For thousands of years, humans have created, re-structured, or abandoned elements in landscapes. Some have been used over centuries or millennia, resulting in palimpsests reflecting many periods of history.

In this section we will outline methods for deconstructing and reconstructing the complexity of landscapes in order to understand them from a historical point of view.

In this section we will see how landscapes are made of many different elements, and how these can emerge, develop, change, disappear, or alter in form over time.

Learning how stratigraphy functions is a key step in understanding landscape archaeology.

Ancient cartography, mostly that created from the 18th century onwards, is the basis for retrospective analysis and reconstruction of ancient landscapes.

During recent decades, a huge development in landscape archaeology has been the application of remote sensing imaging, which allows us to analyse large areas.

Let’s now see how all the tools that we have looked at so far can be applied to a particular Mediterranean landscape

In the study of landscapes, archaeological field surveys and excavations are also fundamental to clarifying many chronological and historical issues that might otherwise remain unresolved.

The study of landscapes has seen a boom in scientific approaches integrating paleoecology and geomorphology among other environmental sciences in order to better understand soil types and vegetation as well as other remains

Let’s see now how archaeologists recognize human-animal interactions as a key source of information for understanding landscape and society.

Cultivated terraces are modifications of mountains and hills to obtain land for agriculture. They generally incorporate dry stone walls, a kind of built structure that can be found all around the Mediterranean.

Traces of the use of fire, including the working of metals and warfare, have left their marks on its landscapes.

Water is certainly the most important element for human existence. Settlement, cultivation, livestock farming and even the ecosystems themselves depend largely on the water supply.

Landscape archaeology can engage communities in co-production of research (called participatory research or citizen science) and contribute to social sustainability by supporting new educational strategies and inclusion.