"The Archaeology of People and Territoriality" Edited by George Nash and Dragos Gheorghiu Archaeolingua, Budapest 2009

Reviewing a book such as this is bound to be a variable experience as the subject is seemingly infinite and invites many different approaches under the umbrella of archaeology.
So it is here, a real testimony to a broad and sometimes disparate discipline; it is also entertaining and refreshing that it can be this way. There are 16 papers that provide a wide brush to landscape archaeology and the first, written by Matthew Kelleher investigates the relationship between a 'religious' place and other human organisation of landscapes, exploring the concept of sacredness, finding some answers in the artefact assemblages and aboriginal rock art from the Blue mountains of New South Wales in Australia. It is in part a complex statistical analysis of the data obtained but contains precise and informed thinking on human behaviour and ordered life and identifies a grammar in the way intimate and distinct sacred spaces are arranged in the landscape.
Barry Lewis proposes a different angle on interpreting an aboriginal cultural site, this time experiencing a place through an essentially phenomenological approach. The challenge of interpreting enigmatic rock drawings is thoughtfully argued here and irrespective of the pros and cons of phenomenology, the discussion is a purposeful one. In chapter three Henry Dosedla and Alf Krauliz write less about archaeology and more about the traditions and myths in Papua New Guinea. The use of fire in two areas is discussed; as signal stations at specific locations along trade routes in the 'amber route' along the Morava river of the Austrian/Slovakian border region and by contrast, the ritual use of fire in the highlands of Papua New Guinea where fire is used to ward against evil spirits and in sacrifice. There are rather tenuous links in juxtaposition here, and most of the paper is taken up with an anthropological study of the traditional use of fire by a tribal group known as the Mbowamb.
There is a marked contrast to the next chapter where Robin Dods examines the components of the human mind and the affect of cognitive behaviour onto a cultural landscape. Concepts of place, space, time and territoriality are explored in detail. Dods uses Edward Hall extensively as a point of reference, an American anthropologist and creator of the concept of Proxemics (how space is ordered by humans), and expands with her own views in an excellent discussion that adds usefully to the way we search for ideas as to how humans manipulated a landscape using a cognitive grammar that can be identified in the
archaeological record.
The eclectic mix continues and next up is a chapter by Tim Malim on irrigation systems in the Chilean Andes, dating to 850-1100 AD and now fossilised into the landscape. Amidst the array of field plots, stone mounds were found which puzzled the archaeologists because they appeared to be more functional than merely field clearance; several hypotheses are considered such as reservoirs or even condensation makers to augment the water supply.
Equally, some suggest a replication of the rain providing hills that form the backdrop to the site and furthermore, could have performed as central ceremonial features devoted toward the need for rain. In chapter 6, Herman Bender draws on a personal experience, being called in to appraise claims by the Lac du Flambeau Indian tribe that Strawberry Island in Wisconsin, USA was revered as a sacred place to them; it was also under threat from development. Oral traditions don't carry much weight in court so it was necessary to research historical records and texts to build a case. It was the original fieldwork that Bender undertook, that enabled a connection to be made between the mythology of the tribe and celestial events which occurred in phenomenal ways at the solstices on the island and provided a convincing argument.
The global perspective of the book is maintained in chapter 7 with Robert Bednarik, who reflects on Pleistocene cave art of the Franco-Cantabrian region and how the archaeological profession has battled hard with traditional methods and is trying to embrace new interpretations, some of which are inadequate and doing the discipline a disservice. In a plea to archaeology, he addresses the creators of 'fantasies based on other unsubstantiated beliefs' and dreams of a day when interpretive work might just stand up to some scientific scrutiny.
Amen to that.
Paul Devereux introduces us to simulacra, the concept of an image having the chance likeness to something else, be it a face, animal or replication of landscape topography. He discusses how the phenomena may have enhanced and enriched peoples' attachment to a
place. Back to archaeology, George Nash writes an engaging discourse on the 'Ertebølle Ring', contact and exchange between communities of the Ertebølle (South Scandinavia) and
Danubian areas of North Germany, Holland and Poland. The Ertebølle were a late Mesolithic hunter/fisher/gatherer people who adopted pottery making from the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) Danube region and yet resisted Neolithicisation for another 1,000 years. They added their own cultural identity by replicating existing geometric designs onto the new pottery.
The exchange of trade and ideas continued between the two groups in a circular north-southnorth until eventually the Ertebølle accepted agrarian ways.
Jeremy Harte looks at holy wells in Medieval England, one of two papers in the book on British archaeology. There are over 2,000 holy wells in Britain, initially the earliest ones were secular places but Harte discusses the process of Christianisation chiefly because of their associations with names of saints. This is followed by Phil Mason and a chapter on Late Bronze Age lowland settlements in central and eastern Slovenia. Their replacement by the Early Iron Age by large hillforts and the process of change is the central feature in the chapter. Next is a return to Phenomenology with Dragos Gheorgiu who grapples with the concept of space in Chalcolithic south east Europe. In some enterprising work he gives examples of six case studies.
In chapter thirteen, Terence Meaden takes a look at the cursus monuments in Britain and offers a hypothesis for their purpose, including an unlikely reason for their orientation – tornadoes. Rock art is the topic of Craig Alexander and particularly, defining space, using the superimposition of rock art at Valcamonica, Italy to demonstrate that this could be statements of power and ownership being made on a place. Whether there was any relationship between those who superimposed their images onto previous art, and the people who created the originals is not completely known but many were apparently overwritten very soon afterwards.
Trying to give meaning to cupmarks and cup-and-rings, a common enough phenomenon and yet frustratingly difficult to pin down a meaning for, is the task set by Michael Eastham who concentrates on the Atlantic coastal regions to expand his views, in chapter fifteen. Stephanie Koener and Lorna Singleton get the last word, and it is a discussion that illustrates how far we have come as a profession and how widely embracing landscape debates can be. It is a political paper which asks questions of the discipline, as to how it joins in with arguments on social and ecological issues in the world today.
The book overall exemplifies archaeology today with its twin bedfellows of science and the arts. As one would expect at this price, it is beautifully printed and with excellent imagery, some in colour. It is recommended to all who have an inquisitive mind and are totally absorbed by the questions that landscape archaeology throws up.

Reviewed by Laurie Waite