Objective
The objectives of the Action are :
to contribute to a better understanding of the relationships between the natural environment and human activities in ancient geosystems;
to establish an inter-disciplinary research programme to study ancient geosystems. The term 'geosystem' is taken to mean a system consisting of biotic and abiotic components and the inter-relations between them, including man's strategies for intervention on the ground;
to prepare appropriate models in the light of ancient systems of land survey and data available today, with regional variations;
to propose tools to assist in diagnosis or in decision-making regarding exploring and conserving "ground archives". European co-operation will make it possible to harmonise work practices and approaches to conserving and enhancing the rural heritage;
to produce research tools suited to landscape investigation and to studies of ancient cadastres (registers of land-ownership);
to construct European databases and valid frames of reference;
to refine conceptions and interpretative models on the basis of a critique of methods currently in use.
There is an urgent need to work on understanding heritage and to carry out an inventory in the face of the destruction attributable to recent agricultural techniques, the rapid growth of urban areas and the threat represented by what might be termed "de-farming" through shrinkage or set-aside. One of the objectives of this Action is to contribute to evaluating the rural heritage and its impact on present-day landscapes.
Old forms of land use produced structures (field divisions, roads and paths, water control systems) which can still be observed today. The aim is to work out a typology which could be used at European level. Knowledge of technical sources and co-ordination of the experiences of teams in this field should enable us to provide aids to research and interpretation via this Action.
In order to achieve the best possible harmonisation of inventory and research practices, the Action will in particular :
establish parameters for orthonormal systems
identify specific period intervals
create models and study the use of Geographic Information System (GIS).
Current status
The Action started in Spring 1995 and will last 6 years until March 2001.
The chairperson is Mme Monique CLAVEL-LEVEQUE, Besançon (F).
The vice-chairperson is Prof. Okko BEHRENS (D).
Thirteen countries have signed the MoU so far and further countries, in particular Croatia, Sweden and Turkey, are expected to do so in the near future. Owing to the subject of this research, the French language has been agreed by Delegates as the main working language used for this Action.
Until the end of 1996, the COST G2 Action has organised 2 MC meetings and 2 workshops combined with 2 MC meetings.
A COST G2 homepage is being developed on the Internet WWW at the following site :
http://www.sys.uea.ac.uk/Research/ResGroups/JWMP/COSTG2/costG2.html.
The person responsible for this homepage is John PETERSON, UK COST G2 Delegate, University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK).
Ten scientists have been accepted to undertake Short Term Scientific Missions in the period to November 1996.
The Action is structured in four Working Groups :
WG 1 : Ancient technical sources
Co-ordinators : O. BEHRENS (D) and L. CAPOGROSSI COLOGNESI (I).
The Group has finalised the first commented translation of two new volumes of Roman "surveyors - geometers" "L'Etablissement des Limites" from Hygin l'Arpenteur, Napoli 1996 published by co-edition OPOCE-JOVENE in the collection "Diaphora" (ed. : M. CLAVEL-LEVEQUE, A. GONZALES and F. REDUZZI) and "La Condition des Terres" from FRONTIN (ready for press). These documents present spatial models, practices of measurements and management techniques for regular landscapes. The main data concern territories of colonisation, the parcelling and the modalities of distribution of parcels of land, the marking out of land boundaries, the road system and the spatial structuring. Comments give historical, legal, philological, astronomical, technical and religious details. The work of translation has been done in Besançon by the permanent Group with monthly meetings. It has been controlled by collaborative contributions which have been discussed and integrated. The whole operation has been reviewed in two main harmonisation meetings (Besançon (F), Oct 1995 and Jun 1996; Evora (P), Nov 1996).
WG 2 : Methodology and informatics
Co-ordinators : B. SLAPZAK (SLO) and J. PETERSON (UK).
Detection : image analysis (remote sensing, aerial photography, pattern recognition, detection of directionality and periodicity).
Analysis : morphology (modelling, for example by Geographical Information System (GIS) Simulation); metrology (e.g. statistical and Fourier analysis, to determine subdivisions of a centuriation, with significance estimates).
Integration : environment, settlement (Statistical tests of distribution of sites and other features; GIS techniques for investigating the effects of environmental variation in influencing site distribution).
A Workshop has been organised in Ljubljana (SLO) on "Methods and perspectives of GIS".
WG 3 : Atlas of forms of land use and spatial analysis
Co-ordinators : Mme M. CLAVEL-LEVEQUE (F) and P. COARELLI (I).
The Group has finalised the first volume of the "Atlas des Formes d'Occupation du Sol en Europe" to which five countries have contributed 14 dossiers on territories regularly registered and measured via "centuriation". (In Spain, the regions of Maresme, of Merida, of Saragossa and Ampurias; in France, the regions of Beziers and Arles; in Greece, the region of Dymé; in Italy, the regions of the valley of Umbria, Salento and Campanie; in the UK, the regions of Norfolk; and in North East Tunisia, "Tell"). Three technical dossiers (podology, interpretation of satellite images, and metrology) have been added to thematic dossiers and explain methods for reading and data restitution. All efforts have been made in order to maintain appropriate consistency and the specificity of each geographical area (Eds : M. CLAVEL-LEVEQUE and A. VIGNOT).
WG 4 : Cultural parks : concepts and decision making tools
Co-ordinators : F. J. SANCHEZ PALENCIA (E) and M. MASCARENHAS (P).
The main objectives are : the study and mapping of proposed or potential areas as 'archæological parks'; the proposals must be remarkable and representative of their diversity e.g. areas with linear land planning, "rural fossilised" soils, modified rural soils, degraded soils, etc., the definition of the concept of cultural park as an element of planning in the policies of environment and of historical heritage, including the study of legal arrangements proposed by expert committees at national, European and international level, the setting-up of recommendations for general criteria, and of efficient tools for management and planning regarding cultural parks. A workshop has been organised in Evora (P) on "Cultural Parks".
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
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1049 Brussels
Belgium