Laura Maria Saari

Centering on themes of landscape and visual archaeology, my research concerns place-, boundary- and way-making, communication, memory and embodied signifying practices, and cartography, territory and power. I am especially interested in threshold or frontier spaces, which, for ancient South Americans, included lakes, wetlands and rivers. My PhD project focuses on the Gran Chaco, an enduring source of fascination for Nordic archaeologists, and the survey of the material record from a comparative palaeoenvironmental perspective and with reference to regional and macroregional networks linked to (inter alia) seasonal reciprocal strategies.

Non-invasive methodologies that depart from mapping organisational principles of landscape and the comparative analysis of historical, archaeological and ethnographic sources, cartography, remote sensing and environmental data present significant advantages for archaeologists working in conditions of difficult access and with the poor preservation of materials. However, if "maps create the territories they represent", what are the ethical requirements for our reconstructions, especially in view of the increasingly sophisticated technology at our disposal? How do archaeologists operating within power and knowledge regimes account for these in grounded, contextually informed ways? How can we develop strategies that reflect the dynamism and complexity of place-making, including affect, which consitute what is sometimes rather clinically referred to as landscape? How can archaeological praxis, from the outset, support sustainable practices and holistic valorisations of heritage? Seeking collaborative answers to these questions, I welcome guidance from researchers across disciplines, also with reference to truth-telling and reconciliation processes.

Taught courses in 2021-2022 and 2020-2021:

KUKA-AL 211 Approaches to Area and Cultural Studies

ALKU-L312, 315, 316 Oceans, Rivers and Harbours: Waterways on to a Global South America