Abstract
The primary aim of this paper is to present a solution to the issue of the statistical validation of route models. In addition, it introduces a body of theory taken from the broader field of route studies, isolates individual physical variables commonly used to predict route locations and quantifies them against the preserved hollow ways in the North Jazira Survey area, ending with a discussion of the complexity of human travel and the paramount importance of cultural variables.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This approach assumes that the optimization of routes is a spatial problem. This is not always the case, particularly in mountainous terrain. Anonymous reviewer 2 correctly points out that the fastest route and the second fastest route to a location may be spatially distant to each other. The best example of this scenario is a mountainous area where two parallel valleys lead to the same destination in nearly the same amount of time. If a researcher is interested in finding out how much a preserved route overlaps the optimal route model (k) and the nearly optimal route models (k − 1, k − 2,…, k − n), then it will be necessary to construct these precise models, use the method described here to record the overlap of the preserved routes to each of the constructed models, then add the rates together for a total rate overlap for k to k − n. In some cases, as anonymous reviewer 2 critiqued, the difference between optimal route model (k) and the slightly less optimal model (k − n) may be insignificant, for example: a route that is 5 h and 23 min long compared to a route that is 5 h and 21 min long.
In this case, the underlying data are an SRTM (version 2) DEM projected using WGS_1984.
A two-tailed Z-test is useful, because it informs not only if the model variable significantly accounts for the location of the hollow ways, but also if it significantly does not account for their location. The latter is informative for thinking of other variables to test that might have played a (positively) significant role.
Bootstrapping advice provided in the Stats4Grads seminar series at the Mathematics Department, Durham University.
The volume and frequency of repeated travel along a route necessary to create a hollow way in the Jazira (or elsewhere) remain unknown.
In a previous study, the physical variable ease accurately predicted the location of the historically known High Road, also a branch of the so-called “Silk Road”, through the North Central Zagros Mountains (de Gruchy 2008).
References
Aitken, R. (1977) Wilderness areas in Scotland. PhD Thesis. Aberdeen University.
Algaze, G. (1993). The Uruk World System: the dynamics of expansion of early Mesopotamian civilization. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Algaze, G. (2008). Ancient Mesopotamia at the dawn of civilization: the evolution of the urban landscape. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Allen, K. (1990) Modelling early historic trade in the eastern Great Lakes using geographic information systems IN Allen, K., S. Green, and E. Zubrow (eds.) Interpreting space: GIS and Archaeology, pp. 319-329.
Branting, S. (2012). Seven solutions for seven problems with least cost paths. In D. A. White & S. L. Surface-Evans (Eds.), Least cost analysis of social landscapes, Archaeological Case Studies (pp. 209–224). Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Burgess (2011) How your brain tells you where you are TED Salon. London. November 2011.
Burgess, N., Maguire, E. A., & O’Keefe, J. (2002). The human hippocampus and spatial and episodic memory. Neuron, 35, 625–641.
Casana, J. (2013). Radial route systems and agro-pastoral strategies in the Fertile Crescent: new discoveries from western Syria and southwestern Iran. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 32(2), 257–273.
Chronicle, E., MacGregor, J., & Ormerod, T. (2006). Optimizing and ‘pessimizing’ human performance with instructional variants of the traveling salesman problem. Journal of Problem Solving, 1(1), 74–82.
Contreras, D. (2011). How far to Conchucos? A GIS approach to assessing the implications of exotic materials at Chavín de Huántar. World Archaeology, 43(3), 380–397.
Daly, P. and G. Lock (2004) Time, space, and archaeological landscapes: establishing connections in the first millennium BC IN Goodchild, M.F. and D.G. Janelle (eds.) Spatially Integrated Social Science, pp. 349-365.
Daryaee, T. (2010). Bazaars, Merchants, and Trade in Late Antiquity. Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East, 30(3), 401–409.
de Gruchy, M. (2008) The archaeology of routes and the nature of Uruk Mesopotamia’s expansion into the Central Zagros. University College London, Institute of Archaeology. M.A. Thesis.
Earle, T. (2009a). Routes through the landscape: a comparative approach. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erickson, & J. A. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 253–270). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Earle, T. (2009b). Appendix 1: Coding of the cases of paths, trails, and roads discussed in the conference. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erickson, & J. A. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 271–274). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. J. (1993). An introduction to bootstrapping (pp. 224–227). London: Chapmap & Hall.
ESRI (2014) ‘How create random points works’ ArcGIS Resource Center. Desktop 10. Last updated October 27, 2014. Accessed December 23, 2014. Available at: http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#/How_Create_Random_Points_works/0017000000t4000000/.
Flor, R. and M. Neteler (2012) R.Walk GRASS 6.4 Manual. Online. Last updated: December 31, 2012. http://grass.osgeo.org/grass64/manuals/r.walk.html.
Fragile Crescent Database. Durham University. Accessed January 2013.
Franchetti, M. (2005). Digital archaeology and the scalar structure of pastoral landscapes, modeling mobile societies of prehistoric Central Asia. In T. L. Evans & P. Daly (Eds.), Digital archaeology: bridging method and theory (pp. 128–147). London: Routledge.
Hendrickson, M. (2011). A transport geographic perspective on travel and communication in Angkorian Southeast Asia (ninth to fifteenth centuries AD). World Archaeology, 43(3), 44–457.
Howey, M. (2007). Using multi-criteria cost surface analysis to explore past regional landscapes: a case study of ritual activity and social interaction in Michigan, AD 1200-1600. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34, 1830–1846.
Kantner, J. (1997). Ancient roads, modern mapping: evaluating Chaco Anasazi roadways using GIS technology. Expedition, 39(3), 49–61.
Kantner, J. (2004). Geographical approaches for reconstructing past human behavior from prehistoric roadways. In M. F. Goodchild & D. G. Janelle (Eds.), Spatially Integrated Social Science (pp. 323–344). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kantner, J. (2012) Realism, reality, and routes: evaluating cost-surface and cost-path algorithms IN White, D.A. and S. Surface-Evans (eds.) Least cost analysis of social landscapes: archaeological case studies. University of Utah Press, pp. 225-238.
Kneidl, A. and Borrman, A. (2011) How do pedestrians find their way? Results of an experimental study with students compared to simulated results Emergency Evacuation of People from Buildings. Warsaw. Available at: www.andre-borrmann.de/publications3.html.
Langmuir (1984) Mountaincraft and Leadership—the Scottish Sports Council/TheMountainwalking Leader Training.
Lewis, D. (1976). Observations on route finding and spatial orientation among the Aboriginal peoples of the Western Desert region of Central Australia. Oceania, 46(4), 249–282.
Llobera, M. (1996). Exploring the topography of mind: GIS, social space and archaeology. Antiquity, 70, 612–622.
McClellan, T., & Porter, A. (1995). Jawa and North Syria. Studies in the History and Archaeology of Jordan, 5, 49–65.
McClellan, T., Grayson, R., & Ogleby, C. (2000). Bronze Age water harvesting in North Syria. In O. Rauault & M. Wäfler (Eds.), La Djéziré et l’EuphrateSyriens de la Protohistoire à la Fin du IIeMillénaire (pp. 137–155). Turnhout: Brepols.
Menze, B., & Ur, J. (2012). Mapping patterns of long-term settlement in Northern Mesopotamia at a Large Scale. PNAS, 109(14), E778–E787.
Müller, M., & Wehner, R. (1988). Path integration in desert ants. Cataglyphis fortis Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 85, 5287–5290.
Naismith, W.W. (1892) Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal.
Normand, E. (2010) Spatial abilities of wild chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Leipzig and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
Normand, E., & Boesch, C. (2009). Sophisticated Euclidean maps in forest chimpanzees. Animal Behavior, 77, 1195–1201.
Reynolds, A., & Langlands, A. (2011). Travel as communication: a consideration of overland journeys in Anglo-Saxon England. World Archaeology, 43(3), 410–427.
Ristvet, L. (2011). Travel and the making of Northern Mesopotamian polities. BASOR, 361, 1–31.
Sheets, P. (2009). When the construction of meaning preceded the meaning of construction: from footpaths to monumental entrances in Ancient Costa Rica. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erikson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 158–179). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Shettleworth, S. (2010). Cognition, evolution, and behavior (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapter 8.
Simon, H (1945). Administrative behavior. (1st ed). New York: MacMillan Company.
Simon, H. (1957). Administrative behavior (2nd ed.). New York: MacMillan Company.
Simon, H (1976). Administrative behavior. (3rd ed.). New York: MacMillan Company.
Simon, H (1997). Administrative behavior. (4th ed.). New York: MacMillan Company.
Snead, J. E., Erickson, C. L., & Darling, J. A. (2009a). Making human space: the archaeology of trails, paths, and roads. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erickson, & J. A. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 1–19). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Snead, J. E., Erickson, C. L., & Darling, J. A. (2009b). Appendix 2: comparative variables for trails, paths, and roads. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erickson, & J. A. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 275–311). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Stein, G. (1999). Rethinking world systems: diasporas, colonies, and interaction in Uruk Mesopotamia. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Stein, G. and R. Özbal (2007) ‘A tale of two Oikumenai’ IN Stone, E. (ed.) Settlement and society, essays dedicated to Robert McCormick Adams, pp. 356-370.
Ur, J. (2003). CORONA satellite photography and ancient road networks: a Northern Mesopotamian case study. Antiquity, 77, 102–115.
Ur, J. (2009). Emergent landscapes of movement in Early Bronze Age Northern Mesopotamia. In J. E. Snead, C. L. Erickson, & J. A. Darling (Eds.), Landscapes of movement: trails, paths, and roads in anthropological perspective (pp. 180–203). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Ur, J. (2011) Hollow ways vector file.
Ur, & Wilkinson. (2008). Settlement and economic landscapes of Tell Beydar and its hinterland Beydar studies I. Subartu XXI (pp. 305–327). Turnhout: Brepols.
Van Liere, W.J. and J. Lauffray (1954/55) Nouvelle Prospection Archéologiquedan la Haute Djézirée Syrienne Annales Archéologique Syrienne 4-5: 129-148.
Widlok, T. (1997). Orientation in the wild: the shared cognition of Haiom Bushpeople. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 3(2), 317–332.
Wilkinson, T. J. (1993). Linear hollows in the Jazira Upper Mesopotamia. Antiquity, 67, 548–562.
Wilkinson, T. J. (2003). Archaeological landscapes of the near east. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Chapter 6.
Wilkinson, T.J. and D. Tucker (1995) Settlement Development in the North Jazira, Iraq: a study of the archaeological landscape. Warminster: British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
Wilkinson, T. J., French, C., Ur, J. A., & Semple, M. (2010). The geoarchaeology of route systems in Northern Syria. Geoarchaeology, 25(6), 745–771.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Graham Philip and Tony Wilkinson who have both been extremely supportive reading through the many earlier drafts of this article, providing endless constructive feedback and advice. Also, acknowledgements are due to Nick Vivyan who did not know how to compare two lines quantitatively but said that whatever the solution is, it involves turning my lines into numbers that can be entered into a table somehow; Jason Ur who kindly gave permission to make use of his vector file which provides a digitized map from CORONA imagery of the hollow ways across the North Jazira; and Andy Bevan who, several years ago, gave me full permission to use a SRTM DEM that he had prepared, which is the same DEM file used for the analysis presented here. Finally, the four anonymous reviewers have been enormously helpful, providing a wealth of constructive criticism that has served to strengthen the article.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Gruchy, M.W. Beyond Replication: the Quantification of Route Models in the North Jazira, Iraq. J Archaeol Method Theory 23, 427–447 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-015-9247-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-015-9247-x