Featuring contributions by leading scholars, this book goes beyond conventional archaeological studies by placing the description and interpretation of specific sites in the wider context of the landscape that connects them to one another.

As the authors show, one farmstead, house site, brick kiln, Civil War fortification, or iron production site might have marginal significance when considered in isolation, but when linked with other sites of the same type or with places historically related to them, larger patterns and meanings emerge.

Among the unique features of Carolina's Historical Landscapes are essays that explain how private, state, and federal agencies can use landscape as a holistic, interpretive concept to better understand, preserve, and manage historical sites.

Also included are articles by underwater archaeologists that point out how much of Carolina's heritage has been influenced by the changing use of waterways; these essays challenge the false dichotomies that place archaeology into terrestrial and underwater divisions.