Region, culture and society: understanding antiquity from the field

Abstract

Approaches to the finds, monuments and settlements of past and present landscapes in different parts of Europe, and the contributions of their regional archaeological traditions, are briefly evaluated from a historical perspective. The point of departure is the work of the Dane, Ole Worm, in the early seventeenth century, on the whole of Denmark and Norway. Worm pioneered systematic large‐scale topographical recording of monuments, and so provided data for the earliest archaeological distribution maps. Another Dane, N.F.S. Sehested, in the mid‐eighteenth century, led the development of intensive small‐scale regional studies. In conclusion, the methods of large scale active survey (e.g. in the Mediterranean) are reconsidered, and the particular role of Communist Eastern Europe in pioneering early large‐scale excavation is emphasized.