CALL. 28.10.2016: [SESSION 26] Path modelling and the materiality of movement (session at Computer A
FECHA LÍMITE/DEADLINE/SCADENZA: 28/10/2016
FECHA CONGRESO/CONGRESS DATE/DATA CONGRESSO: 14-15-16/03/2017
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Georgia State University in Atlanta, (Atlanta, Georgia, USA)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Philip Verhagen ; Laure Nuninger ; Axel Posluschny
INFO: web
CALL:
In this session, we want to explore the state-of-the-art and challenges in connecting path modelling approaches to material traces of ancient movement in the form of trails, roads, boundaries, constructions and landmarks. Given the general scarcity of material traces of movement, path modelling is often used to reconstruct and analyse potential trackways for daily activities or routes for the transport of people, goods and ideas – however, testing these models remains problematic in many cases exactly because of this lack of data. We intend to address the following questions in this session: - How can we set up path models that are better informed by material, experimental, historical and ethnographical evidence of ancient movement practices? What practices of movement have produced the material traces left behind in the present-day landscape, and how can they be recognized in e.g. LiDAR-based elevation models? And can we use path models to predict and interpret specific material traces of movement? - Usually, data on surviving material traces of movement are fragmentary and have a low chronological resolution and therefore offer severe challenges for testing purposes. How can we test path models using detected traces of trails, roads, boundaries, constructions and landmarks? What do we do in the absence of material traces? - What happens when paths are no longer used, and what is the role of post-depositional processes in preserving material traces of movement? Can we model both the use-life and afterlife of paths? We solicit papers reflecting on one or more of these issues that try to connect theoretical considerations to practical applications, without any limitation on the geographical, cultural of chronological setting. Nevertheless, we will pay particular attention to proposals dealing with path networks and whose content focuses on landscape and territories.