An Archaeology of Land Ownership

Maria Relaki · Despina Catapoti

Oct 2013 · Routledge

About this ebook

Within archaeological studies, land tenure has been mainly studied from the viewpoint of ownership. A host of studies has argued about land ownership on the basis of the simple co-existence of artefacts on the landscape; other studies have tended to extrapolate land ownership from more indirect means. Particularly noteworthy is the tendency to portray land ownership as the driving force behind the emergence of social complexity, a primordial ingredient in the processes that led to the political and economic expansion of prehistoric societies. The association between people and land in all of these interpretive schemata is however less easy to detect analytically. Although various rubrics have been employed to identify such a connection – most notable among them the concepts of ‘cultures,’ ‘regions,’ or even ‘households’ – they take the links between land and people as a given and not as something that needs to be conceptually defined and empirically substantiated.

An Archaeology of Land Ownership demonstrates that the relationship between people and land in the past is first and foremost an analytical issue, and one that calls for clarification not only at the level of definition, but also methodological applicability. Bringing together an international roster of specialists, the essays in this volume call attention to the processes by which links to land are established, the various forms that such links take and how they can change through time, as well as their importance in helping to forge or dilute an understanding of community at various circumstances.

About the author

Maria Relaki has conducted research in archaeological theory, regional analysis, seals and sealing practices in the Bronze Age, ceramics, and the social dimensions of technological practice. Her research and teaching interests focus on anthropology and social theory, ancient technologies and technological practice, the emergence of complex societies and aspects of material and social representation. She is currently an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, UK and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Sheffield.

Despina Catapoti is currently teaching at the Department of Cultural Informatics, University of the Aegean, Greece. Her research focuses on archaeological theory and epistemology, social identity and material culture as well as the impact of digital technology on current archaeological practice.