The field site and the photographic archive: Landscape archaeology, photography, and the post-war imagination through the lens of the South Etruria Su

Lead Research Organisation: Durham University
Department Name: Archaeology

Abstract

'Monuments Man' John Ward-Perkins became Director of the British School at Rome in 1946, a time of radical change in the Italian countryside. New agricultural methods were both revealing and damaging previously unknown ancient sites. In response, he instigated a 'salvage' project, the South Etruria Survey, thereby pioneering 'landscape archaeology' in the Mediterranean. The Survey's archaeological data have recently been reanalyzed, but its 7500-strong photo archive remains under-researched. This CDA will use the archive to investigate how photographic methods and archaeological ideas developed amid post-war anxieties about destruction and preservation, shaping the imagination of both ancient and modern Italian landscapes.

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