PhD ceremony Mr. H. Feiken: Dealing with biases. Three geo-archaeological approaches to the hidden landscapes of Italy

PhD ceremony: Mr. H. Feiken

Dissertation: Dealing with biases. Three geo-archaeological approaches to the hidden landscapes of Italy

Promotor(s): prof. P.A.J. Attema, prof. J. Sevink

Faculty: Arts

Feiken’s PhD thesis covers a broad range of geoarchaeological approaches to the understanding of systematic biases in our archaeological records, using case studies from the two main Italian areas studied by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology: the Pontine Region in south Lazio, and the Raganello Basin in northern Calabria. The research focuses on a) geological biases affecting the study of protohistoric remains in the sedimentary part of the Pontine plain, b) the development of a detailed landscape classification approach with which to model and test site location preferences and survey biases in the upland/mountain zones of both study areas, and c) the development and evaluation, with colleagues from the University of Utrecht, of an innovative computerised landscape evolution model for a test area in the Raganello Basin uplands. This very innovative and interdisciplinary work was conducted at the University of Groningen within the framework of the NWO-VIDI project 'Hidden Landscapes' under the direction of Martijn van Leusen, with Prof. Peter Attema and Prof. Jan Sevink as promotores.