Predicting Landscape: resources, sustainability and strategic planning in the Bronze Age

The landscape is a product of a complex cultural process with symbolic aspects linked to ecological, technical and social frameworks. Since we are aware that there is a direct relationship between social transformations and the use of land, we therefore assume that each socio-economic system tends to organize the interaction with natural environment, through the control and exploitation of resources. From archaeological data we can analyse behaviour and choices made by ancient communities and through the palaeoeconomical reconstruction we can argue and define the relationships among each ocial group as actors in a landscape. From this point of view, space is the representation of social organization that reflects a true planning strategy. Our deal is to rebuild the decision support of ancient communities through methods and tools based on cultural rules, with specific regional features and level of technological knowledge. We should at last cautiously remember that decisions and are sometime independent from economic necessity or utility.