Quantitative Route Analysis and the Construction of Route Models
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-04-01

It is now possible to quantitatively assess route models against preserved route ways in the archaeological record (de Gruchy 2015), opening up the possibility for testing the potential importance of individual variables in past travel. The assessment, however, is only as good as the model. A route model is built by incorporating different variables (slope, land cover, etc.) into one of many functions designed to assess cost of movement. This paper critically examines common functions used in GIS to generate these models, the assumptions they make, their strengths and weaknesses, and how archaeology might modify and develop functions to more accurately reflect the diversity of human travel across the landscape.

Michelle de Grouchy (Durham University & University of Tübingen)

Bibliography:

de Gruchy, M.W. (2015) “Beyond Replication: The Quantification of Route Models in the North Jazira, Iraq” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. Available online: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10816-015-9247-x