WasteLands · Waste lands? New perspectives on the archaeology of disaster recovery in medieval Europe
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-09-01 → 2024-08-31
- EU contribution
- €251,003
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Waste lands? New perspectives on the archaeology of disaster recovery in medieval Europe
WasteLands explores the impact of and recovery from three major disasters in medieval Europe: the 1248 Mont Granier landslide (France), the 1348 Eastern Alps earthquake (Italy, Austria and Slovenia), and the 1421 St Elisabeth flood (the Netherlands). It aims to develop a ‘global’ landscape archaeological approach to the study of historical disasters, to deepen the theoretical debate around the study of societal resilience, and to explore new interconnected ways of dissemination of the archaeology of disasters by engaging public communities, cultural heritage professionals and risk reduction practitioners. The project explicitly addresses the materialisation of resilience, memory and inequality in post-disaster historic landscapes, and it is relevant as communities living in the aforementioned post-disaster area still face the risk of devastating landslides, earthquakes and floods. The project tackles relevant but sometimes overlooked key-questions: what is the archaeological evidence for the impact of the natural hazard in the landscape? What is the archaeological evidence for the post-disaster recovery phase, i.e. the adaptive strategies put in place to cope with a transformed environment? How do affected societies reshape the landscape in the aftermath of disaster? Did they only recover from the experienced disaster or, by developing mitigative and protective countermeasures, did they also prepare for the next disaster to come? To what extent were the responses adopted inspired by societal co-operation, negotiation, coercion, or conflict and how did those elements materially impact on the post-disaster landscape? By collaborating with professional risk practitioners, WasteLands develops a dedicated risk communication strategy based on the archaeology of disasters to inform young generations, local communities and stakeholders.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The WasteLands project explores the aftermath of medieval disasters in Europe from an archaeological perspective. Using a novel theoretical and research framework to tackle topics such as resilience, memory, power, and identity in the aftermath of destructive catastrophes, WasteLands employs a non-invasive landscape approach to address three iconic disasters across Europe: the Mont Granier megalandslide, 1248 (France); the Carinthia and Friuli earthquake, 1348 (Austria, Italy and Slovenia); the St Elizabeth’s megaflood, 1421 (Netherlands). WasteLands aims to expand the theoretical debate about the concept of resilience by developing a systematic study of natural disasters ‘in the landscape’, posing novel questions addressing under-represented topics through original dialogues between archaeology, cultural anthropology, and disaster studies scholars, and contributing effectively to disaster risk communication in contemporary societies.The project will be developed under the supervision of Prof Andrea Augenti (supervisor at the University of Bologna, Italy) and Prof Matthew Johnson (supervisor at Northwestern University, USA). During the outgoing phase at Northwestern University, the candidate will analyse in depth the archaeology of the selected ‘landscapes of disaster’, apply up-to-date archaeological and anthropological theory and engage with a diverse and multidisciplinary team of scholars from the same university. During the return phase, he will be integrated within the research environment of the University of Bologna where the candidate will complete his research activities, disseminate the scientific results of the project, and develop a cultural heritage and community engagement programme focused on disaster risk communication. The latter activity will be strengthened through two project secondments at the Biesbosch Museum, Netherlands and at the INGV (Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia) in Bologna, Italy.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA · BolognaCoordinatorItaly
- NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY CORPORATION · EVANSTONUnited States
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union