Editorial

Abstract

The discipline of archaeology studies the nature, meanings and effects of past human behaviour over time and space. Moreover, it seeks to clarify the processes that determined this behaviour (Barrett 2001, 144) through the study of material culture and structured landscapes. Among other things, archaeology tries to understand past human volition and subsequent action, disentangling the reasons why people chose certain places to live, utilised specific social, cultural and religious concepts, or applied a particular economy. Perspectives on the subject include material, economic, social and cultural hypotheses, varying through the changes in archaeological theory (e.g. Higgs and Vita-Finzi 1972; Bender et al. 1997; Thomas 1999). In this respect, we have gradually moved towards seeing archaeological landscapes as continuous records of past human behaviour in spatial terms with emphasis on the complex, reciprocal relationship between people and their surroundings. This relationship is considered crucial to how groups categorise and 'construct' their own social and cultural landscapes. This construction should be considered as holistic, based on an embodied experience within a particular environment (e.g. Tilley 1994).

Keywords

• archaeology
• nature
• meanings
• effects
• human behavior
• time and space
• cultural
• religious concepts
• material
• ecomoic
• social
• landscapes
• cultural landscape
• environment