“To those who know how to read it “aright”, [the landscape] is the richest historical record we possess”
W.G. Hoskins
The Landscape Archaeology Research Group (Grup d’Investigació en Arqueologia del Paisatge, GIAP) at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology (ICAC-CERCA) was founded in 2004. In 2009, it was recognised as an official research group (SGR) by the Generalitat de Catalunya.
Our research
GIAP aims to study long-term human-environment interactions through the physical and biological imprints left on the landscape by its past inhabitants. In order to do so, GIAP has a strong interdisciplinary approach, which includes bioarchaeology and palaeoenvironment, geoarchaeology, survey, archaeomorphological analysis and computational approaches, including GIS, remote sensing and machine learning.
GIAP is well-recognised internationally for its research on mountain archaeology and pastoralism, studies on field systems based on archaeomorphological analysis, and computational archaeology, including remote sensing and geosciences. Its members currently direct projects in Catalonia, Greece, Turkey and India and participate in projects in South America, Italy, the UK, Mongolia and Iran. Our network of regular collaborators includes teams and researchers from all the previously mentioned countries plus the United States and France.
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The team
GIAP is co-directed by Josep M. Palet, director of ICAC, and Hector A. Orengo, ICREA research professor. The group has a strong focus on advanced postgraduate training and has an excellent record of successful PhDs, with 14 completed thesis. Researchers trained at ICAC have been awarded prestigious postdoctoral fellowships and positions, such as Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships, Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology fellowships at the State University of New York, Ramón y Cajal positions and Chargé de Recherche in the French CNRS.
We have been rapidly growing, since GIAP’s senior members have been successful in obtaining competitive research funds amounting to over 2 million euros since 2018. GIAP is currently among the largest European research groups focusing on landscape archaeology. It is an international research group, including researchers of 7 different nationalities.
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Our aim
GIAP is now in a consolidation phase and is expanding its strengths to environmental archaeology including archaeobotany and zooarchaeology. The ultimate objective is to complete GIAP’s multidisciplinary scope and provide the team with full independence for the planning and execution of all types of landscape-related projects.
