured in the coat of arms of the independent Republic. Slovenia is thus one of the few states in the world, and the only one in Europe, in whose national symbol is contained the representation of a mountain - in this case of an alpine peak.
STANKO BUSER, "THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE SLOVENIAN ALPS"
The geological history of the Slovenian Alps is fairly well researched. The first scientific investigations of this territory stem from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. A clearer picure is provided by researches made after World War II by Slovenian geologists. The most complete data on the structure of the Alps are provided by geological maps and their explanations thereof. But a full description of the genesis of this territory is still to come. The article restricts itself to the region of the upper Julian Alps, of the Kamnisko-Savinjske Alps and the southern Karavanke, that is, of the Southern Alps. It provides an easily comprehensible overall view of geological processes over a period of about 400 million years.