ArchaeoLandscapes Network

The strength of ArchaeoLandscapes Network will lie in its heterogeneous nature and its total coverage of the countries of Europe, with a membership of 50 or more heritage bodies in the fields of education, research, conservation and public service. It will not rely on any individual institution for its continuing existence and its small secretariat may migrate around Europe over time as staffing opportunities or the availability of expertise dictate. The Network’s members will agree key objectives and policies in the early stages of the present project. These will then be implemented, within and after the lifetime of the project, through a General Management Board of 9 representatives, from the Network’s member institutions. Content-related and technical issues will be tackled and discussed during 5 technical meetings (the first one during the kick-off plenary meeting) scheduled throughout the project’s implementation.

The official launch of the ArchaeoLandscapes Network will be done during the closing project’s conference, held in Frankfurt 24-26 February 2015.

ArcLand Project

The target of the ArchaeoLandscapes project is to address existing imbalances in the use of modern surveying and remote sensing techniques and to create conditions for the regular use of these strikingly successful techniques across the Continent as a whole. It aims to create a self-sustaining network to support the use throughout Europe of aerial survey and ‘remote sensing’ to promote understanding, conservation and public enjoyment of the shared landscape and archaeological heritage of the countries of the European Union

The project represents the culmination of a growing European cooperation from the mid-1990s onwards. Now federating 42 prestigious institutions in the field of archaeology and heritage protection (1 Coordinator, 26 Co-organisers and 15 Associated Partners) from 26 separate countries, it will bring that process to a sustainable and self-supporting future as the long-term legacy of this and earlier EU-assisted initiatives.

The central theme of concerted action and cooperation will be stressed through annual meetings of the whole of the membership and the project’s Management Board, to agree policy, review progress and plan new initiatives. Much of the project’s work, however, will be undertaken through specialist ‘focus-groups’ and carefully structured ‘work-packs’ setting out operational programmes and timetables for each of the project’s eight key objectives or ‘Actions’.

Dialogue with target groups in the community will focus on multilingual and interactive web-based presentation. Use will also be made of leaflets, booklets and more substantial publications to engage both with ordinary citizens and with specialists in various aspects of heritage exploration, management and presentation.

The project’s long-term legacy will be better appreciation of the landscape and archaeological heritage of Europe, closer contact between heritage professionals and the general public, more effective conservation of the shared cultural heritage, the international sharing of skills and employment opportunities, better public and professional education, the wider use of archive resources and modern survey techniques, and higher professional standards in landscape exploration and conservation.

One of the activities that ArcLand is interested in fostering during the life-time of its project is the use of aerial archaeology sources for understanding the history of the landscape. This a topic that is central to all archaeological research and applied archaeology, in particular for monitoring landscape change and evaluating the impact of new development. To do this several different sources are used, nonethemore so than those associated with ArcLand such as oblique photographs, verticals, lidar, and remote data sources from geophysics and satellite imagery. Understanding the landscape from these sources is crucial in helping to shape effective measures of protection and management of the landscape for research, spatial planning and outreach activities. What this short article outlines are some of the ways that this can be achieved.