Guest Editorial

Landscape archaeology at the LAC2010 conference

1. LAC2010
This special volume of Quaternary International is dedicated to
the proceedings of the rst international Landscape Archaeological
Conference (LAC2010) held in January 2010 at the VU University in
Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The mission of the congress was to
have multiple sessions within which scholars from the different
academic disciplines could exchange and discuss research experi-
ences, theories and ideas. The conference attracted far more visitors
than originally expected, and was considered as successfully lling
an empty space in academia. The next conference, LAC2012, will be
organized by the Freie Universitt Berlin. Here, the proceedings of
the LAC2010 are presented in twelve papers, covering the wide eld
of landscape archaeology. Inadditionto this special volume, 35 other
papers derived fromabstracts of LAC2010 are published in a publica-
tion of Landscape and Heritage Series (LHS), Amsterdam University
Press (Kluiving and Guttmann, in press). This volume is published
as a separate proceedings volume next to the volume of Kluiving
and Guttmann (in press). Important features are the denitions
used of the word landscape that can be confusing in the minds of
researchers of different disciplines. Therefore a short historical
account will be given here on the use of the term landscape as
well as the emergence of the study of landscape archaeology.
2. History of landscape archaeology
Originally the term landscape was used in two different mean-
ings, a more traditional version which can in essence be traced back
to classical times and a visual perceived denition of landscape
originating from Dutch painters during the 17th century that re-
introduced the word in the English language (Olwig, 1993, 1996;
Schama, 1995; David and Thomas, 2008). The rst denition of
the word landscape includes a natural and cultural version and is
also explained as a medieval meaning of a territory that is governed
and managed by institutions (Renes, 2011). Landscapes according
to this denition can be considered as subjective as well as objec-
tive, while they can be investigated and mapped at the same time
by eldwork, laboratory studies and archival study (Renes, 2011;
Kluiving and Guttmann, in press). The second denition started
when painters started to visualize landscapes in their paintings,
creating a more visual meaning of the word landscape that creates
the denition within ones mind. According to this perceived de-
nition there exists no landscape without an observer (Renes, 2011).
The development of geographical research within the last
centuries was very much tied to national institutions as well as
the course of social processes. In Germany in the 19th century
the science of geography was merely synonymous with physical
geography as shown by the inuential work of Alexander von Hm-
boldt and Carl Ritter (Beck, 1973, 1979). Within the course of the
19th century most geographers saw human activities as strongly
dened by the forces of the natural landscape (Ratzel, 1882). In
the beginning of the 20th century this approach changed in France
where a new generation of geographers dened a growing role for
human societies in landscape research (Vidal de la Blache, 1922).
Elsewhere in the United States the concept of a cultural landscape
was introduced, dened as a landscape that owes much of its char-
acter to human intervention (Sauer, 1925). This Berkeley school of
American Cultural Geography considered landscapes as continu-
ally changing, stressing the point that the study of cultural land-
scapes is synonymous with the study of landscape history. It is
claimed that one of the rst steps to be taken in historical geog-
raphy is to retrieve and understand the former cultural landscape
that is concealed behind the present day landscape (Sauer,
1941). The latter statement can be considered as one of the research
aims of landscape archaeology and landscape history (Kluiving and
Guttmann, in press).
During the course of the 20th century a growing sense of inter-
disciplinary landscape studies evolved, with the emerging eld of
landscape archaeology. In France a histoire totale was published
of the Mediterranean world in the time of Philip II, in which archive
research, landscape topography, and cultural, economic and polit-
ical developments were combined (Braudel, 1949). Geography
was becoming increasingly interdisciplinary; economics and soci-
ology were becoming an important element of landscape studies
(Sauer, 1941). Also in the eld of Natural History, a range of separate
subjects (botany, biology, geology etc.) were taught together,
considered as being part of interacting natural systems, and were
grouped under the all-encompassing eld of Ecology (Odum,
1953). In the United Kingdom Hoskins was the rst to publish on
a systematic historical evolution of the landscape, where he drew
together physical geography, economic and social history and aerial
photographs (Hoskins, 1955).
Since the 1960s, landscape has been the subject of environ-
mental archaeology; using models from the earth sciences as well
as cultural ecology, landscapes have been conceptualized predom-
inantly as the natural environments determining human behavior
or as a backdrop to human action (Caldwell 1959; Binford 1962;
Trigger, 1989). This movement, Processualism, emphasized a scien-
tic approach that was built into the research project designs, and
brought together archaeology, anthropology and natural history
(Caldwell, 1959).
Since the 1980s onwards, however, ancient landscapes have
been studied and interpreted from social and cultural perspectives
as well, using insights from social anthropology, social theory and
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philosophy. Within the new school of post-processual landscape
research, it is not so much the mechanisms of human adaptation
to changing natural circumstances that deserves attention, as the
ways in which people in the past perceived and ordered their envi-
ronments differently according to space, time and culture (Hodder,
1986; Bender, 1998). Additionally, new diachronic approaches have
been developed that highlight the continuous reuse of monuments
and the constant reordering of landscapes within subsequent soci-
eties with different social, ritual and mnemonic systems, such as
the cultural biography of landscape (Kolen, 2005). A full account
of history in landscape archaeology can be found in Kluiving and
Guttmann (in press).
3. Landscape archaeology today
Landscape Archaeology today is the result of the progress in
interdisciplinary developments in multiple sciences discussed in
the previous section. The basic division appears to be grounded
in the two types of landscape denitions. This leads to different
studies of landscapes research which has become visible during
e.g., LAC2010, and as is present in this special volume.
Landscape archaeology is a discipline that is applied in natural
and cultural perspectives, by geologists, physical geographers,
archaeologists, historical geographers, and anthropologists. There-
fore landscape archaeology often too has as many denitions, of
which a few are cited here, also from the volume by Kluiving and
Guttmann (in press). Landscape archaeology is understood in
archaeology as the following: if archaeology involves study of
people (present and past) through their material and if landscape
is perception of an area that has been affected by both natural
and human actions (Council of Europe, 2000), then landscape
archaeology should necessarily be widely inclusive in terms of
subject, method and discipline (Herring, in press).
It is argued that landscape archaeology is any academic
approach which concentrates on the social construction of space
(Meier, in press). Landscape archaeology is dened from a cultural
point of viewas the way people of the past shaped the land around
them, consciously or unconsciously. On the other hand it is sug-
gested that a continuing forum for Europe- (or world-) wide medi-
tation on the character, theories, methods and aims of Landscape
Archaeology, such as LAC2010, is much-needed, not least because
a well-dened understanding of ones own disciplinary position
is the essential prelude to interdisciplinary fusion (Fairclough,
in press).
Landscape archaeology is also considered as the study of the
natural environment as the habitat of ancient and present people
(e.g., Blttermann et al., 2012; Derese et al., 2012; Wartenberg
and Freund, 2012), and where landscape is considered a complex
system controlled by external factors, especially climate change
inuencing the introduction of agriculture (Phillipps et al., 2012).
The idea and mission behind LAC2010 was to position the disci-
plines mixed with each other in oral and poster sessions, and
within conference themes, such as: a) How did landscape change?
b) How to improve temporal, chronological, and transformational
frameworks in landscape archaeological research? c) Linking
lowlands to mountainous area d) Applying concepts of scale, dis-
cussed the differences between disciplines in their scope of
research, altitude differences and size of study area; e) New tech-
nology discusses the novel techniques that are currently employed
in research; f) a nal theme is about the role of landscape archae-
ology for the future. The 154 abstracts of LAC2010 divided over
these six themes are published digitally (VU IGBA Publications,
2010). The background and subthemes behind these conference
themes are fully discussed in Kluiving and Guttmann (in press).
4. Special volume
In this volume, twelve papers derived from the LAC2010 confer-
ence are presented, each paper leaning either on the territorial
denition of landscape or to the perceived version while showing
variable degrees of interdisciplinarity. All papers originating from
this Special Volume are cited in the text without publication year
and should be read as in this issue.
Derese et al. (2012) report with luminescence age dating that
Final Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic settlement phases at Are-
ndonk and Lommel in the Campine region (NE Belgium) are correl-
ative with aeolian sediments and are stratigraphically separated.
The continuation of sand transport and deposition across the Late
Pleniglacial/Late Glacial boundary may explain why human socie-
ties did not occupy the Campine region until the Allerd. During
this interstadial, environmental conditions improved sufciently
to attract Federmessergruppen to settle on higher grounds in the
area.
The climate deteriorated again at the onset of the Late Dryas
and, as a consequence, aeolian activity intensied again, which
may have caused the Federmesser people to leave the area. The
study illustrates clearly how luminescence dating contributes to
an improved understanding of the changing environmental context
around archaeological sites. Derese et al. (2012) understand land-
scape more or less as a geomorphological process-response-
system which shows stability and instability phases; perhaps as
the focus of this paper is on the Paleolithic period human impact
is not considered even not as a trigger affecting these processes.
Wartenberg and Freund (2012) present new core data from the
present day tidal at sediment body of the Jade Bay in Lower
Saxony, Northwest Germany. The onset of the basal peat started
in this region at around 7000 cal BP, varying from 1150 years of
development to even 2200 years, leaving any potential marker of
a possible upper peat horizon blank. Qualitative pollen analysis of
the basal peat of the western- and central Jade Bay may lead to
the conclusion, that the corresponding palaeoenvironment started
up with a dried out bog peat to moor vegetation and, before marine
conditions became dominant, ending up under soggy conditions. At
50504750 cal BP, the aggradation process stopped and gave way to
marine inundation advancing southwards being accompanied by
the deposition of tidal at sediments.
The authors conclude that Neolithic people may have occupied
the Jade Bay area earlier than previously known. Wartenberg and
Freund (2012) identify the landscape of the Jades Bay as the result
of repeatedly interchanging processes of (basal) peat formation, sea
level rise, and deposition of tidal deposits. They reconstruct the
Holocene evolution of the Jade Bay as the development of a natural
landscape, analyzing sedimentary archives to reconstruct the
regional environmental conditions. The pollen data analysed give
information on early settlements; however, the interrelation
between inundation and regression processes and settlements,
including mining and usage of peat and resulting processes such
as inundation are not considered.
The paper by Al Kwatli (2012) deals with the Al-Lajat plateau in
southern Syria which is a Quaternary volcanic eld hosting
numerous historical and archaeological sites. The authors present
a new map of lithological boundaries of the main lava ows in
a study of alteration patterns of ferric, ferrous, and clay minerals.
A chronoalteration model highlights the role of climatic changes
in the distribution of the minerals at the surface of the volcanic
rocks as a function of the ages. The model is based on the integra-
tion of KAr geochronology and remote sensing methods.
The study illustrates that integrating dating and remote sensing
data are important for mapping the location and timing of past
volcanic activity, but can also be used to identify the sources of
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 251 (2012) 16 2



archaeological tools and architecture in volcanic areas. The under-
standing of landscape of Al Kwatli (2012) is comparable to those
described by Derese et al. (2012) and Wartenberg and Freund
(2012), even when the methodological toolbox is different: their
study is an example to understand landscape as the result of
geologic processes that provide raw materials for usage as archae-
ological tools.
Blttermann et al. (2012) carried out a landscape reconstruction
for the late Holocene in the Land of the Seven Rivers, Kazakhstan, to
investigate the environmental conditions during the prehistoric
nomadic occupation of the Sakes (w1st mill. BC). In a detailed
geomorphological characterization of the present landscape (relief,
landforms and landscape units) close to Sakian graves, two
sampling locations were sedimentologically analysed: a)
radiocarbon-dated late Holocene colluvial deposits and b) uvial
deposits of assumed late Pleistocene to early Holocene age. Sedi-
ments chemical and mineralogical components are investigated
to identify synsedimentary weathering conditions. The results
point out that during the late Holocene increased erosion processes
occurred in the catchment also during the settlement of the Sakian
people. However, the Sakian people had a detailed knowledge
about their natural environment because they placed their curgans
on alluvial fans which have been undisturbed by erosional
processes within the last 2500 years.
Blttermann et al. (2012) have a holistic approach to dene
landscape in their overall research project; however, in this paper
exogenic processes are the predominant characters of the land-
scapes at least in the meta scale. Also, landscape is understood
here as the environment where humans settled (here: the prehis-
toric nomadic occupation of the Sake), but landscape reacted to
these impacts with changes in processes, as it is documented by
erosional forms such as gullies and colluvial deposits.
The study of Heyvaert et al. (2012) focuses on the Late Holocene
oodplain history of the Karkheh River in Mesopotamia, SWIran. In
a multidisciplinary approach they document geological, geomor-
phological, archaeological and historical data. Including mapping
proxy as well as historical data, they identify at least two river shifts
during the past 2000 years, and in this way can even indicate the
magnitude and frequency of the events. Results also point out
that modern irrigation measures utilize some of these old irrigation
structures. However, this multiproxy-approach allows the authors
to point out that Late Holocene river shifts were strongly inuenced
by human interference.
Heyvaert et al. (2012) present an integrated approach and
demonstrate human inuence on the landscape, in the sense that
the landscape endures natural change in river processes, that can
be initiated by natural as well as cultural processes as was shown
in the latter case by historical records.
The paper of Phillipps et al. (2012) deals with the human occu-
pation of the Egyptian Western Desert during the Holocene. They
pointed out, that the occupation in this dry region is linked with
the summer monsoon, the position and intensity of the Inter-
Tropical Convergence Zone and the use of internal lakes and playas
fed by summer rain. In contrast, such correlations are absent for the
Fayum region of Egypt where occupation instead correlates with
mid-Holocene increases in intensity of Mediterranean winter rain-
fall. Lake Qarun in the Fayumwas the only lake where Near Eastern
plant domesticates was used during the early-mid Holocene period.
Analysis of radiocarbon determinations is presented which
suggests that unlike later agriculture in the Nile Valley early use
of domesticates in the Fayum involved a dependence on winter
rains for cereal cultivation following the Mediterranean growth
seasons. It is proposed that the switch to a winter growing season
after summer inundation occurred later, probably as part of key
socio-economic changes during the Egyptian Predynastic period.
One way to use the term landscape is to understand it as the
habitat of people, where climate and the resulting local water
budget provide the conditions for plant growth. In this sense
Phillipps et al. (2012) point out that landscape is a complex system
controlled by external factors, especially climate change. Within
their mid-Holocene temporal focus humanenvironment interac-
tion is understood in natural deterministic ways, with humans
reacting on environmental changes, while not creating landscape.
In contrast, the study of Cubizolle et al. (2012) points out that
the Late Holocene shaping of landscape is due to strong human
impact based on a data set of 83 basal peat dates collected in mires
of the eastern part of the French Massif Central. They identify the
local expansion of peat deposits in thick deposits as well as in
marginal areas. Based on radiocarbon ages they can clearly identify
peat initiation during the past 4500 years, based on pollen analysis
they can associate this process to agricultural expansion while
a dependency to climate change cannot be discounted. Peat initia-
tion is correlated to early watershed management measures
according to control runoff.
Consequently, Cubizolle et al. (2012) point out long-term reac-
tions of landscape on short-term measures. These might be ex-
pected in the future as a consequence of implementing the
European Water Framework Directive clearly showing the value
of landscape archaeology for present day landscape preservation
measures. Interestingly they show that their study also formulates
new future research in landscape archaeology on a higher resolu-
tion within the past 500 years: the relationships between agricul-
tural activities and changes in soil water balance and their
inuence on soil development.
Ballut et al. (2012) discuss the sedimentary record and historical
archives of the Chane des Puys, a great collection of extinct volca-
noes that belongs to the Natural Regional Park of Auvergne Volca-
noes, France. The paper presents a sediment core with a continuous
record obtained froma small maar, localized on a volcano. Owing to
physical, chemical, palaeoecological and historical analyses, this
study gives a more precise recording of the landscape changes
during the last 500 years in the volcanic area. Progression and
regression of the forest relate to erosive crises related to more
intensive grazing activity. Observations are linked with the social
and economic changes, especially with the consequences of the
French Revolution and the rural depopulation. The study demon-
strates that even if the Chane des Puys landscape looks like natural,
it has been shaped by a very specic socio-economical system
inherited from the Middle Ages.
Ballut et al., (2012) focus on the historical time scale and thus
human impact on landscape gets increasingly the character of
controlling landscape forming processes and shaping landscape.
Human impact on landscape is observed as something that changes
landscape in its matter uxes, which themselves cause changes in
habitat quality. Human impact is not only a process to use land-
scape for farming but also includes measures to improve landscape
suitability for farming. Due to the young time frame focused in this
study, humanenvironment relationships are predominantly seen
as cultural deterministic: Landscape is not understood as a xed
image, but as a dynamic system, continuously underlying changes
in natural or social factors (climate, farming practices, demography,
economic rules) affecting dynamics (forest spread or regression,
erosion, opening/closure, natural or cultural appearance).
This integrative point of landscape views shown in the previous
sets of papers gets even more accentuated in the next ve papers
documenting the value of landscape archaeology in interplay of
cultural and natural processes, each with a different focus: a)
management of the subsurface with geological and anthropogenic
3D modeling, b) review of landscape studies within the concept of
(nature embedded in) domesticated landscapes, c) the long-term
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 251 (2012) 16 3



history of people and their interaction with the landscape in
processes of policy making, planning and decision and, nally,
d) the human perception out of prose and poetry dening a struc-
turing role with regard to the cultural landscape.
The landscape of many historic cities is dened by a rich diver-
sity of geological and anthropogenic processes (de Beer, 2012). In
this paper it is shown that 3D geological and anthropogenic models
at different scales can provide a holistic system for the manage-
ment of the subsurface, with the 3D framework modeling at Bryg-
gen in Norway presented as an example. This system with spatial
and process models is able to assess the preservation potential
for buried heritage. Such a model is thus contributing to a decision
support system for sustainable urban (re)development and regen-
eration in cities, while preserving cultural heritage. A collaborative
approach is proposed to enhance research and implementation of
combined geological and archaeological modeling for sustainable
land use planning and heritage preservation, using York (UK) and
Bryggen in Norway as prime examples.
de Beer (2012) present an applied approach of landscape
archaeological research as a basis for planning at heritage sites/
heritage cities. The authors demonstrate that to cope with these
challenges, it is required to understand the interaction of geologic
and anthropogenic processes. Focus is on the disturbance of
archaeological or historical ndings by natural and quasi-natural
processes.
Widgren (2012) raises the intriguing research question: when
did nature became embedded in human systems? The author refers
to Clark Ericksons concept of domesticated landscapes or anthro-
pogenic biomes (Erickson, 2006). By the way in dening the factors
affecting as well as the processes shaping the landscape the prior-
ities in Widgren s understanding get obvious: Different social
formations result in different landscapes, but landscapes also
have an earthly inertia. The author repeatedly points out, that
.specic understanding of time and place is shared by Quater-
nary geology, landscape archaeology, and historical geography,
and distinguishes them from both history and physics.
Widgren (2012) states that landscape archaeologists are faced
with the challenge howto relate to values, relevance, and the polit-
ical use of their results, which demands greater conceptual and
theoretical rigour from integrative landscape studies. Efforts to
establish an integrated human/environment history of the earth
are seriously hampered by the data imbalances between the
sciences and the humanities from such a long-term perspective.
This difference in the availability of quantitative data at a global
level will always privilege the natural sciences in such a synthesis.
The concept of social-ecological systems is criticised for its reduc-
tion of the complexity and human agency involved in land use. In
contrast the concept of a world that has for several millennia been
one of domesticated landscapes offers an approach that can incor-
porate and integrate humanist as well as scientic considerations.
Groenewoudt (2012) emphasizes that the understanding of
landscape forming processes and their triggers is most relevant to
cope the present day requirements to manage landscape changes.
Understanding processes of landscape change are prerequisites
for the maintenance and development of specic landscape- or
natural values. The relevance is discussed of landscape historical
information and insights into the management of historical land-
scapes. The focus of the study is on the Netherlands, especially
the Pleistocene eastern part of the country. Here, two dominant
long-term processes of landscape change can be distinguished:
drowning and desertication.
Long-term studies of landscape dynamics contribute to the
historical acceptance of solutions to current challenges and prob-
lems, and to the dissociation of processes of policy making, plan-
ning and decision from current fashions. The combination of
Landscape Development Plans and the concept of landscape biog-
raphy prove to be an effective strategy to achieve this. In managing
change the landscape biography is used as a guiding principle,
a concept developed in Dutch landscape studies that enable
researchers to consider landscape, starting from the present, not
only as a physical, but also as a social and a mental reality (e.g.,
Jacobs, 2006). Groenewoudt (2012) concludes that insight into
the long-term history of people and their interaction with land-
scapes can effectively inspire and shape future developments, espe-
cially on a regional and local level.
van Wijngaarden (2012) poses that to understand the human
perception of landscapes in the past, archaeologists would require
knowledge of the stories that are connected to cultural and physical
landscape features. Such stories can be accessed through written
literature: poetry and prose. The epic myth of Homers Odyssey
has strong interconnections to the landscape of the Ionian Islands
in Greece. However, the epic text itself has played an important
role in the formation of the archaeological record, in the way that
classical scholarship in the region has developed in public percep-
tions of archaeology and history.
Because of the extremely long narrative history, Homers
Odyssey has played a structuring role with regard to the cultural
landscape. Written literature, whether it is poetry or prose, consti-
tutes a powerful tool to understand better the structuring role of
immaterial stories with regard to the physical landscape, not only
by looking for facts such as names and associations, but also with
the help of linguistics, literary theory and heritage studies.
5. Discussion
The varieties of papers in this special volume very well reect
the status of research in landscape archaeology today. One the
one hand papers use the term landscape in its original meaning.
Papers from a geological and physical geographical background in
this volume are presented by Al Kwatli (2012), Blttermann et al.
(2012), Derese et al. (2012) and Wartenberg and Freund (2012). In
these earth scientic papers the role of archaeology can be consid-
ered on the side line. In one case archaeology is used to dene the
rationale behind the research of volcanic deposits in, as well as to
formulate a research method to date archaeological tools (Al
Kwatli, 2012). Derese et al. (2012) established by means of OSL
dating a correlation between aeolian activity, and the disappear-
ance of human societies. The research contributes to an improved
understanding of the landscape dynamics during the Weichse-
lianHolocene transition in the Belgian Campine region in general,
and of the environmental variables that may have inuenced
settlement patterns in particular. Blttermann et al. (2012) present
a landscape reconstruction based on sedimentology and geochem-
istry to relate to the location of burial mounds of the Sakian people
in Kazakhstan. Coastal landscape reconstruction in the past 7000
years in Jade Bay, Lower Saxony is tied to habitation phases dating
to Neolithic Age (Wartenberg and Freund, 2012).
In contrast to these on the natural environment either in its
development or in its character as a habitat focusing approaches,
the papers by Ballut et al. (2012), de Beer (2012), Cubizolle et al.
(2012), Heyvaert et al. (2012), and Phillipps et al. (2012) try a more
integrative approach. The paper of Phillipps et al. (2012) can be
considered a well-integrated approach in landscape archaeology,
where a regional comparison of radio carbon data is linked with
precipitation data, local water budgets, growth seasons and socio-
economic changes. Ballut et al. (2012) discuss landscape changes of
the past 500 years with sediment properties of short sediment cores
together with historical analyses. Changes in the forest state, grazing
activity as well as erosive phases are related to a very specic socio-
economical systeminherited fromthe Middle Ages, which ts in the
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 251 (2012) 16 4



concept of domesticated landscapes (Widgren, 2012). de Beer (2012)
show that a difference in spatial scale forms the essence of the rela-
tion between archaeology and geology: the scale of operation in
geological processes range from kilometers to millimeters, while
anthropogenic processes operate at 10s of meters to millimeters.
The paper shows both spatial scales in a new approach that will be
the future of new integrated research where even in 3D models
archaeological problems can be solved with geological answers and
vice versa. Heyvaert et al. (2012) indicate clearly human inuence
on Late Holocene river shifts of Iranian Karkheh River. Simulta-
neously they notice that modern irrigation measures utilize old
drainage patterns. Cubizolle et al. (2012) even point out the Late
Holocene development of peats is independent from or even
contrary to climate changes in the French Massif Central as a conse-
quence of landscape conservation measures thus, showing another
dimension of quasi-natural landscapes.
The papers by Groenewoudt (2012), Widgren (2012) and van
Wijngaarden (2012) build a strong contrast to the approaches
seen in some other papers in this Special Volume where landscape
is treated and understood as the reconstruction of the Quaternary
landscape as shaped by endogenic and exogenic processes and as
provided to humans for settlement. Widgren (2012) discusses the
changes in landscape set out against the controversy (or
dichotomy) of nature vs. culture. Groenewoudt (2012) considers
landscape forming processes and their triggers leading to manage-
ment planning against a background of long-term interacting
natural and cultural processes, while van Wijngaarden (2012)
tracks the interconnections between the immaterial stories and
the physical world of geology and archaeology in a landscape as
the environment of settlement.
6. Concluding remarks
Evaluating the papers presented in this special volume of
Quaternary International on Landscape Archaeology, focusing the
usage of the term landscape, some interesting differences can be
identied showing strong links to the disciplinary origin of the
authors. The dual denitions of landscape in a territorial and
a perceived meaning can be read through the papers, where the
territorial landscape denition basically also inherits a material
cultural as well as a physical variety. Striking is the general avail-
ability as well as the necessity to integrate sciences to answer
research questions. The LAC2010 research theme of howlandscape
did change can be addressed quite differently which is demon-
strated by the contributions of Blttermann et al. (2012),
Cubizolle et al. (2012), Groenewoudt (2012) and Heyvaert et al.
(2012). While all four contributions deal with landscape evolution,
Blttermann et al. (2012) focus on the natural landscape changes,
Cubizolle et al. (2012) and Heyvaert et al. (2012) compare natural
as well as human inuences on landscape evolution, while
Groenewoudt (2012) specically discusses human interaction
with the environment as well as the concept of perceived land-
scapes. The question of when nature became embedded in cultural
systems (Widgren, 2012) stems from the LAC2010 research cluster
of improving temporal, spatial and transformational frameworks.
Chronologies in landscape evolution with respect to stratigraphy
and palaeoclimatology were addressed by Derese et al. (2012)
and respectively Phillipps et al. (2012) while the relation between
landscape transformations by humans and landscape evolution
by natural processes is shown by Widgren (2012). Dynamic interac-
tions between people and their mountainous landscapes are high-
lighted by Ballut et al. (2012), lling the LAC2010 research theme of
linking landscapes of lowlands to mountainous areas. There is
a classic difference between concepts of scales in geological and
archaeological research; Wartenberg and Freund (2012) address
the wider landscape of Jade Bay, with the large scale process of
sea level rise history and its impact on coastal habitation patterns.
An interesting future research question is to look into national and
even intra-national scales to check the spatial variability in these
patterns. New methodologies in landscape archaeological studies
are addressed with 3D modeling by de Beer (2012) especially their
approach with the interaction of geological and anthropogenic
processes. Al Kwatli (2012) show that integrating dating and
remote sensing data are important for the mapping of location
and timing of past volcanic activity processes that provide raw
materials for usage as archaeological tools. Finally van
Wijngaarden (2012) shows the impact of using historical records,
especially in the original form of poetry and prose, in future land-
scape archaeological research.
Summarizing, landscape should be taken as a complex process-
response system, shaped by natural and cultural processes,
including that human impact might intensify the natural processes
by land use and might develop adaption or controlling strategies,
while on the other hand natural processes like climate change
will inuence the introduction of agriculture. Within the broad
scope of LAC2010 it can be argued that the focus of landscape
archaeology should be on the reconstruction of spatial environ-
ments and their shaping by humans as they adapt to the natural
environment during settlement. This includes analyzing the inter-
relationship between natural conditions and modes of adaptation
with a focus on the formation of space (Schtt and Meyer, 2011),
including the social construction of space (Meier, in press).
Multidisciplinary research leading to new interdisciplinary
disciplines, e.g., landscape archaeology, commonly bears the risk
that from the monodisciplinary perspective such interdisciplinary
work may be looked upon in a rather critical way. An unintentional
side-effect is that this critical view on this new developing eld of
research between arts and science, as presented in this Special
Volume, hinders the advancement of the eld because national
and international funding bodies are still organized in a monodisci-
plinary way (Kars, 2010). Recent developments such as interdisci-
plinary sessions on geoarchaeology and/or landscape archaeology
at international conferences such as the American Geophysical
Union (AGU), the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and the Euro-
pean Association of Archaeologists (EAA) demonstrate the need to
combine and synthesize data from different disciplines. Based on
the results of LAC2010, currently there is more integration and
collaboration with respect to the various (sub-) disciplines involved
in landscape archaeology (Kluiving and Guttmann, in press; this
Special Volume). The methodology in many papers covers multiple
disciplines and also shows that various examples of collaboration
exist between archaeologists, historical geographers and earth
scientists. Fromhere it follows that the future will showmore inter-
disciplinary studies within the arts and sciences, better integrated
landscape archaeological research and establishing new scientic
interdisciplinary networks such as LAC2010 and LAC2012.
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Sjoerd J. Kluiving*
Institute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology, Earth and Life Sciences
VU University, De Boelelaan 1085 (Room WN-O-439),
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Frank Lehmkuhl
Department of Geography, RWTH Aachen University,
Aachen, Germany
Brigitta Schtt
Physische Geographie, Freie Universitt Berlin, Germany
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sjoerd.kluiving@falw.vu.nl
Available online 17 October 2011
Guest Editorial / Quaternary International 251 (2012) 16 6