Waste lands? New perspectives on the archaeology of disaster recovery in medieval Europe

Project Information

WasteLands

Grant agreement ID: 101026390

DOI

10.3030/101026390

Project closed

EC signature date 22 April 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 251 002,56

EU contribution

€ 251 002,56

Coordinated by

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WasteLands (Waste lands? New perspectives on the archaeology of disaster recovery in medieval Europe)

Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2024-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

WasteLands explores the impact of and recovery from three major disasters in medieval Europe: the 1248 Mont Granier landslide (France), the 1348 Eastern Alps earthquake (Italy, Austria and Slovenia), and the 1421 St Elisabeth flood (the Netherlands). It aims to develop a ‘global’ landscape archaeological approach to the study of historical disasters, to deepen the theoretical debate around the study of societal resilience, and to explore new interconnected ways of dissemination of the archaeology of disasters by engaging public communities, cultural heritage professionals and risk reduction practitioners.
The project explicitly addresses the materialisation of resilience, memory and inequality in post-disaster historic landscapes, and it is relevant as communities living in the aforementioned post-disaster area still face the risk of devastating landslides, earthquakes and floods. The project tackles relevant but sometimes overlooked key-questions: what is the archaeological evidence for the impact of the natural hazard in the landscape? What is the archaeological evidence for the post-disaster recovery phase, i.e. the adaptive strategies put in place to cope with a transformed environment? How do affected societies reshape the landscape in the aftermath of disaster? Did they only recover from the experienced disaster or, by developing mitigative and protective countermeasures, did they also prepare for the next disaster to come? To what extent were the responses adopted inspired by societal co-operation, negotiation, coercion, or conflict and how did those elements materially impact on the post-disaster landscape? By collaborating with professional risk practitioners, WasteLands develops a dedicated risk communication strategy based on the archaeology of disasters to inform young generations, local communities and stakeholders.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the outgoing phase at Northwestern University (Evanston, USA), research activities undertaken by the WasteLands project particularly focused on the archaeology of the selected post-disasters case studies through literature review, remote sensing analysis, GIS data management, and fieldwork. An updated mapping of the disaster landscapes was produced. Archaeological and anthropological theory and interpretative analysis represented the core training activity based on the attendance of classes such as Building Archaeology, Political Ecology, Sustainability and Collapse, Anthropology of food, and Mapping people, places and space.
Scientific dissemination was targeted through the publication of the project’s website and the presentation of the WasteLands project at the international conference Natural Disasters in History: On the 500th anniversary of the Vila Franca do Campo Earthquake (Vila Franca do Campo, Azores, Portugal; Oct 2022) and soon the project will tackle dissemination activities with dedicated secondment at the INGV (Bologna seat) and the Biesbosch Museum (Netherlands). As a result, the selected post-disaster landscapes are now better understood from an archaeological perspective, and crucial aspects such as resilience, memory and social inequality are deepened in a more theoretically informed way.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The WasteLands project is advancing a novel approach to the study of past disasters. It is opening new research strands on the complex development of societal resilience after sudden environmental shocks. It develops a systematic ‘disaster archaeology’ in the landscape and analyses, along with traditional adaptive strategies (ecological, technological and economic), less explored topics such as the roles of disaster memory, ideology, power and inequality in post-disaster scenarios from an archaeological perspective. The project explores such aspects through an innovative approach that combines traditional archaeological methods with new ideas inspired by up-to-date archaeological theory and the analysis of disasters from a cultural anthropology perspective.
Designed around a selection of historic disaster case studies, WasteLands will provide the ideal combination of historical and archaeological evidence to unravel post-disaster landscapes, and facilitate a comparative approach between different locations and dates. Its novelty is also reflected in its ambition to contribute to contemporary disaster risk communication and public engagement with a dedicated programme developed with risk reduction practitioners and cultural heritage professionals. Such an approach has never been considered previously in the archaeology of risk and resilience. To date, the discipline has not fully exploited the possibility of engaging with disaster risk communication programmes on a routine basis, nor has disaster archaeology fully explored novel strategies for the development of effective community-based participatory research. In practice, the engagement of archaeologists working on natural disasters with local museums, cultural institutions and public communities is still rare: WasteLands aims at opening new avenues of collaboration which will be easily replicable elsewhere. For example, the project will activate a new archaeological excavation on the Mont Granier landslide in partnership with the local association ‘Mémoire et patrimoine des Marches’.

Mt. Granier and the Lake of Saint-André. The lake sits on the rockfall deposit of the 1248 landslide

Biesbosch Museum, created for the preservation of the area flooded by the 1421 St Elizabeth’s Flood.

The Veliki Vrh landslide, triggered by the 1348 Eastern Alps earthquake based on Absolute dating.