In the past, small technical operations had a strong place in the life and economy of rural communities. Past generations were helped to process crops, with their help some raw materials and finished products were produced. Modernization and new technologies caused many of them to become obsolete during the 19th and 20th centuries, stagnated, until they irretrievably disappeared. Traces testifying to the existence of these operations have been preserved only in archival documents, on visual materials – and more than once in human memory. The book “Traces of Human Ingenuity” summarizes a three-year interdisciplinary research of small technical operations on the territory of the former Rožnov manor. The author’s team describes the nature and technological specifics of the monitored operations, their economic, social, cultural and landscape connections. The reader will be able to familiarize himself with the trace of these devices in the local verbal tradition as well as the reflection in individual and collective memory.
