The Rural Area in Historical Cities

Abstract

Cities and urban structures could grow thanks to the intensive development of agriculture and the so-called agricultural revolution (Mumford in The city in history. Its origins, its transformations, an its prospects. A Harvest Book Harcourt Inc., San Diego/New York/London, 1989). Historical cities have, therefore, always had a close relationship with agrarian areas and agrarian components of the internal structure of cities. The classification of the primary types of such urbanised agricultural areas and the investigation of the quantitative and qualitative dynamics of their growth based on cartographic sources resulted in the notion of the territorial settlement pyramid (TSP) together with a proposed method for building it. The TSP can be used to identify stages of the territorial development of cities and the relationship between urban and agricultural structures.