Toponymic Aspects from Muşcelele Argeşului
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Geographica Timisiensis, vol. 18, nr. 1-2, 2009 (pp. 149-159)● TOPONYMIC ASPECTS FROM MUŞCELELE ARGEŞULUI Mihaela AVRAM Grupul Şcolar Corbeni, Judeţul Argeş Facultatea de Geografie, Universitatea Bucureşti Abstract. The minor toponymy of the hills called “muşcele” reflects the modifications appeared in the landscape as a reflex of the early humanization of this environment. The appellative “plai”, through its meanings of surface covered in pastures at the foot of the mountains, a road on a summit and an administrative district in the 15th to 19th centuries, through the frequency and diversity of the toponymes it generated, evokes the pastoral specific, the situation of the place on the roads used for moving the flocks and an aspect of the mediaeval administration. The appellative “muşcel”, hill covered in hay fields, pastures, orchards with fruit trees and tillage, inspired by its frequency the name Muşcelele Argeşului, proposed by the geographer V. Mihăilescu The large density of the microtoponymes makes possible the emphasize of the specializations of some surfaces in some occupations. The minor toponymy kept, as well, events that took place in this subdivision. Rezumat. Aspecte toponimice ale Muşcelelor Argeşului. Toponimia minoră a dealurilor numite „muşcele” reflectă modificările apărute în peisaj ca o consecinţă a umanizării timpurii a regiunii. Apelativul „plai”, prin sensurile sale de suprafaţă acoperită cu pajişti la baza munţilor, a unui drum sau pe o culme sau de district administrativ în secolele 15 sau 19, prin multitudinea şi diversitatea toponimelor pe care le-a generat, evocă specificul pastoral situarea locului pe drumurile folosite pentru transumanţă dar şi o formă administraţie medievală. Apelativul „muşcel” însemnând dealuri acoperite de fâneţe, păşuni, livezi sau terenuri cultivate, a inspirat toponimul Muşcelele Argeşului propus de geograful V. Mihăilescu. Marea densitate a microtoponimelor subliniază faptul că anumite zone sunt caracteristice anumitor ocupaţii. Toponimia minoră face referire şi la evenimente ce s-au petrecut în această subdiviziune. Key words: plai, muşcel, orchard, moving of flocks Cuvinte cheie: plai, muşcel, livadă, transhumanţă Plaiul, polysemantic geographical term, is largely used in Muşcelele Argeşului as well as in the entire country. Ion Conea was the first geographer who presented the meaning of this word in the North of Oltenia as “the surface of mountains from the contact with the Subcarpathian depression and up to the summit (mountain for the Romanian people is, everywhere, only the alpine pick, that means up from the superior border of the coniferous tree forest).” The geographer emphasized the much closer connection in the past with the mountain, from where the continuous dwelling of the plai and he specified that “taking the villages out of the plai is a rather recent event.” Continuing these observations of the plai in the North of 150 ● Toponymic aspects from Muşcelele Argeşului Oltenia, Dragoş Bugă speaks about the status of the inhabitants, that of moşneni* or freeholders, organized in village communities that administrate the mountains. “Plaiul is the mountain place in the nearest proximity of the villages, with smooth surfaces, little inclination in which people cut of the trees, set his mansion, cultivated the land and bred cattle.” Although they have a different structure than the hills in the North of Oltenia, Muşcelele Argeşului present at the contact with the mountain a faint inclination covered in pastures which the inhabitant name them plaiuri. In the strip of Subcarpathian hills, between Topolog and Dâmboviţa, well populated from early times, plaiurile kept in their microtoponymy prints of the human presence and activity (tables 1 and 2). Another meaning of the word plai is that of a road on the slope of a hill or mountain. Romulus Vulcănescu and Paul Simionescu classify these roads in the category of ancient roads, connected to the occupations. The old pastoral roads were used for the local grazing and for moving the flocks. These roads went beyond the village land, went up the mountain or down to the field (fig. 1). Plaiul Oii (The Sheep Plai), as a road for the moving shepherd, appears even today in the toponymy of muşcele although it lacks the function of providing a road for the flocks to the mountain through appropriate places for pasture. Thus the information gathered on the basis of ground investigations show: - Plaiul Tocii (The Bell Board Plai) along the interfluve of Doamnei – Vâlsan rivers, - Plaiul Oii (The Sheep Plai) along the interfluve of Argeş – Topolog rivers (fig. 2), - segments of roads called Plaiul Oii appear in the villages near the mountain: Sălătrucu de Sus, Poenari, Căpăţâneni, Nucşoara, Valea Mare-Pravăţ. Plaiul Bisericii (The Church Plai) represent a segment of the road called Drumul Oraşului (The Town Road) walked on foot, last centuries by the inhabitants of Nucşoara, Stăneşti, Slănic, Berevoieşti villages, when they went to Câmpulung. This road crossed Plaiurile Plăticăi until it was abandoned with the making of the road network. It remained as a testimony of the existence of a village (Clocotiva), disappeared nowadays, but mentioned in the Austrian map from 1790. In the present nomenclature of street and roads, plai is still used in Câmpulung, Plăieşti Street, in Gruiu (Nucşoara) village, Plaiului Street and in Cepari village, the road Plaiul Oii. The roads and plaiuri on which one can still find permanent settlements or temporal households are the testimony of a life in mountains which was taken into consideration when they had been given a separate administration. In Ţara Românească (The Romanian Country) plaiul was the institution created for the guard of the peripheral territory, of the “border” in the South of the Carpathians. The organization of “borders” and plaiuri in Transilvania and in Ţara Românească preceded the establishing of the borders on the mountain peaks, established in 1520, between the land lord Neagoe Basarab and the hospodar Ioan Zapolya, from Orşova to Olt. At the South of Carpathians the process of organizing the plais probably began around 1400 and ended at the beginning of the 16th century7. At the beginning of the 18th century 10 districts of Ţara Românească had a boundary with Transilvania. Among these were: Mihaela AVRAM ●151 - Muşcel District with Plaiul Dâmboviţa, with 15 villages and Plaiul Nucşoara, with 12 villages. - Argeş District with Plaiul Arefu, with 20 villages and Plaiul Loviştea with 20 villages. At the mountain passes was created a guarding system made by frontiers. Established out of economical and safety reasons, the frontiers interweaved with the tradition of moving the flocks. Its role ended in 1831, but for a long period of time were preserved echoes in toponymy and anthroponomy: - Gămăceşti village (Berevoieşti) was called Plaiaşu until the 19th century, - The hamlet Plai (Plaieşti in older maps) in the Arefu Depression is situated near a mountain pass. - The name Plaiaşu is to be found in the area of muşcele. The local research on the Valley of Argeş River in the Subcarpathian sector shows that the inhabitants give different meanings to the term of plai. Thus in the North of Arefu Depression, plaiul is the surface with faint inclination, not enclosed, at the foot of Ghiţu Massife (1622 m) crossed by a road, Plaiul Oii, which is continued through the mountain pass to the mountains. At the foot of the mountain one can found, as we showed above, the hamlet Plai. As we step away from the mountain, plai refers less to surfaces and more frequent roads and paths, as they appear on the territory of Cicăneşti commune: Plaiul Nuculeţului, Plaiul Pleşii, Plaiul Ciorii, Plaiul Hotarului, Plaiul Ponorului, and Plaiul Rugetului. In Oeşti, a pasture crossed by a road was called plai until its segmentation and enclosure of the plots. In the South part of the Valley of Argeş River, plai has the meaning of road, associated locally with the Verneşti lap which crosses the old road used by shepherds along the interfluve Argeş – Vâlsan. Concerning the origin of the word plai, Dragoş Bugă offers the word “plagium” which means slope in Latin4. The Explicative Dictionary of Romanian Language (1975 and 1998 editions) classifies it as unknown origin. Professor Ion Conea considered the word plai one of the oldest and most interesting in our language. Plaiul appears in the folklore from Muşcelele Argeşului as an element of the environment with the meaning of summit, road on a summit. In a song of outlawry, which tells events from the first half of the 19th century, that took place on the Valley of Vâlsan River, plai has the meaning of the falling of the grass in a file during haymaking1. * ………………………… Cu vergeaua mi-atingea ,, Dară Radu ce-mi făcea ? Să s-aşeze iarba-n ea, El de lucru că n-avea, Drumu prin păduri că-i da, Mâna pe durdă-mi punea, Copacii mi-i reteza, Băga iarbă cu poala, Crăcile plaiuri venea, Alicii cu chivăra, Lui Radu bine-i părea”. (Folclor din Oltenia şi Muntenia, volumul III, 1968, Editura pentru Literatură) ,,Frunză verde de susai, .......................................... De trei zile urc pe plai Şi iar verde de susai Cu merinde pe trei cai Mai sui un deal şi un plai Şi nimica nu mâncai La căpitan Neculai Numa la cuc ascultai. C-acolo-i izlaz de cai’’. (N.Gh. Teodorescu,1983, Folclor din Oeşti, Piteşti ) 152 ● Toponymic aspects from Muşcelele Argeşului The family of toponymes formed with the word “muşcel” holds a well known position in the Romanian toponymy in the Subcarpathian area, especially between Topolog and Dâmbovita. The geographical literature acknowledged the syntagm Muşcelele Argeşului, suggested in 1908 by I. Popescu-Voiteşti for this area, in which the affluents of the river Argeş deepened creating long ridges. The appellative “muşcel”, Small Mountain, a low peak, is derived according some opinions from “muncel”. This etymology has at its basis semantic reasons and phonetic analogies.