This volume presents a collection of papers focusing on archaeological
approaches to landscape in the context of the adoption of agriculture in
Southwest Asia and Northwest Europe. Case studies are presented from
these contrasting regions, one where the transition to farming is
indigenous, and the other where the transformation is initiated
externally. This allows us to consider to what extent hunter-gatherer
and farmer landscapes may be different, or the degree to which apparent
differences have been constructed by our expectations and traditions of
interpretation. While the concept 'landscape' enjoys considerable
popularity in archaeological interpretation, it is somewhat ill-defined
and inconsistently used. Some have suggested that this fluidity allows
landscape to be a 'usefully ambiguous concept' but at times there is a
danger that this very ambiguity affords imprecision in our narratives.
This is particularly important where differing traditions of
archaeological interpretation meet, as, for example, in the transition
from hunting and gathering to farming. The transition has been
understood as a major division in archaeological practice and attitudes
to 'landscape' across the transition reflect this dichotomy. The results
of these debates are illuminating, and raise questions beyond the
immediate geographical scope of the volume. The contrast between the two
regions provides valuable comparisons between traditions of
archaeological theory and interpretation and the bodies of evidence.
Bill Finlayson is the Director of the Council for British Research in
the Levant, Graeme Warren is a College Lecturer in the School of
Archaeology, UCD, Ireland.
