Theme:
3. The Life of Archaeological Heritage in Society
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Theoretical and Methodological Definition of the ?Archaeological Potential? in Preventive Archaeology. Challenges and Opportunities
Content:
Archaeological potential is an intrinsic characteristic of a given area that is expressed by the quantity and nature of sites already known and by the possibility of undiscovered archaeological evidence being preserved underground. Its determination is based on the examination of multiple factors, including human-land relationships in the past and the dynamics responsible for the construction of the archaeological stratification over time, as well as its transformation and/or removal. The determination of archaeological potential is thus a study that, starting from the historical-archaeological and paleo-environmental characteristics of the area concerned, examines its entire diachronic evolution, up to the contemporary age.
Being a predictive tool, knowledge of the archaeological potential is important both in research contexts and, above all, in the field of cultural heritage protection in relation to infrastructural planning (CRM-Cultural Resource Management). The assessment of the archaeological potential is in fact the basis for quantifying archaeological risk, that is, the degree of impact affecting archaeological sites or deposits by the implementation of an urban or rural area transformation intervention.
The assessment of archaeological potential has been considered with heterogeneous approaches:
-attributing different weights to the various factors considered.
-adopting an approach based on expert judgement either through the development of mathematical-statistical models or using remote sensing technologies.
-focusing on specific chronological/cultural phases or specific portions of archaeological landscapes.
Another element of discussion is the scale of the maps and the way the archaeological potential is depicted: for limited areas (often on specific activities); for larger areas (land-use planning activities) up to very large-scale areas.
We aim to invite scholars and professionals from different backgrounds to share their experience and present their approaches and case studies, to establish the state of the art of the research, to address the main challenges and to identify the opportunities arising from such exchange.
Keywords:
Cultural Resource Management, Preventive Archaeology, Archaeological Potential
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Valeria Boi (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Sara Marino (Italy) 2
Maria Castiello (Spain) 3,4
Jeroen Bouwmeester (Netherlands) 5
Eelco Rensink (Netherlands) 5
Affiliations:
1. Istituto Centrale per l'Archeologia (Ministero della Cultura)
2. Università la Sapienza di Roma
3. University of Bern
4. INCIPIT - CSIC
5. Cultural Heritage Agency, the Netherlands
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