Architectural Visibility Analysis: Understanding Domestic Space in Roman Pompeii, Italy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean " session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper will discuss the methods involved in utilizing visibility analysis to understand how space was used in domestic contexts. Although visibility studies are frequently used in archaeology, and wider applications of GIS, this paper presents a unique application of visibility analysis for studies of architecture, space, and social interaction. While other research has attempted to display and analyze the use of space in various contexts, most studies are limited to qualitative types of analyses. The purpose of developing the architectural visibility analysis was to create a method of displaying and analyzing areas of visibility within an enclosed space. Using architectural visibility analysis, we can quantitatively assess areas of visibility given a set of observer points. This new method provides an objective analysis that can be applied to the interior of buildings or other constrained spaces and does not require the open environment that is typically characteristic of viewshed analysis. Using domestic properties from Pompeii, Italy, as a case study, I will demonstrate the effectiveness of using architectural visibility analysis and its potential for broader applications.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Water and Sanitation Management in the Mediterranean

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32514