The Biferno Valley Survey

Historians, geographers and archaeologists have long debated the changing relationship between people and landscape in the Mediterranean. What was this relationship like in the past; and what can we learn from it for the future? The present study is the companion volume to A Mediterranean Valley: Landscape Archaeology and Annales History in the Biferno Valley, and together they make up the largest and most detailed interdisciplinary case study in Mediterranean landscape archaeology and history.

A Mediterranean Valley documents the long-term landscape history of the Biferno Valley (in central-southern Italy) as it has been pieced together by a team of archaeologists, geographers and historians. The Biferno Valley Survey presents the specialist supporting data collected by the survey team - materials collected, full details of the sites located, observations made in the field, and their interpretation.

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Archaeologists have a professional obligation to make their data accessible to other archaeologists and not simply present their conclusions. Unlike historians, they cannot simply refer their readers to the library or archive which they have consulted. Archaeologists have an obligation to publish the data on which their conclusions are based because the research questions posed by a project determine the methodologies applied and the kind of data collected.

A Mediterranean Valley and The Biferno Valley Survey together set a new standard in the publication of Mediterranean landscape archaeology and are designed to make the results of this important project accessible to both general reader and speicalist alike.