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Within
the archaeological discipline, the agency debate has re-emphasised
the importance of human volition within the archaeological
landscape. Human action is influenced by how groups perceive
their worlds and, more importantly, structured by the accommodation
of affordances, created by the dynamic interplay between humans
and their animate and inanimate surroundings. This conceptualises
the notion of 'taskscape', in which different interpretations
of space, time and accumulated experience generate a variety
of potential pictures of past human lives. Human taskscapes
are dynamic and built upon the historicity of human action,
emphasising that spatial patterns of human practice are not
static but contexts reflecting back on past and predicting
future behaviour.
For archaeological analyses of the spatial structure of past
human activities, the use of Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) has mostly been restricted to the recognition of spatial
patterns in one-dimensional space and time. Static GIS therefore
yields only an ahistorical picture of the past. Dynamic or
temporal GIS includes the possibility of looking at dynamic
taskscapes over time, enabling them to become both medium
for and outcome of human action.
Current PhD research by the author theorises the implications
of the implementation of taskscapes for past human practice,
through land use modelling within the southern Calabrian (Italy)
Neolithic, using temporal GIS. This paper will specifically
discuss outcomes of dynamic simulation models and interpretations
of results to emphasise an alternative approach to southern
Italian Neolithic culture.
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