What is next? Methodological solutions for the study of archaeological landscapes: Comparative perspectives

Landscape Archaeology Conference - LAC 2024

Alcalá de Henares. España
Congreso. 2024

The landscape is a dynamic whole, a palimpsest of activities, uses, perceptions, appropriations and meanings that human societies make of and give to the environment in which they live.

Therefore, landscape is a dynamic cumulative whole, which on the one hand generates traces in the morphology of the landscape, making it possible to identify and characterise archaeological sites and, on the other, hinders their identification, masking past traces. In this struggle of opposites, archaeologists face different challenges in the location and study of these archaeological sites, regardless of the chronology to which they belong or the area in which they are located. The construction of infrastructures, the reforestation of ancient wooded areas, the terracing of hillsides to create agricultural terraces, the massive planting of dry crops such as olives or vines, the environmental and ecological conditions, different vegetation cover… are some examples of natural features and anthropic modifications of the landscape that have affected the preserved material traces of past societies.

This session is based on the collaboration between different organisations and institutions, distributed in different areas of the Iberian Peninsula with different landscape characteristics but similar problems when dealing with the archaeological study of these landscapes. The aim is to establish debate and contributions that are not only interdisciplinary but also intergenerational, with different theoretical and methodological perspectives that can be applied in their research projects by people who are beginning their research careers and others who have long experience.

The aim of this session is to offer a space in which the problems of the study of archaeological landscapes and the different methodological solutions applied are presented. In this way, the main contribution of this session is to share concerns and challenges that may arise from the study of these landscapes, generating dialogue and collaborative relationships to offer possible solutions and thus improve the study of past human societies.