Not Landscape: Landscape Archaeology as Bricolage

Summary

The late 80s and 90s saw an explosion of landscape studies in archaeology. The notion of landscape was herald as a ‘usefully ambiguous concept’ (Gosden and Head 1994) that was to be applied everywhere only to be later scrutinized and criticized. The emergent interest in landscapes helped archaeologists expand their understanding of the widely diverse range of relationships people maintain with their surroundings, and precipitated a renewed interest in the study of landscapes at a more intimate and experiential scale. It did little, however, to clarify the links, the middle range, that allow archaeologists to connect material evidences with sought out narratives. The following paper is meant as a work in progress where I try to uncover the essential components that make up an archaeological approach to the study of landscape. The orientation I proffer calls for an approach that is analytical in spirit, and that most likely resembles an act of bricolage. It does not seek out the pursue of the next theoretical concept but instead concerns itself with what characterizes a landscape archaeology study.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• The Limits of "Landscape": Alternative Archaeologies of Space

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14987