Roman funerary landscapes
From contextual approaches towards perception in motion
International Conference
19th – 21th March 2026, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier
Recent works in Roman archaeology are blurring the line between the space of the living and the
dead (e.g. death in the suburbs [Allison Emmerson]). Our conference will shift the focus towards the
movement within and between these spaces. Such movement depends upon infrastructures that
related ancestral veneration and funerary display with daily life. Using, adapting and expanding these
infrastructures is to create a funerary landscape.
Vital parts of Roman funerary landscapes are grave monuments. How the various grave monuments
relate to each other, how they connect to settlements and traffic routes, and how they are
embedded into their environment, reveals the most likely ways how a funerary landscape developed
and in which humans might have experienced the funerary aspect of the world surrounding them.
Thus, funerary landscapes are more than the sum of burials, objects and grave markers placed in
space (burialscapes). They refer as places of remembrance to the communities of the living.
Grounded in a notion that considers a funerary landscape as part of an archaeological landscape,
which in turn is set within the overall concept of landscape (Tibor-Tamás Daróczi), we want to
emphasize the importance of changing perspectives. In contrast to natural or geographic landscapes,
archaeological landscapes in general, and any funerary landscape in particular, must be envisioned as
an ever-transforming scenery. Furthermore, we must include more than one perspective, i.e. the
perspective of a moving and perceiving passer-by.
One aim of our conference is to place the material remains in their specific context, showing the
connectivity and creativity of funerary culture. Perception in motion is our second objective. This
means shifting the focus from digital reconstructions to exploring the visual aesthetics of Roman
funerary landscapes.
We invite you to participate in this inquiry by combining the inherent processual quality of funerary
landscapes with the social experience of perceiving such a landscape in a specific itinerary. We are
open to approaches ranging from emphasizing pre-conceptual conditions of people’s interactions in
their (Roman) world to investigating a particular perspective from which a funerary landscape is
pitched – thereby retaining funerary landscape as ambiguous concept.
While our focus will be on Italy and the Northwestern provinces, we welcome presentations from
across the Roman Empire. We encourage you to send an abstract of not more than 300 words
referring to one of the following topics:
- Defining and detailing techniques and procedures of modelling and three-dimensional
reconstruction of funerary landscapes at a regional and a site scale (spatial scale) as well as at
an object scale, including its medial aspects.
- Landscape archaeological investigations that focus on the (visual) relationships between
funerary monuments and the surrounding landscape features (e.g. roads, rivers,
settlements).
- Analysis and reconstruction of Roman funerary landscapes in time and space, foremost their
visual aspect.
- Visuospatial approaches to funerary landscapes relying on the visual identification and
presentation of spatial and semantic relationships (e.g. the visual perception of funerary
monuments and their imagery, deep mapping etc.).
Please send the abstract (English or German) until July 31, 2025, to the organizers Anja Klöckner, Ute
Kelp and Sascha Schmitz (Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein. ). For any questions, please do not
hesitate to contact us.
International Conference
19th – 21th March 2026, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier
Recent works in Roman archaeology are blurring the line between the space of the living and the
dead (e.g. death in the suburbs [Allison Emmerson]). Our conference will shift the focus towards the
movement within and between these spaces. Such movement depends upon infrastructures that
related ancestral veneration and funerary display with daily life. Using, adapting and expanding these
infrastructures is to create a funerary landscape.
Vital parts of Roman funerary landscapes are grave monuments. How the various grave monuments
relate to each other, how they connect to settlements and traffic routes, and how they are
embedded into their environment, reveals the most likely ways how a funerary landscape developed
and in which humans might have experienced the funerary aspect of the world surrounding them.
Thus, funerary landscapes are more than the sum of burials, objects and grave markers placed in
space (burialscapes). They refer as places of remembrance to the communities of the living.
Grounded in a notion that considers a funerary landscape as part of an archaeological landscape,
which in turn is set within the overall concept of landscape (Tibor-Tamás Daróczi), we want to
emphasize the importance of changing perspectives. In contrast to natural or geographic landscapes,
archaeological landscapes in general, and any funerary landscape in particular, must be envisioned as
an ever-transforming scenery. Furthermore, we must include more than one perspective, i.e. the
perspective of a moving and perceiving passer-by.
One aim of our conference is to place the material remains in their specific context, showing the
connectivity and creativity of funerary culture. Perception in motion is our second objective. This
means shifting the focus from digital reconstructions to exploring the visual aesthetics of Roman
funerary landscapes.
We invite you to participate in this inquiry by combining the inherent processual quality of funerary
landscapes with the social experience of perceiving such a landscape in a specific itinerary. We are
open to approaches ranging from emphasizing pre-conceptual conditions of people’s interactions in
their (Roman) world to investigating a particular perspective from which a funerary landscape is
pitched – thereby retaining funerary landscape as ambiguous concept.
While our focus will be on Italy and the Northwestern provinces, we welcome presentations from
across the Roman Empire. We encourage you to send an abstract of not more than 300 words
referring to one of the following topics:
- Defining and detailing techniques and procedures of modelling and three-dimensional
reconstruction of funerary landscapes at a regional and a site scale (spatial scale) as well as at
an object scale, including its medial aspects.
- Landscape archaeological investigations that focus on the (visual) relationships between
funerary monuments and the surrounding landscape features (e.g. roads, rivers,
settlements).
- Analysis and reconstruction of Roman funerary landscapes in time and space, foremost their
visual aspect.
- Visuospatial approaches to funerary landscapes relying on the visual identification and
presentation of spatial and semantic relationships (e.g. the visual perception of funerary
monuments and their imagery, deep mapping etc.).
Please send the abstract (English or German) until July 31, 2025, to the organizers Anja Klöckner, Ute
Kelp and Sascha Schmitz (
hesitate to contact us.