scholarly journals An On-Site Presentation of Invisible Prehistoric Landscapes

Author(s):  
Jiri Unger ◽  
◽  
Petr Kvetina
Author(s):  
Kitty Hauser

In his introduction to a selection of verse and prose by John Betjeman, Slick but not Streamlined (1947), W. H. Auden attempted to define ‘topophilia’, a particular kind of attachment to landscape and environment which, he said, suffused Betjeman’s writings. ‘Topophilia’, he wrote, has little in common with nature love. Wild or unhumanised nature holds no charms for the average topophil because it is lacking in history; (the exception which proves the rule is the geological topophil). At the same time, though history manifested by objects is essential, the quantity of the history and the quality of the object are irrelevant; a branch railroad is as valuable as a Roman wall, a neo-Tudor teashop as interesting as a Gothic cathedral. Auden regrets (disingenuously, perhaps) that he himself is ‘too short-sighted, too much of a Thinking Type, to attempt this sort of poetry, which requires a strongly visual imagination’. It is a particular brand of literary topophilia, typified by Betjeman, that Auden discusses; but broadly defined it is a far more widespread sensibility in British culture. Requiring not only a visual imagination, but also a wilfully parochial outlook and a reluctance to engage with the homogenizing forces of urban modernity, a topophilia of one sort or another was characteristic of a whole generation of artists and writers in Britain in the 1930s and 1940s. This topophilia is not the same as a love of the countryside, as Auden points out, although that is what it might sometimes be mistaken for. What unites these ‘topophils’ is an interest, sometimes amounting to an obsession, with local landscapes marked by time, places where the past is tangible. For some, such as Betjeman, John Piper, and Geoffrey Grigson, this topophilia—as Auden suggests— is eclectic, including medieval churches, Gothic and mock Gothic architecture, Regency terraces and ancient sites. Some topophils of this generation, such as Paul Nash with his fascination with the genius loci, made atmospheric prehistoric landscapes a particular focus. Others, like painter Graham Sutherland, were attracted towards scarred nature and geological vistas. In the Four Quartets T. S. Eliot looked for redemption and history in an English village: ‘History is now and England’.


2016 ◽  
Vol 402 ◽  
pp. 5-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Visentin ◽  
Francesco Carrer ◽  
Federica Fontana ◽  
Fabio Cavulli ◽  
Piergiorgio Cesco Frare ◽  
...  

1995 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 191-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Moore

A complex of settlement and ritual monuments with chronological depth covering a core area of c. 4 km2 on the western side of the Monavullagh mountains in Co. Waterford is described. The morphology of the monuments is portrayed and the development of the settlement and ceremonial areas is elucidated. The ritual monuments are situated in three cemeteries or sanctuaries, one of which is united through elaborate geometric themes. This ritual geometry and the religious insights which this affords raises the importance of this complex to an international level. Analogies with similar monuments from Ireland and the upland regions of Britain are discussed. The overseas parallels demonstrate close contact throughout the Early Bronze Age with many parts of Britain, especially Wales. The unique character of the complex amongst Irish prehistoric landscapes is stressed as it fills an apparent gap in the Irish monumental record of the period.


2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Louise Stig Sørensen ◽  
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury

Middle Bronze Age Hungary provides an opportunity to investigate prehistoric ‘landscapes of the body’, as perceptions and attitudes to the body affect burial practices and other body practices, including the wearing of dress and the use of pottery. This article explores the cultural diversity expressed by the roughly contemporary and neighbouring groups of the Encrusted Ware, Vatya, and Füzesabony Cultures. Amongst others, differences between the three groups are articulated through their burials (scattered cremations, urn burials as well as crouched inhumations) and the diverse use of material culture. At the same time, despite formal differences in the burials, the analysis shows that cremations and inhumations in this area share a number of characteristics, and it is the other practices through which the dead body is manipulated that are the primary means of expressing regional differences. Simultaneously, whilst being a means of formulating understandings of the deceased body, burial practices are also tied into subtle differences in lifestyles, daily routines and regional subsistence strategies, as the landscapes of the living provide metaphors, know-how and practical understanding.


Antiquity ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 74 (283) ◽  
pp. 37-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Beamish ◽  
Susan Ripper

Within the last decade the emphasis of burnt mound research has been refocused on the prehistoric landscapes in which they are set in an attempt to evade just the perennial enigma of ‘function’. In the East Midlands, gravel quarrying in the major river valleys has provided an opportunity to examine large areas that have hitherto been masked by alluvium and the resulting wealth of archaeological information has included five burnt mound sites.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-185
Author(s):  
Andrew Meirion Jones

AbstractEn route to becoming one of archaeology's best-known writers on prehistoric landscapes and monuments, Richard Bradley had a brief brush with the law and almost became a Romanist! Here he reflects on his early archaeological forays as a boy, his perspectives on different field methodologies, and how his ways of writing have changed over the years.


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