ABSTRACT
This chapter draws upon the methods developed in landscape research to present the results of a detailed study of the spatial composition of the settlement and landscape of Politiko in Cyprus, a village with a rich historic landscape in which a succession of sacred and secular spaces can be identified. It presents new methodologies for analysing rural historic landscapes as an expression and effector of social identity. The chapter combines the modern techniques of Historic Landscape Characterisation and retrogressive landscape analysis with data from archaeological survey to build up a detailed historic study of the spatial composition of the landscape surrounding the Mediterranean village of Politiko in Cyprus. These modern techniques will provide a framework for how the landscape was structured and organised in the Cypriot Byzantine period. The Romantic poets and writers of the period were in a large measure responsible for the ways we still understand landscape.
