Multidimensional Spatial Analysis in Archaeology. Beyond the GIS paradigm

Abstract

In this paper; an archaeological site is defined as a complex relational framework in which social action and natural processes are related in a complex; dynamic and dialectical sense. An explanatory model of archaeological formation processes at the spatial and temporal level is presented. The aim is to develop an understanding of the general principles which determine the spatial and temporal; location of those observable; properties of material effects caused by social actions. The basic assumption is that an archaeological site is not randomly organized; nor it is the result of chance alone. It is suggested that changes in the topology of archaeological space determine changes in the statistical properties of the archaeological record. Assuming that spatiotemporal discontinuities are a function of the probability an action was performed at that location; a visual model shows how different partitions in the archaeological space can be understood as an attractor for the material consequences of the same or any other action spatiotemporally related. What I am really studying is the directionality in space and time of social action. The objective is then to analyze how the statistical and qualitative outcomes of social action “vary significantly from one spatiotemporal location to another”. Formation process and accumulation effects appear in some locations and not in other because of their position relative to some other location for another process or a reproduction of the same process. I am pretending to understand whether the characteristics in one location have anything to do with characteristics at a neighbor location through the definition of a general model of spatiotemporal dependence.