Where Mythical Space Lies: Land ownership versus Land Use in the Northern Bronze Age

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Within archaeological studies, land tenure has been mainly studied from the viewpoint of ownership. A host of studies has argued about land ownership on the basis of the simple co-existence of artefacts on the landscape; other studies have tended to extrapolate land ownership from more indirect means. Particularly noteworthy is the tendency to portray land ownership as the driving force behind the emergence of social complexity, a primordial ingredient in the processes that led to the political and economic expansion of prehistoric societies. The association between people and land in all of these interpretive schemata is however less easy to detect analytically. Although various rubrics have been employed to identify such a connection – most notable among them the concepts of ‘cultures,’ ‘regions,’ or even ‘households’ – they take the links between land and people as a given and not as something that needs to be conceptually defined and empirically substantiated.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAn Archaeology of Land Ownership
EditorsMaria Relaki, Despina Catapoti
Place of PublicationAbingdon
PublisherRoutledge Press, New York.
Pages70-92
Number of pages23
ISBN (Electronic)9780203497593
ISBN (Print)9780415886185
Publication statusPublished - 23 Oct 2013

Publication series

NameRoutledge Studies in Archaeology
PublisherRoutledge

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