Urban Archaeology Research Articles

Handling Sub-Soil Urban Archaeological Resources In Urban Planning, Issues In İzmir Historic City Centre

Handling Sub-Soil Urban Archaeological Resources In Urban Planning, Issues In İzmir Historic City Centre

URBAN ARCHAEOLOGY: HOW TO COMMUNICATE A STORY OF A SITE, 3D VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION BUT NOT ONLY

Abstract. Over the past few years experimental systems have been developed to introduce new ways of enjoying cultural heritage using digital media. Technology had a lead role in this testing ground increasing the need to develop new way of communication according to contemporary iconography culture. Most applications are aimed at creating online databases that allow free access to information, that helps to spread the culture and simplify the study about cultural heritage. To this type of application are added others, which are aimed at defining new and different ways of cultural heritage enjoyment. Very interesting applications are those regarding to reconstruction of archaeological landscape. The target of these applications is to develop a new level of knowledge that increases the value of the archaeological find and the level of understanding. In fact, digital media can bridge the gap of communication associated to archaeological find: the virtual simulation offers the possibility to put it in the context and it defines a new way to enjoy the cultural heritage. In most of these cases the spectacular and recreational factor generally prevails. We believe that experimentation is needed in this area, particularly for the development of Urban Archaeology. In this case, another trouble to enjoy is added to the lack of communication, typical of archaeological finds, because it is "hidden" in an irreversible way: it is under water or under city. So, our research is mainly oriented to define a methodological path to elaborate a communication strategy to increase interest about Urban Archaeology.

The Materiality of freedom: archaeologies of postemancipation life

The Materiality of Freedom uses the lens of archaeology to provide original perspectives on the painful Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras by studying the material culture inherent in the struggles for racial equality in America and the Editor Jodi A. Barnes and a cast of notable scholars focus their essays on racial and social strife experienced by African Americans seeking to exercise their newly won civil rights following the Civil War. By studying material objects in a variety of contexts, archaeologists enrich historical narratives and offer grounded insights on the racial and social strife experienced by people of African descent. Building on the body of literature on African American archaeology, the twenty-two contributors to this volume use historical records, maps, and artifacts to examine the material-culture dimensions of churches, cemeteries, plantations, communities, neighborhoods, and towns. The contributors to this collection assert that exploring the disheartening past of African Americans is essential to understanding contemporary issues of race and power as they delve into the archaeology of places such as the Harriet Tubman Home, the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Girls, Boston Saloon, and Alexandria, Virginia s Contrabands and Freedmen s Cemetery. Urban archaeology methods are also applied to prominent areas of Auburn, New York, Chicago, and the Old Salem Historical District in Winston-Salem. The Materiality of Freedom bridges past and present with community-based research and a combination of archaeological method and theory to highlight contemporary issues of class, gender, race, and social inequality. As these essays open new vistas on the social construction of race and racism, they also demonstrate a more hopeful view on the building of black communities and in the United States and the Caribbean.

The transformation of urban waterscapes : documenting waterscape manipulation as an aspect of urban development in the Roman period

There have now been a number of important studies of wetland exploitation and transformation in Roman Western Europe. This process of landscape change further intensified in post-Roman times resulting in a very different landscape to that which existed in prehistory and the Roman periods. Landscape archaeology has demonstrated, for example, that in Roman Britain coastal wetlands were drained and the land reclaimed for agricultural purposes. Other wetlands such as the East Anglian Fenland, the largest wetland in Britain before modern drainage, were used partly for agriculture and partly as pasture for keeping cattle. Urban development in Western Europe, however, also resulted in considerable changes to the landscape including wetlands and other interconnected components of waterscapes including rivers and lakes. There has conventionally been an academic divide between the archaeological methodologies and interpretations of landscape archaeology (focusing on the countryside) and urban archaeology. Drawing on research undertaken as part of a larger project examining the relationship between Roman urban spaces and waterscapes, this paper will complement the important work of landscape archaeologists by investigating the theme of wetland change from the urban context. The paper will consider the way in which towns adapted to, controlled, exploited and transformed the landscapes in which they were situated paying particular attention to water. It will examine evidence of the drainage of wetlands, the reclamation of land and the redirection of rivers for the purposes of developing and expanding the towns. Rivers were also increasingly controlled through timber revetments, embankments and wharfs, representing growing command of the landscape.

Spaces of the archaeology. Contemporary concepts and interpretations

Archaeological sites are an origin of successive changes among city’s areas and values that led to the evolution of urban composition. Th e city, as a place of condensation, is the only medium in which the architect, the archaeologist and the urban planner meet. By explaining the term “urban archaeology” there will present the connection between the archaeological excavations and the expense of the aesthetic “envelope” of the contemporary city, following the normative previsions of the charts.

Arqueologia da Arquitectura em Contexto Urbano: reflexões a partir de três exemplos da cidade de Braga, Portugal

The urban archaeology was affirmed, since the 1960’s, as an essential knowledge area for the strategic definition of the development of any historic city. At present, the Archaeology of Architecture, due to its instrumental and methodological potential, demonstrates that it may strongly help to renew the studies of the town planning, both in recording and documenting the standing material, and to interpretate the historical evolution of the cities. This article presents the experience of the project of archaeological study of the city of Braga, coordinated by the Archaeology Unit of the Minho’s University, discussing three examples of interventions in the urban space that, in our opinion, are fitted in the most specific area of the Archaeology of Architecture and demonstrate the importance of its application.

The Houses and ‘Fortress’ of Waskar: Archaeological Perspectives on a Forgotten Building Complex in Inka Cusco

The Inka capital, Cusco, is basically interpreted from the historical documentation of the Chronicles and early administrative texts. Despite the fact that History and Archaeology offer complementary data and interpretative opportunities, the latter has contributed very little to this understanding. In this paper, I demonstrate that archaeology offers an appropriate explanation for buildings that were known as the houses and fortress of Waskar in the distribution of solares of 1534 but which were never mentioned again. By using techniques of town plan analysis, urban archaeology, and the comparative analysis of cultural assemblages, a high platform now occupied by the Colegio San Borja and the Parque Tricentenario above the northwestern corner of the plaza is argued to be the location of the houses, while the slope below now in Calle Suecia and the Portal de Panes was characterised by fine terraces, with zig-zag salients and gateways, that gave it the term fortress.

Laserscanning e 3D Modelling nell’archeologia urbana: lo scavo della chiesa di Sant’Agata al Carcere a Catania (Italia)

<p>Urban archaeology undoubtedly represents the most problematic branch of archaeological research, due to the many problems of conservation and promotion of the evidence. A significant example is presented by the excavations carried out by the Superintendency for Cultural Goods of Catania in the church of “Sant’Agata al Carcere”, located in the heart of down town Catania. The most important discovery of the archaeological campaign was part of a ruined archaic wall in polygonal technique, located in the western side of the sacristy of the “Sant’Agata al Carcere” church. Furthermore, a late hellenistic votive deposit located within a pit, contained two small jars and a lidded stamnos, was discovered between the stones of the fallen wall. The excavations were performed during the restoration of the church. After the restoration, due to the special function of the building, it was necessary to quickly re-open the churches, thereby hiding the archaeological monuments from public view. In this perspective, a virtual museum project was implemented by an equipe of archaeologists and information technologists of the Archeomatica Project of Catania University, in order to display the important discoveries from the sacristy, which were covered up by the re-location of the floor in situ, applying both laser-scanner and 3D modelling techniques.</p>

Cities through the Looking Glass: Essays on the History and Archaeology of Biblical Urbanism. Rami Arav.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsCities through the Looking Glass: Essays on the History and Archaeology of Biblical Urbanism. Rami Arav.Ralph K. HawkinsRalph K. Hawkins Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 358May 2010 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/BASOR25741816 Views: 3Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). Copyright © 2010 American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Oral Histories and the Archaeology of the Modern City

This paper briefly reviews the changing role of oral history in the development of urban archaeology in Australia. It is argued that oral histories will have an increasingly important place in urban archaeology as researchers move to broaden research focus into the twentieth century in order to provide complete temporal coverage of sites and places.This article has been peer-reviewed.

Edifici antichi e nuovi monumenti nella costruzione della Benevento moderna

Ancient buildings and new monuments in modern Benevento development - Benevento, Urban archaeology, Urban renewal, Isolation The history of Benevento, in the period which goes from 1860 and the Second World War, outbreak is ripe of interesting insights on the role of historic disciplines on modern cities development. The debate on urban planning shows two opposing views, characterized by different ideological premises. On the one hand, scholars have supported the idea of an external expansion based on the decentralization of productive functions. On the other hand, literature has leaned towards the redevelopment of the intra mural city by means of demolitions and restructuring. Particular attention is due to the circumstance that, after the pontifical domination, the Benevento school of epigraphic and antiques studies was gradually put in a marginal position within the broader archaeological culture. It comes out the substantial foreignness of the archaeological debate among the urban planning. The approach to urban renewal process has been characterized by an insufficient awareness of historic and archaeological value of the area within the ancient surrounding wall and its stratifications. This process also ignored the presence of ancient settlements outside the city wall. The way chosen in order to rehabilitate the city and provide centrality to monuments and historical locations was based on the negation of the contest (demolitions, urban thinning, releases and isolations). At the same time, this shows little attention to the role and value of the contextual aspects.

Understanding subsurface geological and geotechnical complexity at various scales in urban soils using a 3D model

The construction of a three-dimensional (3D) geological model to the scale of a city (greater Bordeaux area, France) has been undertaken, using several thousand boreholes and several hundred geotechnical tests on a more limited area. Data from some specific geographical areas have also been analysed for the purposes of professional applications related to geotechnical engineering, urban archaeology and asset management of buried networks. This paper focuses on the geotechnical dimensions, uncertainties and associated hazards. First, a geometrical model of the quaternary layer basis was built to the scale of the city, the variogram of which quantifies and models the anisotropic spatial correlation of this layer. Two specific studies were then made, as described in the following: • modelling of the stratigraphy, to the scale of the city, in order to assess the depth and extent of the Flandrian formations. The thickness of these formations is directly linked to the staircase terraces of the Garonne river. • on-site site analysis of an area where an infrastructure has suffered damage, resulting from large differential settlements, owing to its poor geotechnical properties. We show how geostatistical methods applied to in-situ or laboratory parameters can improve knowledge and understanding of the site, and can be useful in improving the settlement predictions which had been initially underestimated.

Urban archaeology and environmental data: the Lyon experience

Restricted to the perimeter of Lyon, the City Archaeological Service has developed an adapted methodology to better exploit geoarcheological data in the context of a completely urbanized area. General characteristics of geoarcheological practices in urban areas Considering environmental factors in the understanding of the shape, function, and even disappearance of archaeological remains, geoarchaeology is submitted to the following constraints in urban environments: quasi-complete disappearan...

Archéologie et études urbaines : un point de vue

Archaeology and Urban Studies : A point of View. The notion of urban landscape is apprehended by many disciplines of social sciences, among which urban archaeology takes a large place. Born in France in the 1970s, inspired by the North European studies, it was fully affirmed in France in the 1980s with the various operations on site. Now included in the global field of «urban studies», the urban archaeology draws on concepts related to the close disciplines and to the methods which enable it to establish a fruitful dialectic with them. Spaces, societies and temporalities are the three angles of approach of the urban archaeologist, inspired -but sometimes, opposed -by the works of historians, geographers, urban planners, anthropologists and sociologists. This necessary dialogue between the disciplines whom contours are sometimes blurred, founder of a real “transdisciplinarity”, is the only guarantee of a genuine constructed and constructive discourse on the city as object.

Urban Archaeology, Museums and the Origins of Sydney

Urban Archaeology, Museums and the Origins of Sydney

Arqueología de la boca del Riachuelo. Puerto urbano de Buenos Aires, Argentina

A study of the urban archaeology (employing contemporary landscape theories) of the city port areas of Buenos Aires, in particular the port known as La Boca. The chronological record takes in a time span of some 300 years (AD 1700 to 2000) and study topics include commercial and domestic space usage. Spanish text.

Nostalgia and the New Cosmopolitan: Literary and Artistic Interventions in the City of Casablanca

In the past ten years, groups of local artists, architects, writers and activists have become concerned not only with the changing material conditions of Casablanca, but also with the city’s memory. This essay is concerned with two projects that reveal how nostalgic modes of recollection expose and limit geographies of cosmopolitan identity in the city. The first project, a collection of twelve booklets written by prominent novelists and poets with well-known photographers, is entitled Casablanca, fragments d’imaginaire. This collection argues that nostalgia and phantasm are key organizing concepts through which the city should be recollected, claiming that these modes of representation produce multiple, plural and heterogeneous forms and imaginations that allow the “soul” of the city to emerge. The second project is a participatory urban archeology art project started by the art collective La Source du lion. The collective practices a non-nostalgic curation of memory that moves cosmopolitanism in the city beyond a historical category into a contemporary practice and ethos. Read comparatively, these projects shed light on two post-colonial generations of writers and artists, their claims to the colonial past, identity politics about cosmopolitanism in the present, and struggles over cultural capital for the future.

The Irish Viking Age: A Discussion of Architecture, Settlement Patterns, and Identity

This paper discusses both the urban and the rural architecture of the Irish Viking Age. Looking firstly at the extremely well-preserved Hiberno-Norse urban settlements, especially the Type 1 houses, it finds that the true nature of this architecture is a hybrid of both Norse and Irish characteristics. It considers the nature of the proposed ‘Viking’ rural settlements in Ireland and concludes that some of these may be better considered as expressions of a Hiberno-Norse identity rather than evidence of a simplistic, and misleading, ‘Viking’ settlement pattern. Returning to the well-preserved urban archaeology, the author applies Access Analysis to a single building level from Fishamble St. in Dublin, concluding that these homes were carefully organized with controls over movement and access. Finally, the Access Analysis methodology is applied to the Hiberno-Norse rural settlements and finds that some of the buildings demonstrate similar patterns of movement to those observed at Fishamble St. This hints that there may have been closer relationships between these sites and perhaps may be the first signs of an observable ‘mental template’ regulating the Hiberno-Norse architecture of Ireland.

Arqueología de La Boca del Riachuelo. Puerto urbano de Buenos Aires, Argentina

La Boca se ubica dentro del Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, Argentina, en la cuenca baja del río Matanzas - Riachuelo. Esta tesis de doctorado plateó que los procesos de portuarización y urbanización tecnificaron el ambiente de manera diferencial entre los siglos XVIII y XX. Para entender la escala y visibilidad de este fenómeno se aplicó una perspectia arqueológica distribucional. De esta forma, se estudió la variabilidad artefactual del puerto urbano de La Boca del Riachuelo mediante el análisis de paisajes arqueológicos teóricos.

Urban organic archaeology: an irreplaceable palaeoecological archive at risk

‘Waterlogged’ organic archaeology beneath historic towns represents a major archaeological resource, but changing ground conditions are seemingly leading to its decay. This issue should not concern just archaeologists and others in the heritage industry: there will be significant loss of data concerning past ecology, micro-evolution and human daily life, as well as ground settlement and release of greenhouse gases. The information that will be lost is not restricted to that from macro- and micro-fossils in a conventional sense; the deposits contain a wide range of potentially equally illuminating biomolecules, including DNA and lipid residues (papers in Brothwell and Pollard 2001). Preservation mechanisms for buried organics are poorly understood, although both archaeologists and – ironically – the waste disposal industry are making progress. Here we issue a clarion call for fundamental research to determine factors influencing the balance of decay and survival of organic remains, especially in urban archaeological sites, and to establish methods for monitoring the health of the deposits. Meanwhile, following the precautionary principle, strategic research excavations with fully integrated and comprehensive post-excavation programmes should be carried out in case the resource cannot be conserved.