Mapping risk: new visualizations of maritime networks in the Aegean Bronze Age
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-05-21

How useful can network analysis be in maritime settings if based on invariant spatial relations? A model of maritime networks across the Aegean in the Middle Bronze Age (MBA) has been proposed by Knappet, Evans and Rivers (2008, 2011. Knappet, 2013) using distance between sites as a core measure, which they acknowledge as inadequate. By constructing new maps based on a data set of average travel time under sail between sites and proposing a new measure of ‘risk’ of travel, remarkable different network patterns are revealed, highlighting the inherent problems in the use of the modern Western map in archaeological contexts, offering a step to visualising the real risks and 'worlds' of Bronze Age mariners, and supporting Sindbaeks (2014, 129) proposal that ‘…network analysis in archaeology should not be regarded primarily as a means of mapping out data pertaining to past relations and interactions, but as a method of framing, assessing, and criticizing such data’.

Garry PRATT