Landscape archaeology

Landscape archaeology studies how people shaped and experienced past landscapes through movement, settlement, and construction. It treats places and their relationships as archaeological evidence, not just isolated sites.

Archaeological landscape: A landscape understood through material traces of human activity across space and time. This broader concept frames landscapes as archaeological evidence beyond individual sites.
Geographic information system: A digital system for capturing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced data. GIS combines archaeological sites, terrain, routes, and environmental evidence.
Roman roads: Road networks built and maintained across territories controlled by ancient Rome. Their alignments connect military movement, settlement, and imperial organization.
Carl Sauer: An American geographer known for arguing that human activity transforms natural landscapes into cultural landscapes. His cultural-landscape approach shaped how archaeologists conceptualize humanly made environments.
Site archaeology: The investigation of archaeological remains within a defined site or excavation area. Landscape archaeology shifts attention from a single site to relationships across space.
Site catchment analysis: A method for estimating the resources and terrain accessible from an archaeological site. It links settlement location to the landscape people could use.
Remote sensing: The collection of information about places from a distance, often using aircraft or satellites. It reveals landscape features that are difficult to detect from the ground.
Inca road system: A network of roads that connected territories across the Inca Empire. Its routes show how infrastructure integrated settlements and difficult terrain.
Gordon Childe: An Australian archaeologist known for influential accounts of prehistoric social and economic change. His regional approaches helped connect settlements with wider patterns of land use.
Environmental archaeology: The study of past human-environment relationships using archaeological and environmental evidence. It overlaps with landscape archaeology but often foregrounds ecological evidence.

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