3 results
Introducing the Human Factor in Predictive Modelling: a Work in Progress
- Edited by Graeme Earl, Tim Sly, David Wheatley, Iza Romanowska, Constantinos Papadopoulos, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Angeliki Chrysanthi
-
- Book:
- Archaeology in the Digital Era
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 16 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 01 February 2014, pp 379-388
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Abstract:
In this paper we present the results of a study aiming at integrating socio-cultural factors into predictive modelling. So far, predictive modelling has largely neglected the social and cultural dimensions of past landscapes. To maintain its value for archaeological research, therefore, it needs new methodologies, concepts and theories. For this study, we have departedfrom the methodology developed in the 1990s during the Archaeomedes Project. In this project, cross-regional comparisons of settlement location factors were made by analyzing the environmental context of Roman settlements in the French Rhone Valley. For the current research, we expanded the set of variables with ‘socio-cultural’factors, in particular accessibility, visibility, and the effect of previous occupation, and created predictive models from this. In this way, we have developed a protocol for predictive modelling using both environmental and socio-cultural factors that can easily be implemented for different regions and time periods.
Keywords:
Predictive Modelling, Socio-Cultural Factors, Regional Comparison, Diachronic Comparison, Roman Period
Introduction
Archaeological predictive modelling has a long history of application, especially in cultural resources management (see Judge and Sebastian 1988; Verhagen 2007; Kamermans et al. 2009). Despite its popularity for archaeological heritage management, it has also been the subject of substantial criticism from academic researchers (van Leusen 1996; Wheatley 2004; van Leusen and Kamermans 2005: Kamermans 2007). The goals of predictive modelling in heritage management are the accurate and cost-effective prediction of the location of archaeological remains within a limited region. However, academic researchers are usually more interested in finding explanations of why archaeological remains are concentrated in particular parts of the landscape. Predictive modelling can be used as a tool for this purpose as well, but should be used with caution. Little attention is paid to the role of socio-cultural factors in prehistoric and historical site location choice (Verhagen et al. 2010). The result is a rather static way of modelling, in which the human factor remains unexplored. Furthermore, issues of temporality have been addressed uncritically or insufficiently. To maintain its value for archaeological research, therefore, predictive modelling needs new methodologies, concepts and theories.
The Long and Winding Road: Combining Least Cost Paths and Network Analysis Techniques for Settlement Location Analysis and Predictive Modelling
- Edited by Graeme Earl, Tim Sly, David Wheatley, Iza Romanowska, Constantinos Papadopoulos, Patricia Murrieta-Flores, Angeliki Chrysanthi
-
- Book:
- Archaeology in the Digital Era
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 16 February 2021
- Print publication:
- 01 February 2014, pp 357-366
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Abstract:
In this paper, we describe an exploratory analysis of the possibilities of combining least cost path analysis and network analysis techniques. Accessibility is a potentially important site location factor. So far, the definition of accessibility has been approached through the creation of accumulated cost surfaces and least cost paths. However, these methods do not provide direct information on the foci of movement. Starting from networks created from least cost paths, network analysis and space syntax were used to obtain additional information on the structural features of the network. It is concluded that both techniques can be used with least cost path-based networks, and will provide new insights into the characteristics of the network. For most applications however the space syntax measures that take the geographical dimension into account seem to be preferable to the simple network analysis measures used here.
Keywords:
Network Analysis, Space Syntax, Least Cost Paths, Accessibility, Movement
Introduction
When thinking about socio-cultural factors influencing settlement location choice, the accessibility of places in the landscape is a potentially important variable to take into account. Among the possible factors determining settlement location, access to resources and ease of movement in the landscape may have been important elements. For example, settlements might be preferentially located in areas that offer good access to prime agricultural land, and that allow them to interact easily with neighbouring settlements. How to define accessibility in such a way that it might be used as a variable for site location analysis and predictive modelling is however still very much open to debate. Most published research considering landscape accessibility limits it to the ease with which humans can reach a certain location. So-called hiking equations are often used to obtain cost surfaces of accessibility, and accumulative cost surfaces are then applied to find the travel time or energy expenditure needed to reach a single destination from all points (pixels) in the area studied. By adding up these accumulated cost surfaces for each and every pixel, a map of differential accessibility of the landscape can be obtained (total path costs; Llobera 2000). This accessibility can also be analyzed for different travel times (short/medium/long distance; see also Mlekuz and Vermeulen in press).
However, these methods do not provide much information on the possible foci of movement in the landscape. We argue that to this purpose some additional steps are needed.
5.7 - Thinking Topographically about the Landscape Around Besançon (Doubs, France)
- Edited by Sjoerd J. Kluiving, Erika Guttmann-Bond
-
- Book:
- Landscape Archaeology between Art and Science
- Published by:
- Amsterdam University Press
- Published online:
- 21 January 2021
- Print publication:
- 05 July 2012, pp 395-412
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the use of lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) data for the study of rural landscapes in the context of regional archaeological analyses. In particular, we concentrate on using lidar to highlight the importance of activities other than habitation, as well as the use of areas outside the modern ploughzone. It has frequently been said that one of the major challenges to archaeological landscape survey is the incorporation of uplands, marshes, forests and other areas we term ‘outside the ploughzone’. Such areas are normally surveyed primarily through fieldwalking, but we suggest that lidar may make a significant contribution, although there are serious practical and methodological problems to overcome. Further, we argue that including these areas will alter the overall picture of rural landscapes in unexpected ways. The potential and challenges of integrating these areas and activities into landscape and regional scale research are sketched in this paper. We use a recent lidar survey as a case study to explore these issues. The project was funded by the Regional Council of the Franche-Comté for the lieppec project, led by the USR 3124 and LEA ModeLTER, and is based in the hinterland of Besançon, Doubs, France.
The area surrounding Besançon is now largely forested, resulting in a dependence on the interpretation of the lidar model to guide field prospection. This paper provides some early results from the Forêt de Chailluz, north of Besançon; we use lidar to refocus the picture from one dominated by questions of settlement, settlement patterns and agriculture to one incorporating questions about complex networks of sites and activities, distributed across a wider range of landscape contexts. Using these initial results, we reflect on how lidar survey fits into the dynamic area of survey, landscape and regional archaeology.
KEYWORDS
LiDAR, survey, regional perspectives, remote sensing, rural landscapes
INTRODUCTION: LIDAR SURVEY IN REGIONAL AND LANDSCAPE RESEARCH
The archaeological study of local and regional long-term landscape change can be approached from many perspectives. Survey Archaeology, Regional Analysis and Landscape Archaeology are three major, interdependent approaches to this subject, employed to study how people exploited and experienced their surroundings, addressing questions including: How did natural and social resources and contexts influence the creation and development of settlement? Conversely, how did past societies manage and develop their surroundings to reshape the landscape? How are the cumulative results of these actions reflected in the modern landscape?