schapkaart

Schapkaart, literally meaning “sheep card” or “sheep map” in Dutch, is a term that appears mainly in historical and regional contexts rather than as a standardized modern term. In Dutch agrarian and rural administration sources, schapkaart is used to describe documents related to sheep husbandry and grazing management, though the exact form and purpose could vary by locality and period.

In some archival references, a schapkaart denotes a registered item associated with a flock: a card or record listing sheep ownership, movements, or veterinary status. In other contexts, the term refers to a geographic map that delineates grazing rights or the distribution of flocks across designated pastures. Some descriptions describe it as a certificate or deed that proved a person’s right to graze a certain number of sheep on specific parcels of land; others describe it as a map showing where flocks could be kept.

The term is most commonly encountered in studies of historical Dutch pasture use, rural governance, and regional agricultural practices. In contemporary usage, schapkaart is rarely employed; modern equivalents include the animal passport (dierenpaspoort) for individual animals and official land-use or pasture maps produced by agricultural authorities. The concept illustrates how historical regulation of sheep farming often relied on formal records and maps to manage access to grazing resources and to monitor flock movements.

Because schapkaart is not a standardized term across sources, its precise meaning depends on the historical document in question. Researchers encountering the term should consider the archival context to determine whether it refers to an ownership register, a grazing-right map, or a veterinary-related record.