IN-PERSON: Prague – Section A

Abstract

My research focuses on landscape planning at multi-layered archaeological sites. It combines historical sources and archaeological finds, visual analysis and landscape ecology with contemporary landscape architecture. Such study raises fundamental questions: What are the elements of the past that we want to preserve (and by extension, what will be destroyed)? Should we preserve one prominent period, or perhaps leave a cross-section of multiple periods? What ‘heritage’ should be preserved and according to what values? How to tell the historical narrative and how to illustrate the way the site functioned in the past, when the geographical and cultural context is that of the present? I use the ancient city of Caesarea as a case study, since its settlements continued continuously for about 1700 years, from the Roman period, through the Byzantine and Crusader, to the Mamluk period. Each left extensive historical record and impressive remains which cover a very large area, only part of which was excavated. The most prominent buildings exposed are the Roman port, theater, hippodrome, temples, and aqueducts and the Crusader fortress, moat, and city walls. The landscapes of the past, argues geographer David Lowenthal, are important to us because of their close connection to the present. Every object, every configuration, every view is partly legible, through our own past and through stories we’ve heard, books we’ve read, pictures we’ve seen. Without the past as a tangible entity, we would not be able to function. It’s embodied in the things we build and the landscapes we create.