GeoMOP · Modern Geospatial Practices for Ancient Movement Praxis

Modern Geospatial Practices for Ancient Movement Praxis

Ancient roads cross-culturally reflect motivations and needs behind social, economic, political and religious relations of past societies. Everyday actions of past individuals must have had contributed to the formation of roads. And, in return roads must have had sustained individual (and societal) connectivity. Therefore, considered not only as the container of action but also the action itself, the road has much more to say on the ancient movement praxis. A better understanding of movement praxis opens up new research avenues in archaeology. GeoMOP investigates a specific road network in Upper Mesopotamia which was mainly used during the Bronze Age. The project methodology axiomatizes that variations in the volumes of ancient movement resulted in quantifiable differences in soil compaction, which in return variably changed soil composition and structure. GeoMOP explores these differences via satellite remote sensing, coupled with Agent-Based Modelling (ABM). ABM helps us to build agents (e.g. herd animals, carts) and provide a computational platform for running different movement scenarios. The project is built around three main objectives: Objective 1: is to map the road system in its entirety across Upper Mesopotamia. Objective 2: is to determine prime physical characteristics of soils (e.g. soil productivity, moisture capacity) over documented roads as proxy variables for ancient traffic levels. Objective 3: is to build an ABM to translate soil physical characteristics into numbers of moving agents generating traffic; namely human, animal, and wheeled agents. The project revealed that ancient traffic is a more complex phenomenon than researchers usually anticipate. The academic literature generally focuses on a single aspect of movement phenomenon and map roads as static entities. However, as the MSC project revealed, the agents of the traffic, environmental factors, geology and geomorphology, and the economic systems all together contribute to how people moved in the landscape. The project also supported the idea that road formation does not necessarily require intricate planning and in fact, paths can be formed based on basic decision rules of moving agents. Once there is an emergent spatial consensus between agents, it is a matter of time these paths form. The environmental component of road formation and use is rarely discussed in academic circles. Therefore, the project contributes to the scholarship with its emphasis on climatic simulation using agent-based modelling. Finally, while studies on modern movement practices have the opportunity to collect in-situ data and conduct experiments, research on ancient movement lacks such tools and methodologies. Therefore, scholars rely on historical accounts or idealized space-based models (e.g. Space Syntax) based on strict assumptions. The GeoMOP amalgamated static road network mapping with remote sensing data analysis and agent-based modelling.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз