The 5th Session of the 2024 Medieval Studies Seminar will be held online via Zoom on September 26, 2024, at 4:00 p.m.

This session will feature a presentation by Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca and is dedicated to the theme “What is Landscape”

Full Professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, Enrique Cerrillo Cuenca, completed his post-doctoral internship at Extremadura, Lisbon, and Évora universities. He was a Ramón y Cajal researcher and Distinguished Researcher at CSIC and is a member of the Research Group “Recent Prehistory of the Interior Tagus Basin” at the University of Alcalá, as well as CIDEHUS at the University of Évora.

Your communication will focus on landscape in history and archaeology, which is fundamental to understanding the interaction between human societies and their environment over time.

In history, studying landscapes allows us to analyze how different civilizations adapted and modified their natural environments for agriculture, urbanization, and other economic activities.

In archaeology, the concept of landscape goes beyond individual artifacts, addressing the spatial distribution of settlements, paths, defensive structures, and other elements that reveal ancient cultures’ social and economic organization.

Modern techniques such as remote sensing, the use of drones and LIDAR, together with geophysical and soil studies, allow us to identify hidden features of the landscape. This not only enriches our historical knowledge, but also informs cultural heritage conservation and management practices, promoting a more complete and dynamic appreciation of historic sites and cultural landscapes.