Chapter 1. The state of the field: Emerging approaches to the archaeology of agricultural landscapes

Almost 30 years ago, Naomi Miller and Katheryn Gleason edited the influential volume, The Archaeology of Garden and Field, a guide to the identification and interpretation of evidence for past agricultural practice inscribed within the landscape. Here we introduce a new collection of papers that advance both theoretical discourses and methodological approaches to the study of ancient field systems. Contemporary archaeological debates bring new urgency to explorations of relict agricultural features, as they offer powerful perspectives on the entanglements of humans with their environment in the Anthropocene, while also serving to decolonize the past through engagement with Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge. Although many ancient fields are at dire risk of destruction or have already been lost to modern land-use changes, an emerging suite of new technologies and innovative methods are now enabling archaeologists to find and interpret past agricultural systems as never before. Herein, we argue for the critical importance of archaeological investigations that prioritize discovery and interpretation of relict fields and their constitution within larger landscapes, both as a means to better understand people in the past as well as our role as a species in shaping global ecosystems.