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Internet Archaeology 16: A GIS with a view:
Title
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Title:
Internet Archaeology 16: A GIS with a view:
Subtitle
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Subtitle:
social interpretations and cultural agents in modelling human perceptive behaviour
Series
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Series:
Internet Archaeology
Volume
Volume number and part
Volume:
16
Licence Type
ADS, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY 4.0 NC.
Licence Type:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
International Licence
Publication Type
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Publication Type:
Journal
Editor
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Editor:
Judith Winters
Issue Editor
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Issue Editor:
Ulla Rajala
Doortje Van Hove
Year of Publication
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Year of Publication:
2004
Note
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Note:
Is Portmanteau:1Editorial Expansion:special section
Source
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Source:
BIAB (The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
Relations
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Relations:
URI:
http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue16/index.html
Created Date
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Created Date:
22 Mar 2005
Please click on an Article link to go to the Article Details.
Article Title
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Abstract
Listening to landscapes: modelling past soundscapes in GIS
Dimitrij Mlekuz
The main motivation behind this article is to encourage new ways of approaching landscapes (i.e. 'listening to' instead of just 'looking at' them). This article challenges the privileged status of vision in modern humanistic-oriented GIS studies and thereby stresses the importance of multisensuous approaches within the study of past landscapes.The article is divided into three parts. Firstly, it offers some theoretical perspectives on the perception of sound and its role in social life, and reviews some conceptual problems concerning modelling perception within GIS.Secondly, it guides the reader through the process of constructing a digital soundscape model. The main goal of this article is to develop tools and approaches to understand past soundscapes. The process of creating a soundscape model is illustrated using an example from the late medieval soundscape of church bells in Polhograjsko hribovje, Slovenia.Thirdly, the article offers some technical and mathematical background to the model and presents the use of the software package which is freely available with the paper.The model presented is still in its infancy and much discussion and further development need to be undertaken. Its rationale and potential are addressed here.
Time and experience: taskscapes within GIS
Doortje Van Hove
Within the archaeological discipline, the agency debate has re-emphasised the importance of human volition within the archaeological landscape. Human action is influenced by how groups perceive their worlds and, more importantly, structured by the way in which they interpret affordances, created by the dynamic interplay between humans and their animate and inanimate surroundings. This conceptualises the notion of 'taskscape', in which different interpretations of space, time and accumulated experience generate a variety of potential pictures of past human lives. Human taskscapes are dynamic and built upon the historicity of human action, emphasising that spatial patterns of human practice are not static but contexts reflecting back on past and predicting future behaviour.For archaeological analyses of the spatial structure of past human activities, the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has mostly been restricted to the recognition of spatial patterns in one-dimensional space and time. Static GIS therefore yields only an ahistorical picture of the past. Dynamic or temporal GIS includes the possibility of looking at dynamic taskscapes over time, enabling them to become both medium for and outcome of human action.My current PhD research theorises the implications of the implementation of taskscapes for past human practice, through land use modelling within the southern Calabrian (Italy) Neolithic, using temporal GIS. This article will specifically discuss outcomes of dynamic simulation models and interpretations of results to emphasise an alternative approach to southern Italian Neolithic culture.
GIS and landscape analysis, or the cart before the horse?
Caroline Phillips
Spatial analysis has traditionally considered settlements in relation to each other and aspects of topography. Criticisms of environmental determinism, and identification of problems with site data and analytical models, have followed. Transferring spatial analysis to a GIS platform has not resolved these concerns. This article highlights the fact that there are cultural assumptions within spatial analyses, through examining the land-use systems practised by New Zealand Māori, and argues that models based on modern European land use are not necessarily appropriate for other times and cultures. This test case also supports the contextual archaeology definition of landscape as a dynamic inclusive system between people and land. It is concluded that the resolution of such problems, especially when analysing societies with a recent ethnography or history, requires a landscape approach together with multi-disciplinary data and the further development of dynamic modelling and simulation through GIS.
Spatial variables as proxies for modelling cognition and decision-making in archaeological settings: a theoretical perspective
Thomas G Whitley
In recent years there has been a flourish of archaeological studies focusing on prehistoric cognition or motivation on the basis of GIS-generated interpretations. These have taken two very different forms on either side of the Atlantic. In the empirically driven positivist community of North American researchers, Cultural Resource Management (CRM) projects have created a tendency toward using GIS-based archaeological data in the context of so-called 'predictive modelling', or within typically large-scale interpretations of environmental motivations for settlement. This perspective has its origins in the nature of the North American archaeological record, and the development and dominance of processualism. In contrast, the highly complex European archaeological record and the influence of both post-processualism and landscape forms of archaeology have led to a European focus on using GIS as a tool for reconstructing social and cognitive landscapes. Most frequently this has been in the form of visibility and viewshed analyses of henge-type monuments, hill fortifications and their surrounding landscapes. The disconnect between these two dichotomous traditions suggests on the one hand that North American approaches could benefit from methods that generate a more enriching discussion of agency and social theory, while European approaches could benefit from a less speculative form of epistemological argumentation. These ideas may come together through the use of an enhanced discussion of explanation and causality (in keeping with developments in the history and philosophy of science) and key tools such as the use of spatial variables as proxies for cognitive decision-making and social agency.
Buckley sgraffito: a study of a 17th century pottery industry in North Wales, its production techniques and design influences
Christine Longworth
The area around Buckley in north Wales has been associated with the production of pottery since the 13th or 14th centuries. Nineteen different pottery sites have been identified, producing a wide range of ceramic wares in the six-hundred year period up to the mid-20th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, many of the wares produced were of high quality, on a par with Staffordshire wares of the same date. In the early 17th century, the technique of sgraffito decoration spread to north Devon and Somerset from mainland Europe. Buckley is the only known site to produce early sgraffito wares in northern Britain.This article aims to establish the date of the production and range of early sgraffito wares at Buckley and to examine the derivation of the designs and illustrations on the vessels. An illustrated catalogue has been produced and a comparative study made of sgraffito wares elsewhere to place Buckley into a national and international context.The results show that early sgraffito production at Brookhill pottery, Buckley, was between 1640-1720. Of the excavated pieces, 62% were made between 1640-1680, and the number of sherds by vessel number is also greater within that date range. All the vessels are dishes. The form and designs on the remainder of the sherds, dated up to 1720, are no different from those dated to 1640-1680, which suggests a continuous period of production.The most common themes on the pots – tulips, leaves, mottoes, animals and birds – relate very closely to the designs featured on other objects made in the same period such as textiles, wallpaper, furniture and manuscripts. Some of the designs were available in pattern books for particular groups of objects, for example needlework and pastry decoration. There is an interesting sub-group of pieces with animal and bird motifs and mottoes on the rims. It is possible that the influence for these came from a resurgence of interest in the medieval bestiary texts and illustrations in the 16th and 17th centuries. The less specific designs such as circles, slashes and zigzags could have been personal expressions of the potters themselves.The sgraffito technique of decoration on pottery spread through trade from east to west, reaching Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries and filtering through to Britain via south-west France and northern Europe. Decorative styles found at Buckley occur in most production areas. These are plants, fish, birds and geometric patterns. Mottoes and inscriptions appear on pieces from four centres, including Buckley. The most common vessel forms throughout Europe are dishes and bowls.No Buckley sgraffito has been found outside Buckley itself, although Buckley black-glazed wares have been tentatively identified in the eastern states of north America and locations around the Irish Sea. The problem with ascribing this provenance is that similar wares were also produced in other areas such as Merseyside and Staffordshire. Further research is required to determine the distribution of all Buckley wares.
Sense and sensibility -- reflections on the epistemology and ontology of GIS studies
Ulla Rajala
This article discusses the relationship between philosophy, archaeological theory and the use of GIS. It is argued that although specific theoretical issues have been discussed, epistemological and ontological questions with regard to the characteristics of data and data processing have not been subjected to rigorous theoretical critique. This is essential to understand the archaeological and non-archaeological qualities of data formats and GIS procedures.I am not alone in arguing that GIS has to be integrated into every research process in order to answer archaeological questions and that the results have to be interpreted according to a set archaeological theoretical framework. If the archaeological research process follows the principles of Bhaskar's realistic philosophy the critical application of the method is a natural consequence. It is also argued that the combination of realistic and pragmatic frameworks allows, theoretically, all critical use of archaeological GIS applications. Furthermore, the integration of post-structural ideas is shown to be crucial in the explanation of results provided by GIS modelling.
Editorial
Ulla Rajala
Doortje Van Hove
discussion on GIS and archaeological theory, and the 2002 TAG session
Views of Carnac: applications of visibility analysis and dynamic vi...
Corinne Roughley
Colin Shell
The Neolithic monuments of the Carnac area of southern Brittany are of international importance. However, archaeologists have tended to study the monuments as individual sites, rather than investigating their landscape settings. This is in part because the landscape is difficult to explore in the field. Modern houses and conifer plantations obscure views; earthen structures have been significantly reduced in size, indeed some have been entirely levelled.As it is difficult to conduct fieldwork in this landscape, digital techniques are particularly informative. The landscape is a subtle one, and environmentally deterministic interpretations are implausible. However, this does not mean that topography was unimportant to the choices of monument location. The visual characteristics of locales can vary greatly even in relatively slight topography. Small rises can obscure features near by, or give considerable prominence over longer distances.This article explores the potential of visibility analysis and dynamic visualisation for investigating the visual context of two of the monument types, the earthen long mounds and angled passage graves. Traditional viewshed maps allow direct quantitative comparisons to be made between sites. The effect of monument dimensions is explored. However, as has been discussed in earlier articles in Internet Archaeology (e.g. Gillings and Goodrick 1996), viewshed analysis does not represent the whole of human visual experience. Therefore, visualisations have been used to explore the landscape further. A dynamic visualisation of a journey up the Crac'h estuary provides a more subjective view of the landscape settings of the monuments. The VRML version of the landscape model provides the opportunity for readers to explore the landscape themselves, and expand on the interpretations offered. However, the visualisations are limited in their resolution, and thus it is important to refer back to the viewshed maps for specific information. Through using complementary techniques, our understanding of the landscape is extended beyond that which is possible from a single approach.
Bringing it all Back Home: the Practical Visual Environments of Southeast European Tells
Steven Trick
This article attempts to further our understanding of tells in southeast Europe by considering their landscape context, where the research methodology comprises an innovative hybrid of modern landscape theory, and GIS-based visual analysis.Tell landscapes are explored through the detailed analysis of a group of case study tells located in the Romanian Plain, in southern Romania, dating to the fifth millennium BC. A visual, so-called phenomenological approach is adopted, but novel to this paradigm is the use of GIS as the prime tool with which to conduct visual research. GIS offers a convenient means to visualise and quantify visual parameters of landscape, but its formal nature also brings some rigour to phenomenological research, which has been criticised for lack of standard method. Viewshed tools are utilised in standard form, but also in enriched ‘Higuchi’ and ‘Directional’ forms. The temporal nature of tell settlements is explored through the generation of viewshed maps from different cultural levels of the mound. Results of the analysis are presented and common patterns in the dataset identified. Taking inspiration from the Heideggarian notion of dwelling, a generalised interpretive framework is forwarded. It is suggested that tells were located with respect to visual entities in the environment, and that the nature of the visibility tells us something of the lives of people dwelling on and around them.The article is derived from a lecture given at the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, Manchester, December 2002.