Wiersma, J..

Essen, iezen, ikkers en gaasten. Ruimtelijke variatie van historische open akkercomplexen in de provincie Friesland.

Historisch Geografisch Tijdschrift 33 (2015) 38 -47.

Verschillende historici en historisch-geografen hebben zich in het verleden bezig gehouden met de historische open akkercomplexen in de provincie Friesland. Vaak richtten deze onderzoeken zich op een bepaald type akkercomplex in een specifieke regio. Tijdens een masterscriptie-onderzoek aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen is het afgelopen jaar een nieuw overzicht gemaakt van deze belangwekkende categorie van landschappelijk erfgoed. Welke variatie is zichtbaar in de toponymische aanduiding, fysisch-geografische ligging en historisch-geografische structuur van de verschillende typen open akkercomplexen in Friesland?

Variety in open fields in the province of Friesland.

This article deals with open fields in the Dutch province of Friesland. Open fields are areas of arable land, that comprise of several small plots that were used by several or different owners but were not separated by visual boundaries. Open fields are quite common in several European countries. In the Netherlands, the province of Drenthe is best known for its open fields, the so-called essen. However, in other parts of the Netherlands these typical fields be found too, for example in Friesland. This article presents an overview of open fields in different regions of this province and discusses regional differences and similarities. In the clayey areas these open fields are often called ies, iest or ees. Another term is faalge. In the south-western part of the province, the arable land was concentrated on small clay ridges located on boulders and therefore is oval shaped. In this area the open fields are called gaasten. In de Stellingwerven (the area most close to the province of Drenthe) the open fields are called essen, just like in Drenthe. Here also the size and shape of the fields too are very similar to the open fields in Drenthe.