Mittelalterliche Hufenmaße als siedlungsgeschichtliche Quellen

In the Middle Ages, land-area was expressed in terms of the hide (Mansus). It can be documentarily proved that this was a fixed unit in surveying. From their variation in size according to locality and their subdivision into acres and rods, different types of hide can be discerned, each of definite dimensions. The surveying-systems of Northern Germany could therefore, it would seem, be regarded as a source of information for the study of settlement in the general history of mediaeval colonisation.