Landscape archaeology

Landscape archaeology, a sub-discipline of archaeology and archaeological theory, is the study of the ways in which people in the past constructed and used the environment around them. It is also known as archaeogeography (from the Greek ἀρχαίος "ancient", and γεωγραφία "earth study"). Landscape archaeology is inherently multidisciplinary in its approach to the study of culture, and is used by pre-historical, classic, and historic archaeologists. The key feature that distinguishes landscape archaeology from other archaeological approaches to sites is that there is an explicit emphasis on the sites' relationships between material culture, human alteration of land/cultural modifications to landscape, and the natural environment. The study of landscape archaeology (also sometimes referred to as the archaeology of the cultural landscape) has evolved to include how landscapes were used to create and reinforce social inequality and to announce one's social status to the community at large. The field includes with the dynamics of geohistorical objects, such as roads, walls, boundaries, trees, and land divisions. Landscape generally refers to both natural environments and environments constructed by human beings. Natural landscapes are considered to be environments that have not been altered by humans in any shape or form. Cultural landscapes, on the other hand, are environments that have been altered in some manner by people (including temporary structures and places, such as campsites, that are created by human beings). Among archaeologists, the term landscape can refer to the meanings and alterations people mark onto their surroundings. As such, landscape archaeology is often employed to study the human use of land over extensive periods of time. Landscape archaeology can be summed up by Nicole Branton's statement: "the landscapes in landscape archaeology may be as small as a single household or garden or as large as an empire", and "although resource exploitation, class, and power are frequent topics of landscape archaeology, landscape approaches are concerned with spatial, not necessarily ecological or economic, relationships.

La dynamique métropolitaine au défi de la transition

Selon les récentes statistiques, la grande majorité de la population suisse vit aujourd’hui dans des communes dites « à caractère urbain », ce qui se traduit sur le terrain par des limites diffuses entre la ville et la campagne. De nouvelles structures spa ...

Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes2022

The effect of smooth parametrizations on nonconvex optimization landscapes

La dynamique métropolitaine au défi de la transition

Observatoire ornithologique de Vidy. Surélévation au cœur d’une réserve aménagée entre terre et lac, dans la partie Ouest du parc Louis Bourget à Vidy (Lausanne Sud)

La dynamique métropolitaine au défi de la transition

The effect of smooth parametrizations on nonconvex optimization landscapes

Observatoire ornithologique de Vidy. Surélévation au cœur d’une réserve aménagée entre terre et lac, dans la partie Ouest du parc Louis Bourget à Vidy (Lausanne Sud)