Europe’s Early Land Allotment: Questions of Time, Scale and Stewardship

Abstract

Early field systems, in some cases several millennia old, are tangible relicts of past large-scale processes of landscaping and land allotment in many regions across Europe. Yet our cultural landscapes, created in both the near and distant past, are disappearing fast and often irreversibly so, showing how the management and preservation of fieldscape heritage is a real and urgent issue for landscape conservation policy and practice. In this introductory chapter, we provide a conceptual framework for the study of later prehistoric land allotment in Europe, including a discussion of major methodological approaches, findings and future research priorities. We outline the main scope of this volume, followed by a series of summaries of the individual chapters and describe the cross-chapter themes and approaches. Moreover, we use this introductory chapter as an opportunity to critically evaluate the research field of prehistoric fieldscapes, its current state in European archaeology as well as its future challenges and perspectives.