Spatio-temporal modeling of North American prehistory

Dean R. Snow

«Archeologia e Calcolatori» 2002, 13, 267-273

Abstract

A new dynamic spatio-temporal model of North American prehistory and protohistory from 14,000 BP to 200 BP allows researchers to visualize the ebb and flow of culture change and demographic processes at any of many possible scales. The authors of past syntheses of such changes over time and space on a large scale in North America have depended upon aggregating lower-level syntheses and summaries prepared by various regional specialists. One advantage of the model is that it eliminates much of the bias and filtering that is typically entailed by this dependence. It does so by directly referencing site-specific data recorded and maintained in a GIS format. These are called up and displayed as animations of spatial change over time. The animations in turn can be mapped against environmental changes over time and space. The model raises theoretical and methodological questions about how we record and disseminate our data. These are briefly discussed.

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