ABSTRACT
Landscape history can be read as a deep-layered text – a palimpsest of human cultures and activities – where successive human generations have added, removed and changed elements, structures and patterns. Historical analysis can take on different degrees of relative importance in relation to a proposed planning or design solution. In the planning of new developments, the historical analysis is usually part of a situation analysis, which is mainly used to develop an understanding of the area at hand. This chapter presents examples from Denmark, Italy and Germany, which are typical European landscapes with a continuous history that has not been disrupted or overlaid by recent colonisation from a very different culture, as is found in many other parts of the world. A historical analysis may include a wide range of sources, including excavations, field studies of remains from the past, archive materials, questionnaires, interviews, statistical data, aerial photos, perspective photos and paintings.
