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7 - Spatial Networks and Networks in Space

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2023

Tom Brughmans
Affiliation:
Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
Matthew A. Peeples
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
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Summary

Most of the past phenomena we study as archaeologists took place in physical space: individuals lived in homes and towns, and they moved through landscapes; they fought wars on battlefields and they exchanged goods from faraway places. Through our excavations, fieldwork, and literature studies we record spatial information such as the outlines of houses, the locations of sites, the slopes of terrain, or the distance between natural resources and settlements. Many relational phenomena are explicitly geographical, in that the medium of geographical space is an important aspect of the relationship itself. For example, road segments connect pairs of settlements that are close together, and lines of sight connect places from which observers can see features. Such phenomena could be quite straightforwardly represented as spatial networks since the nodes and edges are both explicitly embedded in physical space. But for other relational phenomena, space is more like a background feature that can be brought into analyses when relevant but does not feature prominently in the definition of either nodes or edges. For example, past food webs where species are connected through trophic flows or social networks where individuals are connected to their contacts both involve entities (nodes) and relationships (edges) that have spatial properties or attributes, but those spatial properties are not directly invoked in the definition of such networks. We refer to these as networks in space in that we could include spatial features into their network representations, but this is not explicitly included in their definition.

Type
Chapter
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

The following are in-depth overviews of spatial network approaches.

The following are overviews and introductions to spatial network methods used in archaeology.

Concerning geographical network visualization, see the following websites.

https://geographic-networks.github.io/poster.pdf

With abstract:

https://geographic-networks.github.io/abstract.pdf

And comprehensive website:

https://geographic-networks.github.io

Adams, Jimi, Faust, Katherine, and Lovasi, Gina S. 2012 Capturing Context: Integrating Spatial and Social Network Analyses. Social Networks 34(1):15.Google Scholar
Barthelemy, Marc 2011 Spatial Networks. Physics Reports 499(1–3):1101.Google Scholar
Haggett, P., and Chorley, R. J. 1969 Network Analysis in Geography. Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Evans, Tim 2016 Which Network Model Should I Use? Towards a Quantitative Comparison of Spatial Network Models in Archaeology. In The Connected Past: Challenges to Network Studies in Archaeology and History, edited by Brughmans, Tom, Collar, Anna, and Coward, Fiona, pp. 149173. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Conolly, James, and Lake, Mark 2006 Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, Jimi, Faust, Katherine, and Lovasi, Gina S. 2012 Capturing Context: Integrating Spatial and Social Network Analyses. Social Networks 34(1):15.Google Scholar
Barthelemy, Marc 2011 Spatial Networks. Physics Reports 499(1–3):1101.Google Scholar
Haggett, P., and Chorley, R. J. 1969 Network Analysis in Geography. Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Evans, Tim 2016 Which Network Model Should I Use? Towards a Quantitative Comparison of Spatial Network Models in Archaeology. In The Connected Past: Challenges to Network Studies in Archaeology and History, edited by Brughmans, Tom, Collar, Anna, and Coward, Fiona, pp. 149173. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Conolly, James, and Lake, Mark 2006 Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adams, Jimi, Faust, Katherine, and Lovasi, Gina S. 2012 Capturing Context: Integrating Spatial and Social Network Analyses. Social Networks 34(1):15.Google Scholar
Barthelemy, Marc 2011 Spatial Networks. Physics Reports 499(1–3):1101.Google Scholar
Haggett, P., and Chorley, R. J. 1969 Network Analysis in Geography. Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Evans, Tim 2016 Which Network Model Should I Use? Towards a Quantitative Comparison of Spatial Network Models in Archaeology. In The Connected Past: Challenges to Network Studies in Archaeology and History, edited by Brughmans, Tom, Collar, Anna, and Coward, Fiona, pp. 149173. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Conolly, James, and Lake, Mark 2006 Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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