Conclusion

The use of these methodologies allows us to not only hypothesise the position of paths in the landscape, but to understand the processes which lead to their creation. The examples in this paper correlate very well with the archaeological and documentary evidence, as well as with current road networks.

As Epstein (2006) wrote, ‘If you didn't grow it, you didn't explain its emergence.' This consistency between method and data suggests that the appropriate factors were considered in each model to produce realistic paths, and the process of the emergence of those paths is explained. This demonstrates that the approach may be suitable in other landscapes, which do not have sufficient surviving evidence to suggest how movement may have taken place.

Acknowledgments This research has been funded by the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship and the Galway Doctoral Research Scholarship. The authors are grateful to Conor McDermott, University College Dublin, for providing survey data from the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit, and to Alan Cunningham for comments on original drafts. Road data is © Open Street Map and Contributors CC-BY-SA.

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Source: Barcelo Juan A., Del Castillo Florencia (eds.). Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Springer,2016. — 410 p.. 2016

Conclusion

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