Imperiia: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuAboutDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Map ShelfTeach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
Orchard locator map
12022-07-06T15:45:28-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f593Military-topographical map by Semyon Mukhin (1817), edited and translated by Thomas Best Jervis (1855)plain2022-07-06T17:01:19-04:00courtesy of Harvard University, Harvard Map CollectionKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
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12022-07-06T16:47:48-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5MagarachKelly O'Neill2not shown; location based on other sourcesplain2022-07-06T16:53:57-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-07-06T16:22:21-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5mouth of the Belbek RiverKelly O'Neill1plain2022-07-06T16:22:21-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-07-06T16:22:44-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5mouth of the Kacha RiverKelly O'Neill1plain2022-07-06T16:22:44-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-07-06T16:23:16-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5mouth of the Alma RiverKelly O'Neill1plain2022-07-06T16:23:16-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
12022-07-06T15:59:00-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5Military-topographical map of Crimea (the Jervis edition)Kelly O'Neill4Military-topographical map by Semyon Mukhin (1817), edited and translated by Thomas Best Jervis (1855)plain2022-07-12T13:39:28-04:001817 - 1855Provided by Harvard University [https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/ids:52503112]Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
Prevalence in tree population: 4% (623 trees) Occurrence rate: 76%
Wild cherry, also known as sweet cherry, had a substantial presence in the gardens of Mishati and Kuchuk Uzen. 25% of all sweet cherries were near Kuchuk Uzen, and 29% near Sudak.
Karl Gablits identifies the tree as guignier (a French term based on the old Celtic word kign) - known throughout Europe as sweet cherry or wild cherry. It is an uncultivated tree that spreads, naturally, through forests.
Where did imperial officials count trees?
Move your cursor over the map below. White rectangles will appear showing the locations of villages with orchards containing sweet cherries.
12022-06-27T12:39:21-04:00Orchard Locator37Gardens of Crimea componentplain2023-01-10T00:01:32-05:00
Ready to turn the clock back to the early nineteenth century?
"Gardens of Crimea" highlights the 809 orchards registered as state properties in the early years of Russian imperial rule. The registers associate each orchard plot with one of eighty-nine villages, but for thirty we have data identifying tree quantities and types. Those thirty villages are highlighted in this project.
In 1817 a cartographer named Semyon Mukhin working for the Military Topographical Depot of the Russian General Staff produced a ground-breaking topographical survey map of Crimea. Mukhin published his map twenty-four years after the compilation of the garden registers - that is a meaningful amount of time in which all sorts of things changed. Wars, droughts, earthquakes, tragedies and triumphs of all kinds. Nevertheless, this is the first map produced at a scale that allows us a detailed look at the peninsula's topography. It allows us to see each village in its historical context. For example, here is the famous Baydar Valley.. The southern coast of Crimea runs along the bottom of the map detail. Balaklava is shown on the coast near the western edge. The Crimean mountains are depicted as a ridge line running west to east along the bottom. Areas rendered dark by hachures (lines representing elevation change) are set off from bright areas, some of which are at higher altitude (such as the alpine plateau at lower right) and some of which are low, such as the Baydar Valley at the center. The map describes the valley as partially forested, crossed by streams, and with a road running through the center.
Now for a bit of magic. What if you could see the same map, rendered in English instead of Russian? This is Thomas Best Jervis' 1855 edition of the same map. (How Mukhin's high-end military-topographical survey of Crimea ended up in British hands on the eve of the Crimean War is a story for another day.) You can see that the cartography and data are more or less unchanged. The 1855 English edition still claims, for example, that there were 80 households in the village of Baydar.
Let's use this later edition to orient ourselves to the space described in the registers. Move your cursor across the image to see the orchard locations. The villages are listed below as "tagged" pages - go to any location page by clicking the placename.
Prevalence in tree population: 40% (6,272 trees) Occurrence rate: 93%
The plum is by far the dominant tree on the orchard registers (hazelnuts are a distant second with 14% of the tree population). Plums were widespread and prominent, with an average of 224 trees in the collected gardens of each village (whereas the average number of apple trees was 25).
The registers tell us that nearly 80% of the quince trees grew near Sudak. Gablits, on the other hand, says that they grow in almost every garden he has investigated, and that they are particularly common in the mountains and just across the Kerch strait at Taman.
Where did imperial officials count trees?
Move your cursor over the map below. White rectangles will appear showing the locations of villages with orchards containing quinces.
