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H2020Individual fellowship2015–2018

ULISSES · Transported cultural landscapes: the role of colonization processes in cultural landscape shaping

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2015-10-01 → 2018-01-20
EU contribution
€173,076
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-RI

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Transported cultural landscapes: the role of colonization processes in cultural landscape shaping

The Mediterranean Sea has been the cradle and contact route of ancient civilizations, but little is known about how cultural exchanges, migratory and colonial processes have contributed to the cultural shaping of Mediterranean landscapes. Long-term interaction of societies do not only imply the exchange of people, socio-cultural patterns, goods or ideas but also the exchange and introduction of land-uses, plants and land organization systems in new territories. The latter can led to significant landscape change in the new territories, giving place to the ‘so called’ transported landscapes. Despite its significance, the characterization of the role that colonial processes played in the configuration of Mediterranean paleo-landscapes in Europe and overseas has been poorly addressed so far. The ULISSES project was designed to contribute to this long-standing research question by analyzing the role of colonial processes in the configuration of cultural landscapes in coastal Spain following Greek and Roman settlement, and (2) addressing the transportation of European Mediterranean landscapes into the New World during the Spanish colonization of North America. To address these goals, ULISSES has developed an innovative research joining multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental analyses in wetlands and the study of archaeo-historical sources in the Empordà plain (Catalonia, Spain) and southern California. These areas have been selected for accounting for a long and intense history of colonial and socio-economic exchanges and for having ancient colonial bonds. The Empordà plain outstands for its archaeological richness documenting the development of the Iberian culture and subsequent founding of the Greek and Roman colonies of Emporion-Emporiae. Mediterranean agropastoral practices, plants and crops will be introduced into Mediterranean areas of the New World in the 18th century following the Spanish colonization of California, a territory that had been occupied by hunter-gatherer communities for millennia.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

European landscapes are the result of millennia of socio-cultural exchange through trading, migratory and colonial processes. Societies largely dependent to their local ecosystems and when societies move their landscapes move with them, creating in this way the ‘so called’ transported landscapes. The Mediterranean Sea has been the cradle and contact route of ancient and influential civilizations, but little is known about how cultural exchanges, migratory and colonial processes contributed to the cultural landscape shaping of Mediterranean environments. This ancient Mediterranean cultural landscape development achieved a universal importance when, during the colonization of America, the transport of European agro-pastoral landscapes configured a shared cultural landscape heritage between both World regions. Despite its significance in cultural landscape shaping, the study of transported landscapes has been poorly addressed so far. ULISSES project is designed to (1)identify the environmental impacts, land-uses and landscape changes involved in migratory and colonization processes during the Holocene and (2) evaluate the role of transported landscapes in the shaping of cultural landscapes both in Europe and overseas. An integrated approach joining multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental analyses (eg. pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, charcoal analysis, sedimentology), and the study of archaeo-historical sources will be applied in Mediterranean areas of Spain and California (USA). These have been selected for having ancient colonial relationships and for accounting for a long and intense history of colonial, migratory and socio-economic exchanges. By analyzing the cultural dimension of landscapes and the mobility of cultural landscapes, ULISSES will significantly contribute to 1)a better understanding of the European Mediterranean cultural landscape heritage, 2) the formation of European identities and cultures and 3) the influence of European culture and societies in the World

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union