Background
Many scientific approaches have been proposed to understand the historical phenomena of human beings settled in the world’s Waterscapes. The main object of study, material culture, encompasses different types of environments, scales, and actors, which are often understood through interdisciplinary archaeological approaches which includes geoarchaeology, environmental archaeology, or landscape archaeology. However, when Waterscapes are included in the equation, with the presence of seas, swamps, rivers, lakes, lagoons, or reservoirs, the panorama expands significantly, as the theoretical, methodological, and interpretive contributions of maritime and underwater archaeology assume a central role in the study of past human societies and their relationship with bodies of water.
In these contexts, permeable frontiers have historically been configured, where the physical limits between water and land are almost imperceptible, given the constant mobility of human and non-human actors, the diversity of cultural interactions, and the continuous sociocultural flow. Naturally, all this entails an effort to understand social phenomena related to the use and habitation of Waterscapes, in which archaeology is one of several fields which can provide sources of information for this purpose. Thus, such approaches can be formulated at different spatial scales of analysis, where the object of study may range from a shipwreck to an entire region. Ultimately, this must also be examined in temporal terms, where a diachronic understanding of human occupations in Waterscapes becomes the only way to comprehend changes, transformations, adaptations, or continuities in the use of space, while recognizing the relationships and connections that take place there. A study grounded in such a spatiotemporal analytical perspective typically encompasses various phenomena that connect the intrinsic relationship between human beings and the environments they inhabit, influenced, for example, by environmental variations or the intensification of adverse climatic phenomena. Accordingly, the aim of this volume is to compile diverse interdisciplinary contributions that address the topic of material cultures and permeable boundaries in Waterscapes around the world.
These contributions are expected to include innovative theoretical and conceptual analyses that go beyond the implementation of merely technical or technological approaches. In order to provide answers to the significant questions that arise when analyzing spatial social phenomena shaped by the characteristics of Waterscapes and the relationships and connections that define and constitute them.
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