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Landscape Phenomenology, GIS and the Role of Affordance

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Abstract

That despite over a decade and a half of research, effective dialogue within archaeology between Geographic Information System (GIS) (on one hand) and experiential theory (on the other) remains elusive is nothing short of remarkable. The present discussion seeks to not only explore the reasons behind this impasse but to suggest that perhaps the time for dialogue has passed and rather than building bridges, researchers in archaeological GIS should instead begin to build their own theoretical frameworks. To this end, a discussion of affordance (and its potential application in the field of experiential analysis) is offered.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Jeremy Taylor for his insightful feedback on an earlier draft of this paper and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments.

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  1. School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, LE1 7RH

    Mark Gillings

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  1. Mark Gillings
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Correspondence to Mark Gillings.

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Gillings, M. Landscape Phenomenology, GIS and the Role of Affordance. J Archaeol Method Theory 19, 601–611 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9137-4

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