Beyond geoarchaeology: Pragmatist explorations of alternative viewscapes in the British Bronze Age and beyond

Viewscapes are historically constructed and socially reproduced conceptions of the world that go beyond our present notions of "landscape." Significant contrasts exist between the viewscapes of archaeologists/geoarchaeologists and native peoples concerning the geomorphic landscape. These differences are important, since they highlight the shortcomings of traditional descriptions in coming to terms with the fullness of human-environment relations in the past. It is argued that a practice-centred, phenomenological approach to past human-environment relations may bear more interpretive fruit than current totalizing and specular perspectives. An overview of some alternative ways in which traditional societies make sense of their buried landscapes is presented. This is followed by several archaeological case studies from the southwestern British Bronze Age which suggest that multifaceted viewscapes linking time, space, the living and the dead were objectified and reproduced through soils, sediments and rocks.