26th to 28th January 2010

We are pleased to announce the first Landscape Archaeological Conference that is organised by the Institute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology (IGBA), Research Institute for the Heritage and History of Cultural Landscape and Urban Environment (CLUE) and the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) of the Netherlands at the VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Major features of the conference will be:

• Six main themes – details below
• Oral prsentations
• Poster sessions
• Conference dinner (27th of January 2010)
• Excursion (29th of January 2010)

LAC2010 is sponsored by:

Preliminary Program

Preliminary Program LAC2010 Conference 26-28 january 2010

Theme 1 : How did landscape change?

Vermeulen, F. (KEYNOTE): How did the landscape change?: a diachronic approach to the humanised landscape
Bos, J.A.A., Bouman, M.I.T.J., Moolhuizen, C. & Moor, J.J.W. de: The Hanzelijn Nieuweland archeological investigation (NE Flevoland, The Netherlands); the reconstruction of a buried landscape using a multi-disciplinary approach
Cubizolle, H., Fassion, F., Argant, J., Latour, C. & Chatelard, S.: Peat accumulation and agricultural expansion for the end of the Neolithic period in the Massif Central (France): what causal links and what implications for the conservation of mires?
Currás, A., Zamora, L., Alonso, N., Julià, R., Junyent, E., López, J.B., Riera, S., Marqués, M.A., Mezquita, F. & Armengol, J.:  Landscape evolution during the last 3,000 years in a semi-arid region (the Urgell Plain, Ebro Basin, NE Spain): Integration of anthropogenic and natural sedimentary records
Fowler, M., Needham, A. & Taylor, B.: Social landscapes? Reciprocal practices and shared  resources in Early Prehistory
Hosoya, L.A.: The ‘Routine-scape’ of Broad Spectrum Farming Society-Ethnoarchaeological approach to East Asian early rice farmers’ perception of dynamic landscape and its transformation
Kels, H., Lehmkuhl, F., Sitlivy, V., Richter, J., Uthmeier, T.: CRC 806 - The “Eastern Trajectory”: Last Glacial Palaeogeography and Archaeology in the Romanian Banat
Wilkinson, K., Marini, N., Mazet, S., Branch, N. & Llobera, M.: The Neolithic of La Balagne, Corsica: a landscape archaeology approach
Theme 2: Improving temporal, chronological and transformational frameworks

Widgren, M. (KEYNOTE): From domesticated landscapes to engineered
Baeteman, C.: Roman peat-extraction pits as possible evidence for the timing of coastal changes: An example from the Belgian coastal plain
Bunbury, J., Spence, K. & Smith, G.: Ancient Egyptian Gold Exploitation in the Sesebi area of Sudan
Derese, C.L.G., Vandenberghe, D.A.G. , Van Gils, M., Mees, F., Paulissen,E. & Van den Haute, P.:  Final Palaeolithic settlements of the Campine region (NE Belgium) in their environmental context: optical age constraints
Phillipps, R.S. & Holdaway, S.: Fluctuating lakes and the Neolithic occupation of the Fayum region of Egypt
Jansma, E.: Forests in the Holocene: the development of an international data library for dendrochronology
Pasquinucci, M. & Menchelli, S.: Landscape transformation in North Coastal Etruria
Vannieuwenhuyze, B., Charruadas, P., Devos, Y. & Vrydaghs, L.: The Landscape of Medieval Urbanisation: Brussels and its Environment
Theme 3: Linking lowlands to mountaineous areas

Guttmann-Bond, E. (KEYNOTE): Uplands and Lowlands in Iron Age Shetland: the implications for arable agriculture
Ballut, C. & Michelin, Y.: The reconstruction of the rural landscapes in the Chaîne des Puys (French Massif central): Critical approach of the processes of change during the late Holocene through sedimentary archives and heritages
Dusar, B., Verstraeten, G., D’Haen, K., De Laet, V., Marinova, E. &  Waelkens, M.: Modelling the impact of historical human-induced landscape change on a small Mediterranean mountain basin
Jusseret, S., Tomkins, P., Baeteman, C. & Driessen, J.: Hidden landscapes of prehistoric Crete. Direct and indirect indicators
Mahlstedt, S.: Between marsh and mountains – The last hunter-gatherers in north-western Germany
Mientjes, A.C.: An ethnoarchaeological perspective on pastoral landscapes in the Mediterranean mountains and lowlands
Piziolo, G. & Volante, N.: Prehistoric peopling process in the Holocene landscape of Grosseto area: dealing with uncertainty and searching for ancient shorelines
Riera, S., Palet, J.M., Ejarque, A., Orengo, H.A., Miras, Y., Euba, I. & Juliá, R.: The long-term shaping of a high mountain cultural landscape in the Eastern Pyrenees (Madriu-Perafita-Claror valleys, Andorra, and Cadí range, Catalonia): an integrated research program
Theme 4: Applying concepts of scale

Holdaway, S. (KEYNOTE): Measuring stone artefacts to assess the extent of mobility at a landscape scale: Rutherfords Creek, New South Wales, Australia
Forsén, B. & Forsén, J.: Surface contra subsurface assemblages: two archaeological case studies from Thesprotia, Greece.
Lagerås, P.: Poor marginal land or sustainable flexibility? - Two models discussed in the light of recent studies in the uplands of southern Sweden
O’Keeffe, T. & Smith, S.V.: Experiencing power, constructing dissention: scale and the landscape archaeology of medieval communities
Petersson, M.: Early Iron Age landscape investments and social structure
Reader, R.: From site to landscape: Broxmouth hillfort in context
Schmidt Sabo, K.: Medieval Villages and their Contribution to Landscape Archaeology
Weerts. H.J.T., Westerhoff, W. E. & Bungenstock, F.: Coastal confusion caused by upscaling regional Holocene coastal evolution to the entire Southern North Sea
Theme 5: New directions in digital prospection and modelling techniques

Verhagen, J.W.P.H. (KEYNOTE): Biting off more than we can chew? The current and future role of digital techniques in landscape archaeology
Beckers, B., Berking, J. & Schütt, B.: A comparative approach to estimate the (palaeo-)runoff of two semi-arid watersheds in a geoarchaeological context –case studies of Naga (Sudan) and Resafa (Syria)
Beer, H. de, Price, S.J., Ford, J., Christensson, A., Gladki, M. & Oxley, J.: Modelling 3D geological and anthropogenic deposits in the heritage Cities of York (UK) and Bergen (NO)
Fischer, E., Posluschny, A.G., Rösch, M., Schatz, K., Stephan, E. & Stobbe, A.: Them Belly Full? Modelling the Agricultural Potential of Early Iron Age Settlement Hinterland Areas
Orengo, H.A., Palet, J.M., Ejarque, A., Riera, S. & Albiach, R.M.: Are we Roman? A digital response from a landscape perspective
Schuppert, C.: GIS-based historical geographical Studies at early Celtic Princely Seats and their Hinterland in South-western Germany
Walstra, J., Heyvaert, V.M.A. & Verkinderen, P.: The use of satellite imagery for revealing the landscapes of irrigation in Lower Khuzestan, SW Iran
Whitley, T.G.: The Potentiality of Caloric Returns as a Framework for Examining Social Landscapes: The Predictive Modeling Perspective
Theme 6: How will landscape archaeology develop in the future?

Fleming, A. (KEYNOTE 1): The future of landscape archaeology
Bondesson, W. &  Biwall, A.: Evaluating sites of natural and cultural importance during the planning process - The Eskilstuna Project
Fairclough, G.: Look the other way – from a branch of archaeology to a root of landscape studies
Guttmann-Bond, E.: Sustainability out of the past: How archaeology can Save the Planet
Johnson, M.H. (KEYNOTE 2): ‘Landscape Studies:  The Future of the Field’?
Herring, P.C.: Characterising the past to inform the future
Meier, T.: „Landscape“ and „environment“ - is it more than two words?
Wijngaarden, G.J. van: Immaterial landscapes

LAC2010 Conference themes

Landscape archaeology is the science of material traces of past peoples within the context of their interactions of the wider natural and social environment they inhabited. The mission of the congress is to have multiple sessions with papers that are as much complimentary to each other in terms of natural and cultural themes so that cultural and natural landscape archaeologists, as well as archaeologists, historical geographers, earth scientists and palaeoecologists can present and discuss. Below the six congress themes are presented.

1. How did landscapes change?
Natural and cultural processes in the formation of landscapes: Concept of cultural landscapes and their natural counterparts: are they related? Concept of past landscapes: unifying nature, culture, perception and interpretation.

Landscape evolution: Landscape evolution and the development of models for human interaction with the environment. Archaeopalynological studies of reconstructing vegetation belts. Soils in archaeology, landscape evolution and occupation. Late-quaternary landscape evolution and geoarchaeology.

Theoretical studies: Archaeological implications of social theory in ancient landscapes. Constructed, conceptualised, and ideational landscapes in archaeological periods. Global awareness of landscapes and their mutability. Geoarchaeology of the peopling of landscape elements or zones. Cultural forces of constructed landscapes.

2. Improving temporal, chronological and transformational frameworks
Chronologies in landscape evolution: What is the relation between stratigraphy, geochronology and geoarchaeology of landscapes? Role of palaeogeographical reconstructions. Palaeoclimatology: Settlement-subsistence changes during climatic transitions. Application of landscape analysis with insights into palaeoclimates.

Transformations: Relation between landscape transformations by human causes and landscape evolution by natural processes. Contrast of physical and verbal reconstructions of landscapes versus traditional values placed on the land by natives.
From migratory to sedentary land use through time.

3. Linking lowlands to mountainous areas
Lowland areas: Impact of relative sea level changes to landscapes and their inhabitants. Landscapes changed and structured by mobile human groups and sedentary people. Continuity in behaviour in a dynamic landscape.

Mountainous areas: Interpretations of dynamic interactions between people and their landscapes. Landscapes changed and structured by mobile human groups and sedentary people. Relation between processes in mountainous landforms, e.g. mass wasting, to settlement history.

Linking landscapes: Erosion and sedimentation on local and regional scales. Relating and contrasting lowland and mountainous landscape archaeology. Seasonal connections between landscapes (transhumance etc.). Influence of seascapes on linking landscapes.

4. Applying concepts of scale
Use of multiscale datasets, from test pit observations to geo(morpho)logical mapping. Scale of historical landscapes and its spatial contribution to landscape archaeology. Changes in theorising space in archaeology.

5. New directions in digital prospection and modelling techniques
Use of satellite imagery (high-resolution multispectral images, LIDAR, image fusion techniques) as a resource for prospecting, predicting and monitoring archaeological sites. New developments in geophysical prospection techniques for prospection and site preservation (improving efficiency and reliability). Combining digital data sources.

GIS-based techniques for landscape characterisation, site pattern analysis and predictive modelling. Approaching landscape visibility and movement through GIS and related techniques. Spatial (multi-agent)modelling for understanding and predicting human behaviour and land use. 3D-modelling for mapping and analysing geo-archaeological data.

6. How will landscape archaeology develop in the future?

• What is the contribution of landscape archaeology to addressing transition periods in archaeology?
• What is effect of climate change on expected developments in landscape archaeology?
• What are consequences for future educational practices of landscape archaeology?
• What role can landscape archaeology have in heritage planning?