KEY WORDS

(Hidden) archaeological-historical landscapes, management of change, conservation through development paradox; European Landscape Convention, the Netherlands and Europe; inter- and transdisciplinarity, knowledge-action nexus, biography of landscape

SUMMARY

This book is about understanding and managing the archaeological-historical landscape and its heritage in the Netherlands and in Europe.

The basic problem is to what extent we can know past and mainly invisible landscapes and how we can use this still hidden knowledge for actual sustainable management of the landscape's cultural-historical values. The critical point is whether researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and society are aware of the fact that the visible historic landscapes are literally just a small proportion of many more, diverse and older (almost) invisible landscapes.

The widening scope of landscape and heritage research includes the ‘ordinary’ landscapes. It is also recognized that heritage management is increasingly ‘the management of future change rather than simply protection’. This presents us with a paradox: to know and preserve our historic environment we have to collaborate with those who wish to transform it and in order to apply our expert knowledge we have to make it suitable for policy and society.

The answer presented by the Dutch PDL/BBO programme is an integrative landscape approach by applying inter- and transdisciplinarity and by establishing links between archaeological-historical heritage and planning and between research and policy. This is supported by two unifying concepts, biography of landscape and action research.

The synthesis of the results focuses upon the interaction between knowledge, policy and imagination centred around the public. Three types of action characterize this interaction, ‘knowledge and action’ covers the relationship between research, policy and public, ‘imagination’ focuses on the interaction between research and design and the role of facts and constructions of the past and the future; stories, maps and designs mediate the ‘sharing of knowledge’.

ABSTRACT

Archaeological botanical remains are prone to deterioration in many burial environments and play an important role in assessing the preservation state of scheduled sites. Two projects that deal with these remains are presented here. The first is an experimental study on the degradation patterns of macroremains using instrumental analytical techniques. After the visual inspection of samples of more than 60 species the chemical profiles were determined using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and thermochemolysis. Only a few species have characteristic chromatograms, therefore recognizing plant species based only on their chromatograms is not a viable method. Degradation estimated by visual inspection so far has not shown a correlation with chemical degradation.

The second project encompasses two case studies applying micromorphology to study the preservation potential of archaeological soils. The first deals with a Neolithic wooden trackway in a peat extraction area. Since the 1980s, the water table was often far below large parts of the trackway and test pits from 2004 showed that the wood was heavily degraded by erosion bacteria but not by fungi. Micromorphological research showed that peat layers above the trackway are occasionally heavily degraded by microbes and soil fauna but that most of the peat is well preserved. It was concluded that the trackway was not in direct danger, thanks to the strong water retaining capacity of peat. The second case study concentrated on a series of Early Neolithic sites found on clayey fluvial levees with thick layers of organic-rich material. The sites have a complex post-depositional history, they were flooded in a freshwater environment and peat was formed. This was followed by flooding by the sea, turning the area into a brackish and then to a saline inland sea. After reclaiming in the 1960s, the sites are at shallow depths in a heavily drained agricultural area. In 2004, a site assessment was carried out. Wood samples showed strong decay by erosion bacteria but no traces of fungi. Redox probes, soil chemical analyses and micromorphological research showed that (sub)oxic conditions reached the top of the archaeological layer, while the deeper parts were still reduced. Organic matter appeared to be unaffected and had well-preserved cell structures.

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses a number of studies that link research-based knowledge to actions resulting in processes of decision-making, implementation and change in the protection and development of the archaeological-historical landscape. These studies on Dutch as well as on a few European regions or subjects are discussed from the perspective of sustainability, a wide-ranging term applied to economic as well as ecological systems but which also fits perfectly well to cultural resource management. It is concluded from the studies presented here that, if compared to a dozen years ago, much progress has been made in linking knowledge to sustainable action in the protection and development of the cultural landscape, while the se actions have simultaneously contributed to our knowledge about this landscape.

Research has shown that the methodology of action research is an important tool in linking knowledge to action; this paper therefore provides an overview of the characteristics of action research seen in the light of its use in cultural resource management studies where theory and practice do meet. All studies discussed here meet most, if not all, criteria of this methodology that creates situational and particular knowledge in the interaction between researchers and practitioners in cultural resource management. This interaction is most apparent in two regional studies in the Netherlands as well as in studies in Germany, Estonia and Scotland, and enables present generations to experience the archaeologicalhistorical landscape not only as an inheritance of the past but also as a source for research and imagination for future generations.

KEYWORDS

Action research; cultural resource management; sustainability

INTRODUCTION

Many scientists still believe that good research is the exclusive domain of academic institutes and that the results will be taken up automatically in society where needed. Bringing the research results into the public domain by publishing in scientific journals is implicitly regarded as the end of the researcher's responsibility. This perspective has perhaps been a good characterization for the freedom and independence of basic and curiosity-driven research for a very long time, but for research that aims to influence decision-making towards generating actions with a societal impact, the reality is different.

ABSTRACT

This paper summarizes the findings of three studies dealing with the application of remote sensing techniques, magnetometry and geochemical prospection in Dutch archaeology. The section on remote sensing presents a short study based on a literature review and on interviews with specialists and stakeholders in the field of heritage management. It is concluded that remote sensing techniques are widely applicable in different landscapes in the Netherlands and offer great opportunities; however, so far their application in modern prospective archaeology is mainly restricted to the use of digital elevation models.

The study on magnetometry is, in addition to the measurement of the magnetic susceptibility of many soil samples, based on a magnetometer survey of 31 sites in order to perform an assessment of the use of magnetic methods for locating and mapping archaeological sites. Areas in different geogenetic environments in the Netherlands were identified where use of the method will be successful and the method should therefore be added to the toolkit of the archaeological prospector.

The section on geochemical prospection presents, in addition to literature reviews, the application of state of the art techniques for the recognition of inorganic and organic chemical fingerprints in archaeological soils. The investigations showed that even in densely occupied areas with soils containing subrecent to modern anthropogenic signals, archaeological soils and features could be determined. The analysis of soils using mass spectrometer proteomics showed that proteinaceous matter reflects the presence of keratin which probably derives from ancient hair and skin. It is argued that the use of biomarkers in archeological prospection is a challenging subject for future research.

It is concluded that, in sharp contrast to field surveys, coring and test trenching, the described nondestructive techniques are only rarely used in archaeological prospection in the Netherlands. One reason might be the lack of a master's degree programme in prospective archaeology at Dutch universities. Another reason often mentioned is that these methods are not cost-efficient, which might be true for advanced geochemical prospection techniques but does not hold for magnetometry and remote sensing methods. A third reason might be the argued reliability of these methods; however, despite their restrictions they have proved to be very useful in other countries.