Archaeological LiDAR in Mediterranean Karst Landscapes. A Multiproxy Dating Method for Archaeological Landscape and a Case Study From Prehistoric Kras Plateau (Slovenia)

Abstract

The case study area is a small but typical prehistoric landscape in the Kras Plateau on the north coast of the central Mediterranean. The Late Bronze and Iron Age Kras Plateau was an emblematic Mediterranean archaeological landscape dotted with numerous hillforts. Since the mid-20th century, the landscape had been overgrown with some of the most archaeology-hostile vegetation, severely impeding landscape archaeology until archaeological LiDAR revealed thousands of archaeological features that attest to a carefully constructed and managed agro-pastoral landscape. However, these discoveries were hampered by insecure chronology typical of any LiDAR guided analysis. This case study meticulously documented two prehistoric hillforts and a previously unknown agro-pastoral landscape with hundreds of archaeological features. The focus of the article, however, was on establishing a more precise and objective dating method. We proposed a multiproxy method to date the archaeological landscape. It combines relative dating using remote sensing data and historical maps; dating based on historical context; relative stratigraphic dating; indirect dating based on associated archaeological finds; and dating by association. Particularly, we focused on the association-based dating of archaeological features. We proposed a method based on the concept of taskscapes that relies on kernel density estimation. Using these methods, we objectively demonstrated that agro-pastoral landscape features documented with archaeological LiDAR were contemporaneous with Late Bronze Age and Iron Age hillforts and have no connection to the post-medieval landscape. The latter has important methodological implications for the prehistoric archaeology of Mediterranean karst landscapes, where backdating post-Medieval landscapes is a common practise.