Paul S. Johnson
University of Nottingham/Magnitude Surveys, Community Chair
The EAA’s Archaeological Prospection Community was established in 2016 by the General Management Board of the EU funded ArchaeoLandscapes Europe project (ArcLand) following its conclusion in 2015. While the Community initially consisted largely of a membership derived from the ArcLand partner organisations, over time we were able to steadily increase representation among, and engagement with, the wider EAA membership.
The Community is concerned with using non-intrusive technologies and methodologies to investigate archaeological landscapes and sites. The scope of these approaches includes both near-surface and remote-sensing approaches, as applied to archaeological questions at the landscape and site scale. These interests align closely with those of other external learned societies, such as the International Society for Archaeological Prospection (ISAP) and the Aerial Archaeology Research Group (AARG), as well as with researchers and practitioners from the Community involved in the International Mediterranean Survey Workshops.
We aim to provide a point of contact for those members who are interested in the use of geophysical and remote-sensing techniques, whether near-surface, or air/spaceborne, in archaeological practice and research. The Community acts both as a means of promoting archaeological prospection within the EAA, and of engaging with colleagues and organisations outside the EAA.
At the 2023 Annual Meeting in Belfast, we sponsored sessions organised and run by Community Members on the “Detection and evaluation of archaeological sites: comparative methodology on a European scale” and "Prospecting Prehistoric Land Use and its Environment: Challenges and Perspectives for Investigating Lifeways of Hunter Gatherers and Early Farmers”. In previous years, sessions run by Community members addressed issues ranging from the self-reflective “Archaeological Prospection and Field Evaluation Practice from Bologna Process to Convention of La Valetta. Do We Practice What We Preach?” to the regionally specific “Evaluating Regional Survey in the Western Iberian Peninsula. The State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects”, the abstract “Theory and Practise of Detecting Settlements by Means of Combined Aerial Archaeology, Geophysics, Predictive Modelling” and the pragmatic “Contemporary Approaches to the Investigation and Management of Archaeological Resources in Alluvial Environments”. We are already expecting a number of interesting sessions for the EAA’s next Annual Meeting in Rome.
As a field, archaeological prospection reaches into many aspects of archaeological practice. Rather than being defined by specific periods or types of site, it encourages us to think about diachronic landscapes and the range of past human activities that took place within them. Archaeological prospection can, therefore, be seen both as the foundation of and precursor to detailed and directed research, and as being critical to the management of archaeological resources through preventative archaeology. As such, we believe that it is one of the cornerstones of developing better understandings of the past, and that it is fundamental in contributing to the preservation of our cultural heritage.
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