Materialities, space, mind: Archaeology of visual cognition

Abstract

This article presents a perceptual study of different styles of prehistoric Galician ceramics (from 6000 to 2000 BP) using the technique of eye-tracking. This analysis demonstrates the material engagement of mind by showing that the visual world fosters the entanglement of doing, seeing, and designing over the course of history. We examine how materializations of human practices relate to cognition and to socio-cultural contexts. The interrelations between material culture and perceptual reactions indicate a clear connection between the mind, objects and the world. We apply measurable and numeric techniques, providing an archaeometric approach to cognitive topics by combining neurosciences with interpretive and reflective research. This research provides new insights into the material culture, contributes to the understanding of the relationship between mind and the material world, and accounts for the transitive engagement between ways of thinking, seeing and making things. Thus the text contributes to understand the material forces driving perception and thought.