The longitudinal study of land-use at Acconia: Placing the fieldwork of the survey archaeologist in time

This article presents the results of the longitudinal study of land-use conducted at Acconia in southern Italy between 1980 and 2007. This is the first of several articles planned on the landscape dynamics that took place there over a span of 27 years. Here we trace the sequence of the steps in the work of the Acconia Survey and the evolution in our thinking that led to the start of the longitudinal study, outline the fieldwork conducted at Acconia in 2007 and 2008, and present the changes in land-use that took place between the first mapping in 1980 and the fourth one in 2007. The final section considers some of the implications of what we have observed for the development of method and theory in survey archaeology. One of the main conclusions to emerge from the longitudinal study is that the work of the survey archaeologist should be seen as situated in time.