Watch out for rocks: a GIS and Agent-Based Modeling approach to the rock art of Northwestern Iberia

Summary

Geographic Information Systems and high-resolution cartography (LIDAR), together with Agent-Based Modeling, are used for assessing the traditional view of open-air rock art as an active element in the shaping of the prehistoric landscape.

Petroglyphs have been usually thought to play a major role in the configuration of the different significations of the prehistoric landscapes, their location repeatedly analyzed in terms of spatial proximity with paths and resource-rich areas that would have been key for the local Neolithic and Bronze Age communities. Nevertheless, such considerations were often based on relatively shallow spatial analyses, which –furthermore– neglected the importance of perceptibility of the engravings as a main element in determining their agency.

The use of new GIS approaches to mobility and perception, such as the density of potential pathways and the reverse viewshed analyses, together with the simulation of the processes of perception of rock art sites by applying Agent-Based Models, shall allow us to check the accuracy of the notion pf rock art acting as a landscape marker linked to the so-called "geography of movement".

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Atlantic crossing: side views on the rock art

Keywords

Spatial Coverage