Visual Analytics of spatio-temporal simulation data: evaluation of a model of spatial reorganization in North-Western Europe, A.D. 800 to 1100

Abstract

International audienceThis proposal originates from the ANR TransMonDyn project, which aims at analysing settlements systems evolution over the long time using modelling. This project gathers many case-studies, and I plan on presenting one of those, that aims at a better understanding of the social and spatial processes that happened in NorthWestern Europe between 800 and 1100 A.D. Through this period, archaeologists and historians (TANNIER & al., 2014) observed a major change in the settlement structure, to which we refer as the " 800-1100 transition " :-The peasant households, mostly sprawled around 800, tend to cluster around functional attractors, mainly castles and churches. Furthermore, they cluster for a longer time than during previous periods, and this clustering and fixation are at the origin of villages and small towns.-These aggregates of population and the simultaneous Gregorian Reform lead to a stronger religious control over the peasants, and results in the appearance of a regular grid of parishes designed around the churches. This well-defined and structured territorial meshing is at the origin of current administrative organisation