Artifacts Changing Landscapes and Agency

FIELD SURVEY

Procedure by which are collected information necessary for the identification of

settlements sites of various eras that have left traces on the land.

It provides for a systematic control of the territory, through direct observation

in the field of testimonies related to ancient structures or archaeological

artifacts.

Fundamental tool for the reconstruction of ancient landscapes with which you

acquire data for the study of forms and of the distribution of the ancient

settlement.

Application aspect of a discipline that is internationally called Landscape

Archaeology or Archaeology of landscapes.

Mechanized agriculture is at the same time the main factor of knowledge and

destruction of archaeological settlements

RESEARCH APPROACH: Define the context, know the context (with the avaiable

sources) and choose the strategy.

Various Strategies: systematic survey; survey on sample areas; comprehensive

material collection; diagnostic material collection; square collection.

FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT THE RESULT OF A SURVEY:

1) Degree of archaeological visibility (soil condictions and land uses)

2) Intensivity of Recoinassance (ratio area/operators avaiable here),

3) Repetition of Surveys

SYSTEMATIC SURVEY

Direct inspection of well-defined portions of land generally under cultivation, in

order to ensure uniform and controlled coverage of all areas within the

investigated context.

It is pursued by dividing the territory into units and walking them in search of

artifacts and other traces of archaeological sites. Uniform and controlled

coverage of the

area under investigation.

It must have systems for recording not only SITES/OUTCROPS but also of the

ways in which has operated in the contex, with the VISIBILITY and INTESITY

condictions.

NON SYSTEMATIC SURVEY

Inspections of areas hard to analize like woods.

TOPOGRAPHICAL UNIT: the smaller trace of a settlement or activity of the man

that can be identified on the territory. 4 Types based on their localition and

characteristics.

- CONTEXT UNIT: minimum unit of archaeological evidence found on the ground

for direct verification, for bibliographical reference.

(intact or partially preserved building, areas of pottery fragments, individual

significant objects of certain origin...)

- EXTRA CONTEXT: traces of human activities carried out in the territory outside

the CU or pottery material located around the CU.

- ANOMALY UNIT: traces of buried structures, roads, territorial subdivisions or

centuriations identified by photointerpretation and other non-destructive

analysis

- MOBILE OBJECT UNIT: individual significant objects reported or identified on

the territory, but whose location is unknown.

(sculptures, inscriptions, fragments of architectural decorations reused in

structures, ancient, post-antique and modern or exposed in public or private

collections)

SITE UNIT: a set of context units

When we classify the archaeological data: CURRENT SITUATION and ANCIENT

LANDSCAPE

INTERPRETATION OF AREA OF POTTERY FRAGMENTS:

1) Type of material identified

2) Location

3) Extension of the material

4) The data obtained from the surveys are then cross-checked with those taken

from the bibliography relating to the excavated sites

COLLECTION OF FINDS WITH/WITHOUT GRID REFERENCE

- WITH GRID REFERENCE

a) Same size through time - Same assemblage

b) Same size - Changing assemblage

c) Changing size - Changing assemblage

- WITHOUT GRID REFERENCE

we must consider the type of building (farm, villae, villages) that could contain

a specific find (like a specific pottery)

CAN BE USED ALSO THE THIESSEN POLIGONS.

URBAN CONTEXT(S) AND CHANGING LANDSCAPES

remember invisible archaeology: 3 questions.

1) Which kind of invisibility? NOT YET DISCOVERED OR DESTROYED (go on to

the INVISIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY PART)

2) Why Archaeological Heritage could be Unseen?

3) Which elements could be visible, or once visible, but undocumented (or not

deeply documented), unrecorded, or forgotten? (same, go the INVISIBLE

ARCHAEOLOGY PART)

slide n.667 CASE OF QUIRINUS (A case – study: from ancient literary sources to

a 3d reconstruction, through geophysical prospection, without excavations)

What was made: Crossing on elecromagnetic waves in the Quirinal soil.

RURAL LANDSCAPE WITHOUT SURVEY

-) Use of HISTORICAL CARTOGRAPHY (But can present falsifications)

-) Literaly sources

-) Archaeological Data (we consider also Comparisons on data on a Site and

Rural Infill)

We can have: Multiple types of data (also from mote Topographical Units) -

Possible solutions - Other problems!

LANDSCAPE

Landscape as context

Landscape as a system of contexts

Multiple levels of scale of analysis

Reconstruct and narrate stories and microstories

Reconstruct and narrate the changing landscapes of the ancient world