The Limits of "Landscape": Alternative Archaeologies of Space

The classical notion of landscape is strongly tied to western thought - and more particularly to North-Western Europe, were it developed during the Middle Ages within a specific context of people’s relationship to the land. It is furthermore closely related to the history of visual representation (including the invention of perspective and cartography), enlightenment science and western convictions about human-nature relationships. In this setting, the landscape came to refer to a sense of territoriality, visual perception and domination over nature (and others). However, we can safely assume that these values did not characterize human living space in the same way or to the same degree in deep history and/or other regions of the world. In accordance with recent trends in archaeological research and interpretation we are exploring critical reformulations of the landscape concept (e.g., "taskscape", "maritime landscape", "soundscape" etc.) as well as alternative notions (such as connectivity, heterotopia, liminality, etc.) that may better fit the spatial and cultural realities of distant societies, both in time and space. The classical landscape concept has its limits from a historical, cultural and intellectual point of view, and it is an explicit aim of this session to explore these limits and cross boundaries.