The significance of ‘invisible’ places

Fontijn, David

doi:10.1080/00438240601136462

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…The studies focusing on the functional purpose of strategic control over territories and their re sources (Lock and Harris, 1996;Stančič, 1994, p. 78), or on the visual relationships between settlements (Swanson, 2003;Topouzi et al, 2002), have been complemented by other perspectives that seek to understand cognitive aspects related to the perception of places and spaces. In this paper, I am interested in the approaches that have focused preferentially on places that have a conspicuous presence in the landscape with their outstanding natural forms, monuments or fortifications (Bernardini et al, 2013;Earl and Wheatley, 2002;Fontijn, 2007;Garcia-Moreno, 2013;García-Sanjuán et al, 2006;Mitcham, 2002;Sakaguchi et al, 2010).…”

Section: Materials and Methods Of Spatial Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Power on the hills. Warfare, symbolic violence and landscape in the eastern Iberian Iron Age

Mira

2019

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the fortified landscape as a symbolic context for the development of political processes, using the Iberian Iron Age landscape of the Valley of Alcoi as a case study. The development of fortified urban settlements reflects the importance of warfare in this period in which a warrior group accessed power and ruled Iberian society. An analysis of the spatial relationships between fortified settlements and their dependent villages through GIS analysis of visual structure is carried out. We interpret this spatial structure in terms of the ideological discourses that gave shape to the social relations inscribed in the landscape. Funerary rituals show the emergence and relevance of warrior rulers in this historical context.

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Section: Materials and Methods Of Spatial Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Power on the hills. Warfare, symbolic violence and landscape in the eastern Iberian Iron Age

Mira

2019

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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“…The final point about landscape deposits reprises Fontijn's (2007) distinction between visible and invisible places, as manifested in the contrast between barrow and landscape deposition in the southern Dutch Bronze Age. There, the watery zones which received so many sword and axe deposits were natural, uncultivated, and unaltered prior to deposition.…”

Section: The Prehistoric Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Deposition of History in Prehistory: Copper Objects on Sites and in the Landscape

Chapman¹,

Gaydarska²

2020

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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A variable proportion of finds from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of ‘Old Europe’ has come from places outside settlements, cemeteries, production sites, ritual sites, or caves. Such finds tend to be described as ‘chance/isolated/single/stray’ finds or, when in groups, as ‘hoards’. The frequent, modernist cause invoked for these finds is that they were either ‘hidden’ in times of mortal danger, represented a ‘gift to the gods’, or simply ‘lost’. One reason for these explanatory shortcomings is the over-attention to the types of objects deposited in the landscape and the frequent lack of attention to the often-distinctive place of deposition. We believe that we have misnamed, overlooked, or not accurately characterised an entire class of sites, which we term ‘landscape deposition sites’, whose defining feature was the transformation of a place by the deposition of a significant object or group of objects to create a qualitatively different place. The creation of such landscape deposit sites varied in time and space throughout Old Europe, but all sites were affected by this new dimension of the extended cultural domain. In this article, we consider the interpretations of metal deposition in North-west Europe and the light they shed on an earlier and geographically different region. The primary aim of this paper is an exploration of the variable relationships between landscape deposit sites and the coeval finds made in special deposits in settlements and cemeteries in the 5th and 4th millennia bc, which will lead to proposed new interpretations of landscape deposition sites.

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“…This suggests that specific parts of wetlands were used time and again for the intentional deposition of objects, in some cases stretching several millennia. Moreover, the selection of objects shifted over time (Fontijn, 2007). The persistence of this practice indicates the continuing importance of wetlands in prehistoric and early historic belief systems.…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The landscape setting of bog bodies: Interdisciplinary research into the site location of Yde Girl, The Netherlands

et al. 2019

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Past studies of archaeological bog finds, such as bog bodies, wooden trackways and a wide variety of other materials, are characterized by a strong focus on material culture. Their original environmental and cultural context has received far less attention. This paper centres on the original landscape setting of bog bodies. Interdisciplinary reconstructions of the physical and cultural landscape at the time of deposition can lead to significant new and more detailed insights into the context and meaning of this remarkable phenomenon. We aim to show the value of such interdisciplinary research by reconstructing the original physical and cultural landscape setting of the most iconic bog body of The Netherlands: Yde Girl. This approximately 16-year-old girl was killed about 2000 years ago and deposited in a bog south of the modern-day village of Yde (province of Drenthe). Our interdisciplinary research team used a combination of research methods from physical geography, geomorphology, palynology and archaeology to analyse both the site itself and its wider environment. This kind of integrated, detailed landscape research on bog bodies has hardly been done yet. We expect that our research design, methodology and results may also be applied in future research of other bog bodies. Furthermore, they may inspire research on other types of archaeological find categories from peatlands.

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The significance of ‘invisible’ places

Cited by 27 publications

References 11 publications

Power on the hills. Warfare, symbolic violence and landscape in the eastern Iberian Iron Age

Power on the hills. Warfare, symbolic violence and landscape in the eastern Iberian Iron Age

The Deposition of History in Prehistory: Copper Objects on Sites and in the Landscape

The landscape setting of bog bodies: Interdisciplinary research into the site location of Yde Girl, The Netherlands

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