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.
