VIII EUGEO Congress of the Geography of Europe

The study of ancient topography has always been strongly linked to the analysis of the surrounding geography. The landscape has always had a preeminent influence on architectural planning choices, both in the case of construction (and subsequent development) of new urban centers and in the case of individual monuments. Often the archaeological investigations highlight the morphological conditionings and appears the particular attention that the ancients builders had in considering them, showing weaknesses or strengths of the places object of a planned occupation. Ancient settlements are often built in strategic locations and in sites that geographically could facilitate their planning. On the contrary, in other cases an opposite situation has occurred. The landscape, in fact, may have turned out to be completely unsuitable, forcing the search for solutions to contain the problem or even the definitive abandonment of the place originally chosen. Especially during recent times, the new technologies used in archaeological researches, combined with the cartographic tools, have made the combination archaeology-geography increasingly strong. This fortunate connection could provide solid hypotheses as above all why a particular landscape was chosen for the positioning of a certain building or even an entire city, highlighting first the transformations that the natural element has undergone over the centuries. The main proposal of this session is to highlight the strictly relation that exists between the landscape and the city, between geography and architecture. Participants are asked to present case studies in which this union between urban planning, architecture and landscape is evident. The speakers are asked to emphasize, in fact, the impact that the geographical element had in the choices of urban settlements and its transformations. Are accepted papers that present case studies of archaeological contexts in the Mediterranean basin.