Xscape: Concepts and Practices for a Fundamental Landscape Archaeology

Professor Dr Felipe Criado-Boado

Lecture Abstract

The intention of this lecture is to explore to what extent the formal regularities that archaeological research finds in the arrangement of past landscapes, could be also identified in many other material codes. The implication of this accounts for a rationale that is deployed and actualized in every materialization processes. This argument will be exemplified through the megalithism of Galicia (NW Iberia), comparing the organization of necropolis with, by one side, the whole cultural landscape and skyscape and, by the other, with architecture, megalithic art and pottery styles. Further on, the social significance of this cultural mechanisms will be considered in relation to the debate about whether resilience or resistance better apply to understand the dynamics of past communities.

Biography

Felipe Criado-Boado is a Research Professor at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) since 2001. He is director of Incipit (CSIC Institute of Heritage Sciences, based on Santiago de Compostela, Spain). Formerly he was a lecturer at the University of Santiago de Compostela and has taught in several universities in different countries. He was Director of Humanities and Social Sciences of CSIC. Since September 2015 he is president of the European Association of Archaeologists. Author of twelve scientific books and monographies, around 120 research articles in international and Spanish journals, 80 papers presented at national and international congresses, and about 50 dissemination and educational papers. He has supervised 18 Ph.Ds. His major Areas of Expertise are Landscape Archaeology (mostly dealing with Megalithism and origins of monumental architecture, Rock art and formation of peasant landscapes), and Archaeological theory (with special interest on interpretive theory, critical heritage studies and public science). He is interested on pointing out the conditions of possibilities of archaeological knowledge and defining a stable methodical framework on which to base archaeological interpretation, so much as concerned about Applied Archaeology which focuses on the development of archaeological knowledge for the production and social use of cultural values.