SPATIAL UNCERTAINTY IN PREHISTORY

Prehistoric societies had to cope with large amounts of both temporal and spatial uncertainty. Uncertainty for this paper is defined as the difference between the phenomena and its cultural representation. Spatial uncertainty is the lack of, or the error in, knowledge about an object’s geographic position. The sources of spatial uncertainty are errors in geographic location, partial and incomplete knowledge, inappropriate assumptions regarding the environment, problems in classification, and lack of pattern recognition. How Spatial Uncertainty is communicated is related to how spatial information is classified, stored, and transmitted over time and over space. The importance of waypoints, visualizations, hot spots, and unknown spaces are critical. This paper attempts to create a general theory of spatial uncertainty and applies it to a variety of Hunter and Gatherer, Pastoral, and Early Agricultural Societies. Whether particular environments, subsistence patterns, or types of sedentism affect spatial uncertainty is considered. The general belief that across time that spatial uncertainty necessarily diminishes is questioned.
Author(s): Zubrow, Ezra (University at Buffalo; University of Toronto)

Видео SPATIAL UNCERTAINTY IN PREHISTORY канала European Association of Archaeologists