The Maritime Cultural Landscape

Abstract

Maritime culture existed parallel to the agrarian mainstream. The term cultural landscape is partly applied into archaeological thinking. The first application of the specific concept of a maritime cultural landscape (also known as seascape, waterscape, island archeology etc.) dates to the middle of the 1970s. Any holistic view of maritime culture must be conceptual, administrative, material, or instinctive. Maritime cultural landscape is multilayered, not isolated from inland landscape, and was first published in English at the University of Copenhagen. It includes any hermeneutic kind of human relationship to the sea. The concept of Maritime cultural landscape has been used universally. There are many efforts currently made across the globe to make the maritime cultural landscape concept meaningful and enrich the appreciation of the maritime heritage.

Seascapes of ‘Submarine Squatters’: Commercial Dugong Fisheries of North Queensland

“…We deem seascapes to be a specific component of-rather than 'fundamentally the same concept as' (Anderson 2016: 50)-the broader umbrella of 'maritime cultural landscapes', the latter of which stems from the extensive literature associated with Westerdahl (1992). Maritime cultural landscapes examine the two main ideas above with the addition of a third arm, the functional and practical aspects of maritime material culture-the boats and ships that were once the principal site of study by maritime archaeologists.…”

“…A 'ritual orchestration of seascapes' is not a defining feature of maritime communities (Ransley 2011: 894). Rather, it is tradition of usage-a pattern of actions and choices, which is not coincidental or based on a whim, but depends on cultural practice and mediated knowledge-that provides the cognitive connection to seascapes (Westerdahl 1992(Westerdahl : 8, 2006. Local knowledge of the underwater environment and seabed topography, currents, swells, winds, stars and seasonal changes aid a fisher in placing their location on a mental map (Cooney 2003: 324;Ford 2011a: 4).…”

Between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: nautical iconography in the south‐west Iberian Peninsula

“…All these ships integrated traits seen in both cultural traditions, resulting in a new hybrid maritime tradition, typical of the region and of this particular period. What is more, the systematic distribution of these hybrid ships iconography throughout the south‐western peninsula and its overlap with the cultural patterns of the Tartessian culture bring us to suggest the development of a ‘maritime cultural landscape’, as defined by Westerdahl (2011), Moyano (2018 78–79), Cunliffe (2017: 37–74) and Lira (2017).…”

Stinking Foreshore to Tree Lined Avenue: Investigating the Riverine Lives Impacted by the Construction of the Thames Embankments in Victorian London

“…The approach provides a 'view from the sea' of the natural and built environment, adding a layer of human interpretation and cultural understanding to buildings and landforms which may not have been identified through a land-focused HLC. The HSC approach begins to integrate not only physical land 'use' but also human perception and meaning within the landscape as relevant to coastal communities, touching on aspects of Westerdahl's Maritime Cultural Landscapes (Westerdahl 1992).…”