Village Type Page 1 of 3 Work of early geographers like Paul Vidal de la Blache, Martiny and Meitzen has identified eight forms of European village, several of these with sub-categories. These are as shown in the diagrams 1 and 2. Travelling through parts of the Sub-Carpathians, one or more of the most significant passes through the Carpathians themselves, as well as areas of lower-lying agricultural plain, a mixture of clustered villages (more likely on the plain) and semi-clustered villages (more likely in more hilly areas) was observed. Dispersed rural settlement is more likely to be found in the higher mountain areas on the Carpathian arc. The river Danube forms part of a well documented boundary between a region of planned villages to the north and east (including Romania) and unplanned villages to the south and west (including all of western Europe with the exception of the southern coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the Rhine north-eastwards). The field area was examined for examples of the following settlement forms. Settlements of a generally 'unplanned' form, specifically: Scattered farmsteads (dispersed) Irregular clustered villages (clustered) Settlements of a generally 'planned' form, including: Tight street row village (clustered) Multi-hamlet village (semi-clustered) Checkerboard village (clustered) Collective settlements Any other forms Scattered farmsteads These tend into fall into two categories, those with a long history and therefore traditional in nature and those which are much more recent and result from governmental and economic policies. The reasons for their existence tend to counter the very reason that settlements develop. Jordan (1996) lists these reasons as: an absence of the need for defence prompted by peace and security colonisation by individual pioneer families agricultural private enterprise rather than communalism unit-block farms rather than fragmented holdings a rural economy dominated by livestock rearing hilly and mountainous terrain readily available water. Alternatively, and generally in more modern times, such patterns can result from direct governmental action aimed at creating a more efficient agricultural system. It is often argued that in the economic sense dispersed settlement is superior as the time taken to travel from stead to fields in the village system is greater. Psychologists in Italy have noted that mental health often suffers in dispersed systems and that this could out-weigh the theoretical economic benefits. It is suggested here that the higher Carpathians tend to exhibit characteristics of a dispersed, scattered farmstead landscape, particularly form the Olt valley eastwards and then northwards into Ukraine. Evidence for this can be seen in: isolated farmsteads wider areas lacking clustered settlements tendency towards pastoralism | 1 | 2 | 3 | Page 1 of 3