ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how approaches to landscape' have changed in the archaeology of central Europe, drawing upon archaeological material from the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. In central Europe, landscape archaeology was also developed by avocational archaeologists for example, in the development of research on deserted medieval villages and medieval field systems by Czech physician Ervn Cerny. According to Andreas Zimmerman, landscape archaeology represents the research of the spatial organisation of human activity above the level of individual sites or communities, while emphasising the structure and function of landscape components. Like the field research of Siedlungskammer, Even Neustupn's community area theory' sought to give a deeper theoretical background to this research by presenting a general model of the settlement and social structure of prehistoric agricultural societies. Community area theory is important mainly for the general perception of past settlement activities and the corresponding archaeo-logical evidence.
