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The introductory chapter situates the volume vis-à-vis existing literature concerned with household and landscape archaeology within the study of historic Caribbean slave societies. Whereas past work in the field has emphasized the macro point of view, choosing to examine landscapes from a plantationwide or even islandwide perspective, this volume uses a more diversified approach. The chapter also defines the authors’ understanding of the term “built environment,” which is used by all authors throughout the volume. It provides an overview of the few scholars who have considered domestic landscapes of the enslaved, highlighting the need for this volume to bring together more recent work in this direction. Finally, the chapter introduces and synthesizes the contributions of the book as a whole.

This chapter sets out the aims of the book and examines the three main themes of landscape, time and memory and how they relate to Norse assembly sites. The importance of the recent developments in landscape archaeology as well as earlier thing site research for the results of this study is explained. Based on this work, a new interdisciplinary research methodology, drawingon archaeological evidence, written sources and place-names, has been developed.Through this approach, the meaning and use of thingsites across the Norse world is explored. This book therefore moves beyond assembly site descriptions and analyses and also investigates the activities enacted at the assemblies, and how these were experienced by the people gathered. Other significant themes includeexplanations of chronology and the terminology used.

This chapter investigates the archaeological landscapes of the frontiers of the Sasanian Empire. Drawing on evidence from current and archived archaeological surveys, in combination with high-resolution remote sensing datasets such as CORONA spy photography, we compare the organisation of settlements and defensive structures of the Sasanian frontier zones in response to a variety of external pressures. These varied from the Roman Empire in the west to less centralised entities, including nomadic groups, in the south-west and north-east. Following a general discussion of the multiple manifestations of Sasanian frontiers drawn from southern Mesopotamia (Iraq), northern Syria and north-eastern Iran, the main focus of the chapter is on the complex frontier landscape of the southern Caucasus, particularly the area of modern Azerbaijan, Georgia and Daghestan. We discuss the role of linear barriers, including the Gorgan Wall in north-eastern Iran and the Ghilghilchay and Derbent Walls in the Caucasus, irrigation systems, and alignments of fortifications and settlements in shaping their local landscapes. By placing the archaeological remains of the Sasanian Empire in a wider context we are able to examine the relationships between military installations, settlement patterns, infrastructure and geographical features such as mountain ranges and rivers. Comparing the different case studies allows us to conclude with some general statements on the nature of Sasanian power in the frontier territories of the empire.

Using examples from several different regions of the Sasanian Empire, this chapter will look at the archaeological evidence for connectivity in frontier zones. Though a number of geographically diverse cases will be considered, I will focus on the evidence for local, regional and interregional networks in the Gorgan Plain of northeast Iran. We currently know very little about Sasanian period routes through this landscape. Itineraries exist in antique through Islamic period textual sources, but the routes that they describe are often difficult to identify in the archaeological record. European travellers of the nineteenth century provide more detailed accounts, but the routes they describe reflect the political and economic landscape of a much later period. However, this information, combined with archaeological evidence for both earlier and later period routes, can be compared to archaeological settlement data for the Sasanian period to suggest potential pathways of movement. This approach will highlight how cultural, political and economic networks in this region (including both routes and boundaries) have changed through time.