Knowledge representation and archaeology: a cognitive example using GIS

Past, present and future applications of Geographic Information Systems in Zimbabwean archaeology

“…These are questions that go beyond the physical environment and mere map making. In other parts of the world these technologies have already generated new insights into landscape usage and cognition among prehistoric societies (see Zubrow 1994;Wheately andGillings 2000, 2002) and, we can anticipate similar developments in Zimbabwe if issues of training and access to software, hardware and relevant literature can be satisfactorily addressed. Unfortunately, thus far many GIS applications in Zimbabwe have been conducted by self-taught or by partially trained researchers, something that partly explains the almost generic strands in the issues they have addressed.…”

“…The integration of such concepts into GIS systems will help improve these structuralist studies. This will not be new in archaeology, as it has been conducted elsewhere where there are developed traditions of GIS applications in archaeology (see Zubrow 1994;Gaffney et al 1996).…”

What can GIS + 3D mean for landscape archaeology?

“…In the 1990s, archaeologists were quite hopeful about the potential for GIS to help us understand ancient perception and cognition, but in reality GIS approaches by themselves tend to fall short -in part because we unavoidably ignore human perception with our flat, bird's eye view maps (Gaffney et al, 1996;Wheatley, 1993;Whitley, 2004;Zubrow, 1994). While 3D modeling and visualization help us to obtain a sense of mass and space and arguably then a sense of place (Forte and Siliotti, 1997;Forte and Kurillo, 2010;Forte and Bonini, 2010;Frischer and Dakouri-Hild, 2008;Paliou, 2013Paliou, , 2014Dell Unto et al, 2015), newer technologies such as Oculus Rift -an immersive headset -and gesture-based technologies such as LEAP Motion and Microsoft Kinect -are allowing us to experience these ancient places in potentially ground-breaking new ways (Fig.…”

Continuity and change in the evolution of religion and political organization on pre-Columbian Puerto Rico

“…Given the broad range of contexts in which dualism has been demonstrated it seems almost inescapable that the concept underpins the very fabric of cognitive and conceptual organization in human society (Laughlin and D'Aquili, 1974;Laughlin et al, 1990;Laughlin and Throop, 2009;Paivio, 2007;Roe, 1995b;Sadoski and Paivio, 2001;Shore, 1996;Stent, 2005). Ezra Zubrow suggested that cognitive universals exist within the human species and perhaps within the genus Homo (Zubrow, 1994). Among the universals discussed by Zubrow and relevant for my analysis of dualism, spatial symbolism, and representation include ''bisection or sub-division" and ''orientation."…”