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Regional Ways of Seeing: A Big-Data Approach for Measuring Ancient Visualscapes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

Natalie M. Susmann*
Affiliation:
History Section, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, CambridgeMA02139, USA

Abstract

Archaeologists have long acknowledged the significance of mountains in siting Greek cult. Mountains were where the gods preferred to make contact and there people constructed sanctuaries to inspire intervention. Greece is a land full of mountains, but we lack insight on the ancient Greeks’ view—what visible and topographic characteristics made particular mountains ideal places for worship over others, and whether worshiper preferences ever changed. This article describes a data collection and analysis methodology for landscapes where visualscape was a significant factor in situating culturally significant activities. Using a big-data approach, four geospatial analyses are applied to every cultic place in the Peloponnesian regions of the Argolid and Messenia, spanning 2800–146 BC. The fully described methodology combines a number of experiences—looking out, looking toward, and climbing up—and measures how these change through time. The result is an active historic model of Greek religious landscape, describing how individuals moved, saw, and integrated the built and natural world in different ways. Applied elsewhere, and even on nonreligious locales, this is a replicable mode for treating the natural landscape as an artifact of human decision: as a space impacting the siting of meaningful locales through history.

Alrededor del mundo, las montañas provocan la creación de lugares religiosos en el paisaje como resultado de sus efectos visuales; los adoradores se inspiran en las cuencas de las montañas y su prominencia física. Los arqueólogos debaten cómo mejor modelar este proceso: si a través de enfoques geoespaciales o fenomenológicos, o la integración de los dos. Las metodologías detalladas que involucran múltiples enfoques y grandes conjuntos de datos son raras. Este documento proporciona un marco detallado para integrar análisis geoespaciales precisos con la recopilación de datos fenomenológicos, con el fin de determinar qué características topográficas y visuales configuraron los paisajes religiosos. Presenta un estudio de caso sobre las regiones del Peloponeso de Argólida y Mesenia, y explora lugares de culto (es decir, religiosos) utilizados por los griegos entre el 2,800 y 146 aC. Esta metodología, completamente descrita en esta ponencia, combina varias experiencias (observación general, observación hacia el objeto, y la escalada en sí) y compara las preferencias cambiantes a lo largo del tiempo. El resultado es un modelo dinámico del paisaje religioso griego, que articula la movilidad de los antiguos griegos, y de cómo estos vieron e integraron de manera diferente el mundo construido y natural a lo largo del tiempo. Aplicado en otros lugares, e incluso en lugares no religiosos, este es un modo replicable para tratar el paisaje natural como un artefacto de la decisión humana: como un espacio que impacta la ubicación de lugares significativos a lo largo de la historia.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright 2020 © Society for American Archaeology

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References

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