Establishing meanings, roles and limits of ‘Archaeological Continuum’ paradigms

This paper introduces the concept of continuity within the landscapes of the past, discussing the development of ideas about the meaning and mutual relationships of the terms ‘site’ and ‘landscape’ within concerted efforts to develop a methodological framework that would enable research to move away from traditional ‘site-based’ archaeology towards a more genuine focus on a ‘landscape’ scale of investigation and interpretation. It is argued that what we should be seeking, within the limits of practicality and with as few spatial and chronological gaps as possible, is the capacity to analyse physical, cultural, social and in some cases even political interrelationships in space and time across significant sample areas of intensively studied landscape.