TY  - BOOK
ED  - Polla, Silvia
ED  - Verhagen, Philip
AB  - Within the framework of the Excellence Cluster Topoi, a fruitful interdisciplinary debate on  space and movement over the long term has developed. The workshop “Computational approaches  to movement in archaeology” (organized on January 6 2011 in Berlin) tackled  questions related to space and movement in the framework of computational archaeology,  landscape archaeology, historical geography and archaeological theory. The current volume,  which is the product of this meeting, brings together contributions that show how the study  of settlement patterns and movement has been dramatically transformed by the use of spatial  technology (GIS), in particular Cost Distance and Least Cost Paths (LCP) Analysis. The  term “least cost path” is somewhat deceptive, however, since it is not just the costs of movement,  but also the benefits of moving to a particular location that influenced the routes  chosen and created.  Archaeological theories about the way people moved in the landscape, and how they  created and maintained paths and communication networks are often based on relatively  abstract notions. For example, several papers in the current volume indicate that visibility  may have been an important factor (co-)determining movement and path creation in  the landscape. However, the exact parameters involved, and how they influenced the  routes chosen, are largely within the realm of speculation. Computer-based modelling  can be seen as a sophisticated approach to speculation. It allows us to experiment with  the possible parameters involved, change the values and weights of each and inspect  the outcome to see whether it conforms to our initial expectations and if it in some way  fits the actual archaeological evidence. Most importantly, computer-based models are  explicit: since all assumptions are laid out in detail, we can study the consequences of  changing them, and the models can be replicated. It is through modelling that different  scenarios can be explored and compared to real-world outcomes. Computer-based models  are therefore in essence heuristic tools that can help to develop theory and interpretation.
DO  - 10.1515/9783110288384
KW  - archaeology
KW  - movement
KW  - study
L1  - https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/364f64ec-176d-4b71-a872-dd3a7642df0c/[9783110288384 - Computational Approaches to the Study of Movement in Archaeology] Computational Approaches to the Study of Movement in Archaeology.pdf
LA  - English
LK  - http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/39595
PB  - De Gruyter
PY  - 2014
TI  - Computational Approaches to the Study of Movement in Archaeology : Theory, Practice and Interpretation of Factors and Effects of Long Term Landscape Formation and Transformation
ER  - 
