Aiming High: The Rise of Mountain Archaeology and Its Role in Today’s Changing World
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-04-05

Mountains are the backbone of nearly every continent. They cover 22% of Earth’s land, host one fourth of terrestrial biodiversity, and provide approximately the 60-80% of freshwater. Their landscapes bear unique aesthetic, symbolic and religious values for millions of people, house  30%  of  World  Heritage  Sites,  and  attract  15-20  of  global  tourism  every  year.  Moun-tain  regions  are  particularly  vulnerable  to  the  effects  of  climate  and  land-use  change,  and  their  protection  has  become  a  global  political  priority.  This  vibrant  framework  has  stimulat-ed  the  emergence  of  a  new  branch  of  landscape  and  environmental  archaeology,  aimed  at  understanding the relationship between human communities and mountain environments in the past: some call it mountain archaeology. But how does this new sub-field of archaeology contribute to the international debate on mountain sustainability? Traditional practices and ecological knowledge of mountain communities are generally considered the result of a long and slow adaptation to montane environments, and are promoted to foster sustainable man-agement and global change mitigation. However, little if anything is known about their origin, and their complex historical evolution is often underestimated. I believe that the key-mission of mountain archaeology is to fill this knowledge gap, and provide policy-makers and other stakeholders  with  reliable  and  solid  understanding  of  the  history  of  human-mountain  inter-action. Mountain archaeology is contributing to debunking several myths about the history of  mountain  strategies  and  their  effect  on  the  environments,  particularly  in  the  more  frag-ile  and  ‘marginal’  uplands.  A  priori  assumptions  about  past  land-use  and  sustainability  are  increasingly  replaced  by  evidence-based  reconstructions.  In  this  paper  I  will  explore  some  of  the  recent  advancements  of  mountain  archaeology,  and  show  how  they  are  transform-ing the perception of mountain landscapes, their history and their future management. This overview will enable me to address the future challenges and exciting perspectives of this emerging archaeological sub-field