The ancient world was home to a diverse range of environments, extending from the extreme heights of the Alps to the arid deserts of North Africa. These landscapes meant different things to different groups, subjected to varied uses and layers of meaning by those who inhabited or traversed them (K. Anschuetz et al., ‘An Archaeology of Landscapes: Perspectives and Directions’, Journal of Archaeological Research 9 [2001], 157–211). They were fluid spaces, changing depending on the weather, season and time of day, and hosted a range of social, economic, political and ritual activities. Any book would struggle to explore the relationships between humans and their lived environments comprehensively across a region as varied and distinct as the Mediterranean, yet this is exactly what the volume presented here accomplishes. The volume contains the proceedings from the Second International Conference on Classical Antiquities, building on the themes and discussions presented in its companion volume, Experiencing the Landscape in Antiquity I (Cristilli et al. [2020]). It represents an impressive collection of research by an international group of scholars, each of whom brings their own fresh perspective to the research questions they set out to answer.
Containing 63 contributions, the scope of the volume is ambitious, with a chronological range stretching from the Bronze Age to the Early Medieval period, and a geographical scope covering the entirety of the Mediterranean world and its hinterlands. While rural landscapes are predominantly discussed, urban ‘cityscapes’ are also given extensive treatment, recognising that these spaces, though not as expansive as the countryside, were also areas layered with meaning that were lived in and experienced. Furthermore, the book's definition of landscape is a broad one, covering those both real and imagined. Literary and artistic landscapes receive attention, exploring how language, emotion and visual markers can serve to create spaces or shed light on how landscapes were viewed or navigated. The goal of the conference in fostering a multidisciplinary approach to the study of ancient landscapes is readily apparent throughout the proceedings, which contain a rich and varied combination of materials and methods. Archaeological, epigraphic, literary and digital methodologies are applied across the contributions, often in concert with each other to provide a layered analysis. Consequently, the breadth of content and specialisms represented in the volume means that most readers are likely to find something of interest to them.
The chapters are broadly divided along the conference session themes they were presented in: ‘The Reconstruction of Funerary Landscapes’; ‘Landscapes and Construction of Identity’; ‘Landscapes of Sound’; ‘Methods of Reconstructing Productive Landscapes’; ‘Urban Landscapes and Monuments of Civic Memory and Propaganda’; ‘Sacred and Ritual Landscapes’; ‘Landscapes of Power’; ‘The Urban Landscape of the Imperial Cult’; ‘Landscapes Moving Between Change and Transformation’; ‘Green Spaces in Ancient Cities’; ‘The Impact of Cities on the Landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean’; and ‘Water in the Built Landscape of the Mediterranean’. Frustratingly, this is not made clear in the contents, nor does the order of themes within the book match that set out in the introduction. The contents would have perhaps benefited from section headings to help guide readers to chapters matching their research interests, although this is a minor issue in what is otherwise a beautifully formatted and presented book. The level of quality and attention to detail that has come to be associated with BAR volumes is on full display here, accompanied by a selection of high-quality, full-colour images and graphs. Contributions are published in a combination of English and Italian, with abstracts for each chapter provided in English.
While the number of contributions and the breadth of the topics and periods discussed make it impossible to give a comprehensive treatment of its contents, several broad observations can be highlighted throughout the work. It is clear that the research presented represents some of the most up-to-date thinking surrounding ancient landscapes, accompanied by a commitment to not being constrained by traditional concepts and approaches. Antiquated concepts related to the interpretation of landscapes (such as Romanisation) are almost entirely absent, and the range of contributions leads to a holistic exploration of the varied environments across the Mediterranean world. Every aspect of these spaces is explored, ensuring a well-rounded consideration of the topics at hand and leading to a nuanced, multilayered analysis of the landscapes of the ancient world.
A full spectrum of different environments is engaged with, from mountains in M. Matteazzi et al.'s ‘Leggere le forme del paesaggio alpino contemporaneo per comprenderne genesi ed evoluzione: il caso dell'alta Val Lagarina (Trento)’, to deserts in G. Migliorati's ‘Costruire un'immagine culturale dello spazio: il deserto da luogo di prova naturale a luogo di prova di sé’. The changeability of landscapes through weather, time of day and the sounds within them is explored through contributions such as T. Privitera's ‘Suoni: dalla natura alla pagina. Spigolature sul Carmen de filomela’ and C. Girardi's ‘A Sensorial Approach to the Rituals Performed in the Epichoric Upland Cult Places of the Eastern Italian Alps’. This focus on the senses and human experiences serves to make the landscapes under analysis feel like the lived places they were and is a recurring theme throughout the volume, with the human stamp on landscapes forming the heart of the contributions. The ability of humans to construct and to shape landscapes is examined both from physical and architectural perspectives, such as through M. De Franceschini's contribution on how architecture and water were used as tools in the construction of a landscape of power in the Villa Adriana. However, it is the more intangible meanings and memories attached to landscapes that often had the greatest impact on how they were experienced, something reflected in the extensive number of contributions addressing the creation of funerary landscapes and landscapes of identity. These contributions seek to understand how landscapes became linked to past events and groups (both real and imagined), and how these connections were viewed by their current inhabitants, alongside how the internment and celebration of the dead through careful selection of grave site, goods and monument served to create landscapes of commemoration.
Although the corpus of research assembled in this volume represents a valuable addition to scholarship, there are some areas and aspects of ancient landscapes that are only moderately engaged with by its contributions. This is not a criticism as such, but rather the opportunity to highlight areas that could be explored or expanded upon as the International Conference on Classical Antiquities evolves and grows. First, despite the broad chronological scope of the volume, the Graeco-Roman period accounts for the majority of chapters, with those eras preceding and following receiving more limited attention. Many of these contributions, while interdisciplinary in terms of the methodologies they apply, do not collaborate across chronological specialisms, choosing to concentrate on a specific period of interest. While the results of this approach are chapters that are detailed and focused, for a full understanding landscapes cannot be studied in chronological isolation. Landscapes were lived places, evolving as the needs and fortunes of those inhabiting them changed. To focus on a single period of their occupation risks overlooking the wider factors that led to their current form, with preceding events and activities often serving to inform what came after. As knowledge of landscapes grows across individual periods, studies that integrate multiple chronological eras to examine the development of landscapes over the longue durée have the potential to broaden and enhance our understanding of them. The British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project is a perfect example of such an approach, examining the landscape of Rome's northern hinterland from the Bronze Age to the Early Middle Ages (H. Patterson et al., The Changing Landscapes of Rome's Northern Hinterland: the British School at Rome's Tiber Valley Project [2020]). The International Conference on Classical Antiquities and its subsequent proceedings offer a potential venue for this type of collaboration.
Something else apparent in Experiencing the Landscape 2 is that many of its contributions are concerned with how humans influenced or constructed the landscape around them, be it for production, ritual or commemoration. While it is undeniable that landscapes are often very much human constructions, the reverse could also be true, with landscapes affecting and shaping their inhabitants and uses. Some contributions, such as C. Campedelli's ‘Il paesaggio delle vie di comunicazione della Hispania meridionale’ or P. Miniero et al.'s ‘La Villa dell’Ambulatio di Baia: progettare seguendo l'acqua’ seek to explore this. However, in many contributions, the natural environment is relegated to a passive canvas for human activity, yet research over the past decade has repeatedly demonstrated the impact of the environment and natural processes on landscapes and those who lived in them. There remains more work to be done, particularly around integrating more traditional evidence with a growing body of palaeo-climatic data (A. Izdebski et al., ‘Realising consilience: How better communication between archaeologists, historians and natural scientists can transform the study of past climate change in the Mediterranean’, Quat. Sci. Rev. 136 [2016], 5–22). This is something already being undertaken by new projects such as the ERC's ‘Science, Society and Environmental Change in the First Millennium ce’, which seeks to examine the interplay between climate and society in the ancient Mediterranean world. As the International Conference on Classical Antiquities continues to expand, a greater role for the natural environment in discussions would provide a fruitful new avenue for research and collaboration. The inclusion of contributions from palaeo-environmentalists and geomorphologists would further expand the interdisciplinary ethos of the conference.
The greatest strength of the volume is its ability to demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinary approaches when applied to a topic such as landscapes. With a subject matter as expansive as landscapes, no one methodology can hope to singularly comprehend all their aspects; yet, when used in concert, they can provide an unbridled depth of understanding. While there remains work to be done, the volume represents a remarkable achievement and is a testament to the breadth and variety of research being performed across the landscapes of the ancient world. One can only wait in anticipation to see what new insights emerge from the next International Conference on Classical Antiquities.
