ABSTRACT
The early histories of towns have left physical signs in the urban landscapes that we know today. These signs contribute significantly to our understanding of urban origins and provide links between present communities and their forebears. The imprint of the past is strongest in relation to the topographical organization of towns as expressed in the town plan. According to M. R. G. Conzen (1968: 116-17), the three fundamental form categories of the townscape are the town plan, the building fabric and the pattern of land and building utilization. Strictly speaking, the term 'town plan' means the cartographic representation of a town's physical layout to a predetermined scale. It consists of three elements: the association of streets in a street system, the individual plots and the ground-plan of the buildings. Of these distinct plan elements, the street system is the most persistent, providing the link with the early history of the town; it is, therefore, of the greatest value to the historical geographer and historian. However, archaeologists warn us to be cautious. Most present plans of medieval towns do not take us back to the original layout of a place at the time of foundation, but rather to a medieval phase, which was usually the result of various fundamental changes (Steuer 1988: 82).
