‘This is my landscape: When cultural heritage and landscape are the same thing’

Abstract

The European Landscape Convention turns twenty. Unfortunately, there are still many problems associated with the actual conceptualization of what this truly entails for archaeology, as much as for society. The definition contained within the document integrates the physical reality of the territory with the population held therein, and with time. In this article we will explore the consequences that all this has for archaeological practice, and for the management of cultural heritage. The progressive association of the concepts of landscape and heritage is the result of outstanding efforts by organizations and associations, which with varying success have been able to affect public and science policies. When heritage is landscape, there are no longer any limits, borders or zoning. It all becomes important because it is all testimony to the processes which have created the landscape as it is, and which will in turn transform it again. In curating this last stage, and its role as a mechanism for sustainable development for local communities going forward, archaeology becomes a discipline whose main role is how its knowledge is transferred, and used, in that process.