Forms of Dwelling: 20 Years of Taskscapes in Archaeology

The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as initially proposed in the field of anthropology by Tim Ingold, has actually been much more applied in archaeology. In this wide-ranging collection of 13 papers, including a reassessment by Ingold himself, contributors show why it has been so influential, with papers ranging from the study of Mesolithic to historic and contemporary archaeology, revisiting different research themes, such as Ingold’s own Lapland study, and the development of landscape archaeology. A series of case studies demonstrates the value and strength of the taskscape concept applied to a variety of contexts and scales across wide geographical and temporal situations. While exploring new frontiers, the papers contrast British, Nordic and Mediterranean archaeologies to showcase the study of material culture and landscape and conclude with an assessment of the concept of taskcape and its further developments.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction: from taskscape to ceramiscene and beyond
Ulla Rajala and Philip Mills

Taking taskscape to task
Tim Ingold

Landscape archaeology and the re-humanisation project
Andrew Fleming

Approaching the Mesolithic through taskscapes: a case study from western Ireland
Killian Driscoll

Interpreting a ceramiscene: characterizing Late Republican and Imperial landscapes
Ulla Rajala and Philip Mills

The roofscapes of Petra. The use of ceramic roof tiles in a Nabataean-Roman urban context
Pirjo Hamari

Taskscapes in a cityscape – the relocation of secular and religious activities in Late antique Athens
Arja Karivieri

Materialized taskscapes? Mesolithic lithic procurement in Southern Norway
Astrid J. Nyland

Stone and social circles: taskscape and landscape survey at Yadlee Stone Circle
Tom Gardner, Alexander Westra, Alexander Wood and Colton Vogelaar

Diachronic powerscapes: A case study from Odda, Norway
Anne Drageset

Temporality in a Maori landscape: The progression of inter-related activities over 400 years in the Hauraki Plain, New Zealand
Caroline Phillips

Sámi sacred places in ritual taskscapes
Tiina Äikäs

The secret taskscape: Implications for the study of Cold War activities
Bob Clarke

Excavating a taskscape, flowscape and ceramiscene in the Black Country
Matt Edgeworth

Concluding remarks
Julian Thomas