Ideas of Landscape

by Matthew Johnson

Ideas of Landscape discusses the current theory and practice of landscape archaeology and offers an alternative agenda for landscape archaeology that maps more closely onto the established empirical strengths of landscape study and has more contemporary relevance.

Genres: Archaeology, Theory

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Matthew 2^ Johnson: GR Author, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Magic Realism
Matthew 3^ Johnson: GR Author, Fantasy
Matthew 4^ Johnson: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Short Stories
Matthew 5^ Johnson: Organic Life
Matthew 6^ Johnson: Biography for Children, History

Reviews

[Catherine]

The book had some interesting points on the evolution of landscape archaeology in Great Britain. While this does not necessarily correlate worldwide to the development, some of his critiques I think are relevant, as the academic ideas and thereby the influence of other earlier ideas are being transferred uncritically.

[Sarah Leonard]

This is a very well-written, interesting critique of modern landscape archaeology. I just happen to not agree with the author on a lot of points, and after reading it twice then writing an academic review of it, I was pretty tired of it!

[Anna]

Johnson's claims are mostly appropriate at an English audience and his disdain for Romanticism does not translate well onto an American landscape. However, most of his points of critique are contextualized and valid.

[Sarah]

Deals primarily with the impact of Romantic ideas of landscape on English archaeology, complicates traditional narratives of disciplinary history. Calls for a balance between the "Hoskins" model and a post-processual, theoretically reflexive model.