From points to areas: constructing territories from archaeological site patterns using an enhanced Xtent model

In: Posluschny, A. ; Lambers, K. ; Herzog, I. (Hrsgg.): Layers of Perception. Proceedings of the 35th International Conference on Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA), Berlin, 2.-6. April, 2007 (Koll. Vor- u. Frühgesch. 10). Bonn 2008, pp. 245-251

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Abstract

Territorial reasoning is a basic topic of spatial archaeology. The ability to establish territorial extents of political, religious or economic zones allows us to move from point to area-based observations and hypotheses. We present a substantially enhanced, GIS-based version of Renfrew and Level’s classic Xtent algorithm. Our version offers various advantages over the original. It respects terrain properties, a priori physical movement constraints and hierarchical relations between sites, maximum territory sizes are easy to control and a measure of uncertainty is provided. The software implementation used in this paper was done within the framework of the open source GRASS geographic information system.