Strategies and Challenges in the Conservation and Management of Paleolithic Sites and Landscapes

Dear Colleagues,

Paleolithic heritage and conservation efforts often focus on finds and features, hence procedures for the preservation and presentation of mobile heritage are relatively well-established. However, developing efficient strategies for the long-term protection of find-bearing deposits, sites and landscapes, as the actual archives of evidence for early human evolution, is often complex. This is in part due to the nature of many Paleolithic sites as non-monumental sites embedded into natural environments. It is this intermediate position between cultural and natural heritage that creates challenges. There is a considerable area of conflict circumscribed, for example, by (i) the difficulties of separating cultural heritage of early human evolution from natural heritage, (ii) measures installing protection and reinstalling authenticity criteria after excavation and (iii) challenges pertaining to the communication and management of the values and attributes of Paleolithic sites. To address these issues, we aim herein to bring together Paleolithic research and heritage experts from a broad range of geographic regions to present strategies and procedures developed to conserve and manage Paleolithic sites and landscapes. With this Special Issue we aim to provide a platform for the collection of case studies that fosters the exchange of ideas. We further hope that this Special Issue can contribute to the advancement of the field of Paleolithic heritage studies.    

We are pleased to invite you to contribute original research papers and reviews from Paleolithic contexts that may include (but are not limited to) the following themes and topics and combinations thereof:

• Conservation challenges and strategies of excavated sites and their sediment deposits;
• Management challenges and strategies of sites and relict landscapes;
• Successful combination of education and conservation strategies;
• Citizen science approaches in the management of Paleolithic sites and properties.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Knut Bretzke
Dr. Britta Rudolff
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Heritage is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• paleolithic heritage
• early human evolution
• relict landscape
• non-monumental sites
• archeological stratigraphy
• cave site
• open-air site