Cultivating Archaeological Landscape: Notes on a Mediterranean Applied Case Study

The paper proposes an interdisciplinary exploration in order to define a set of strategies and tools oriented at planning/design/management of archaeological landscapes, especially featured by productive layers. The article adopts as a key dimension the “cultivating” approach, which can become a fertile ground for experimentation for developing sustainable and innovative planning methodologies to be applied in layered landscapes. In an extended semantic dimension, the term cultivation can be interpreted as a continuous attitude of taking care of (archaeological) places over time, to preserve and regenerate resources for the future in a holistic vision, also considering economic sustainability and liveability for inhabitants and local fauna. The cultivating approach can preserve heritage places by an active and inventive conservation, also fostering biodiversity and temporal diversity. As a case study, the article proposes the Landscape Masterplan for the Baratti and Populonia Archaeological Park.