Viewshed GIS

The Gask Ridge system is a series of forts, fortlets, and timber watchtowers situated along a Roman road in northern Scotland. The high intervisibility of the watchtowers in the Gask Ridge system has resulted in the proposal of two main functions: one that the watchtowers were a signalling system and two that the watchtowers provided visibility of the Gask Ridge road for surveillance and monitoring. Despite this, only the former function has been assessed. This paper explores the function of the watchtowers along the Gask Ridge road using computational methods, including Monte Carlo hypothesis testing. The analytical approach, which is documented and reproducible with accompanying code, rejects that the watchtowers were randomly located along the Gask Ridge road, instead favouring the alternative hypothesis that the watchtowers were located to maximise the visibility of the road. Furthermore, it is possible to claim that the need to monitor the road shows a causal relationship with the location of the watchtowers, rather than associative. The findings support the interpretation that the main function of the watchtowers was for the surveillance and monitoring of the Gask Ridge road, providing an early warning system of an attack from the Highlands (Woolliscroft, 1993).

There are several aspects of rune stones that can be discussed and analysed. With the help of
digital tools, it is possible to look at social dimensions of archaeological objects in ways that
were previously difficult to explore. In this thesis, the aim is to analyse rune stones from a
spatial perspective by looking at their possible role in the landscape, what type of context they
are found in and what they manifested by using both traditional and new methods/tools. The
main focus is placed on the central region of Västergötland, a region that has not received
much attention concerning findings and sites from the Viking Age. This is the first time such
an analysis is conducted on rune stones in the region. Spatial analysis of the landscape is a
fruitful way to study how people interacted with each other and how certain people choose
manifest themselves and their role in the local society. Rune stones contain a great amount of
information depending on how they are analysed. This is an attempt to create new ways of
analyzing rune stones and expand our knowledge about the Viking Age and early Medieval
period in Västergötland.

It has long been hypothesized the location of the ancient Maya center of Minanha was a strategic one based on its ability to control the flow of communication and key resources between major geopolitical zones. Situated in the Vaca Plateau, at the nexus of the Belize River Valley, the Petén District of Guatemala, and the Maya Mountains, Minanha became a Late Classic polity capital that was tapped into a regional economy as well as long-distance trade networks. In this thesis I present a GIS-based spatial analysis that includes viewshed and cost surface analysis (CSA) to model visibility and movement within the north Vaca Plateau and neighboring regions to address specific questions concerning Minanha’s strategic value. The results indicate that Minanha occupied a visually prominent location in proximity to major corridors of movement that suggest it was strategically, and in fact ideally located, as a polity capital with the ability to monitor the movement of people and resources.

By c. 3000 BCE, in the late Neolithic, there had been a significant change in the way people materialized their cosmology across Scotland with the introduction of free-standing stones that continued to be erected almost until the end of the Bronze Age (Burl, 1993, 2000). Significantly, a series of astronomical patternings have been empirically verified for many Bronze Age monuments that were erected in the latter Bronze Age (Higginbottom et al., 2000, 2001, 2015). Further, two series of complex landscape patternings associated with the monuments and their orientations have been identified (Higginbottom et al., 2015; Higginbottom and Clay, in press). However, when and where these patterns were first associated with standing-stone structures was unknown. Through innovative statistics and software we show that visible astronomical-landscape variables found at BronzeAge sites on the
inner isles and mainland of western Scotland were actually first established in stone nearly two millennia earlier, likely with the erection of two of the earliest dated British 'great circles': Callanish on the Isle of Lewis and Stenness on the Isle of Orkney. In particular,we introduce our new statistical test that enables the quantitative determination of astronomical connections of stone circles. It is seen that whilst different standing-stone monuments were created over time (Burl, 1993, 2000; Higginbottom et al., 2015) with a mixture of landscape variables (Higginbottom et al., 2015), we nevertheless see that highly relevant landscape markers and other aspects remained unchanged through these years. This suggests that there is some continuity of this cosmological system through time, despite the various radical material and social changes that occurred from the late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age (Lynch, 2000; Mullin, 2001; Owoc, 2001).
https://www.altmetric.com/details/10434023#score
Co-author: Roger Clay

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

For copy of early draft paper see pre-print server:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.1338v2.pdf
LINK to pre-print article under file drop down menu in full document view (click on heading of this article if still on my main academia.edu page).

This early draft has half the explanatory text of the methodology of our JAS Reports paper. It is a condensed piece in a form similar to a Nature paper with supplementary text containing some explanations; please feel free to contact for more information.

Tool for advanced visibility analysis. Besides common binary viewshed (yes/no value for each pixel), the plugin features:

- generation of cumulative viewshed
- extraction of visible horizon [experimental only]
- calculation of the depth at which lay invisible areas
- generation of intervisibility networks

* Please follow the PROVIDED LINK for more information *

Barrows, as burial markers, are ubiquitous throughout North-Western Europe. In some regions dense concentrations of monuments form peculiar configurations such as long alignments while in others they are spread out extensively, dotting vast areas with hundreds of mounds. These vast barrow landscapes came about through thousands of years of additions by several successive prehistoric and historic communities. Yet little
is known about how these landscapes developed and originated.

That is what this research set out to do. By unravelling the histories of specific barrow landscapes in the Low Countries, several distinct activity phases of intense barrow construction could be recognised. Each of these phases contributed to how the barrow landscape developed and reveals shifting attitudes to these monuments.
By creating new monuments in a specific place and in a particular fashion, prehistoric communities purposefully transformed the form and shape of the barrow landscape. Using several GIS-techniques such as a skyline-analysis, this research is able to demonstrate how each barrow took up a specific (and different) position within such a social landscape. While the majority of the barrows were only visible from relatively close by, specific monuments took up a dominating position, cresting the horizon, being visible from much further away.
It is argued in this research that these burial mounds remained important landscape monuments on the purple heathlands. They continued to attract attention, and by their visibility ensured to endure in the collective memory of the communities shaping themselves around these monuments.

While much attention has been paid to the development of castles as the hallmark architectural symbol of the Middle Ages, less attention has been given to the changes in European defensive strategies that occurred between the 15th and 17th centuries. It was at this time when the modern nations of Europe began to take form, as sea-based trade between distant nations took precedence over land-based trade routes. This paper examines how this transformation manifested in the defensive structures of Sicily, Italy, where the hilltop castles of the Middle Ages gradually gave way to a more cohesive network of coastal towers around the island. Putting this transition in its historical context, presenting an anthropological model from which to view this transition, and using geospatial methods to track these changes, the results of this study indicate that as defensive towers began to dominate the Sicilian coast around the 16th century, their command over the environment was no greater than that of the feudal castles which were still in use. Yet, unlike the castles of feudal lords, these towers represented an island-wide system of defense and the beginning of an adherence to a more centralized power structure then seen previously.

Desde un análisis de cuencas visuales, se investigaron relaciones espaciales entre sitios de arte rupestre y centros de nucleación prehispánicos identificados en el Valle de Sogamoso. Este análisis sugirió algunas interpretaciones para el probable uso del arte rupestre en la parte norte de las tierras altas orientales en Colombia (región cundiboyacense). Aparentemente, el uso de los sitios de arte rupestre estuvo mayormente asociado a espacios restringidos.

The Wari empire (AD 600–1000) deployed a variety of strategies to consolidate its provinces in Middle Horizon Peru. One strategy may have been building imperial sites in places with large visual magnitudes, which are attrac- tive to empires because they are more defensible, they are suitably located for direct and implied surveillance, and they project a visually-dominant presence on the landscape. In the Sondondo Valley, Peru, the Wari empire made a significant investment of labor and resources in the construction of terraces, roads, and five imperial sites. The viewsheds of these sites are compared to those of 20 non-imperial sites, 495 randomly-placed individual sites, and 99 randomly-placed groups of five sites each. Parametric and non-parametric comparisons reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference between viewsheds. Imperial sites had significantly larger and better-coordinated viewsheds, as estimated from overlap and coverage indices. These results support the ar...

El treball estudia el territori d'Olient, situat al cor de la Serra del Boumort (Pallars Jussà, Catalunya), durant els segles X i XI, posant un especial èmfasi als canvis succeïts arran del procés de feudalització i la seva empremta en el paisatge. Davant la manca d'estudis previs, les fonts documentals, combinades amb l'estudi arqueològic del paisatge i l'anàlisi de dades espacials amb SIG han resultat imprescindibles per poder reconstruir la realitat passada d'aquest territori.

This work studies the territory of Olient, situated in the centre of Boumort's Mountains (Pallars Jussà, Catalunya), during the 10th and 11th centuries, putting special attention on the changes occurred as a consequence of the feudalisation process and its traces on the landscape. In order to avoid the problems caused by the lack of previous studies, the documentary sources, combined with the archaeological study of the landscape and the spatial data analysis through GIS have been essential when reconstructing the past reality of this territory.

Evidence from archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography suggests that the raised architectural complexes known as platform mounds played a central role in the organization of Hohokam society during the Classic Period (approximately AD 1150-1450). In particular, many studies focus attention upon platform mounds' potential as venues for community ritual. This spatial analysis of the platform mound complex at the Marana Platform Mound site builds upon the clues provided by artifacts, architecture, and ethnography to examine how these community rituals might have unfolded. Using the Marana mound's remnant architecture as its primary evidence, this study reconstructs visibility and access throughout the mound complex, suggesting which parts of moundtop ceremonies might be perceptible to all observers and which might be partially or totally hidden from view. Taken together, the findings from this analysis offer insights into how the rituals performed at the Marana mound complex might have helped bring the residents of the surrounding community together even as they emphasized the power and authority of an exclusive few.

We present in this paper the results of the application of several visual methods on a group of locations, dated between VI and I centuries BC, of the ager Tarraconensis (Tarragona, Spain) a Hinterland of the Roman colony of Tarraco. The difficulty in interpreting the diverse results in a combined way has been resolved by means of the use of statistical methods, such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and K-means clustering analysis. These methods has allowed us to carry out site classifications in function of the landscape's visual structure that contains them and of the visual relationships that culd be given among them.

The potentiality of GIS methodologies were considered in order to develop the research project intituled, Study of the Ancient Landscape of the Oriental Cossetania, promoted by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans and supported by AUCAT. The area of study was located in the Baix Penedès (Tarragona), a territory located between Barcino (Barcelona) and Tarraco (Tarragona). This area had not been the object of many archaeological researches, specially the inland sector. The project
focuses on the archaeological analysis of the territory and its dynamics of change from Iberian to Late Antiquity periods (V-IV B.C. - VI A.D.). SIG research was very useful for settlement analysis. A Data-Base for sites was elaborated in Access. Landscape data from extensive field walking, surveys, bibliographical research and artefact analysis were integrated in a SIG ArcView. A sequence of chronological and typological site maps was easily obtained. In order to analyze settlement distribution Thiessen
polygons were calculated for the same periods and typologies. Moreover, visibility and site catchment’s analysis were calculated for the main sites.
The results allow us to characterize landscape dynamics and land-use during the period analyzed. Important changes were detected in settlement patterns and distribution in the beginning of Romanization (2nd-1st centuries BC). Nevertheless, Roman landscape based on villa-system and centuriated territorial organization seems to be established from Caesarean and August times, while Late Antiquity is characterized
by important changes in settlement patterns and human impact.

Intervisibility analysis provides valuable insight into the sociocultural significance of archaeological features such as tombs, settlements, signaling installations and other landscape markers. Yet, it is difficult to determine whether these observed patterns are intentional. Archaeological remains that are highly visible in general may be intervisible with other constructions only by coincidence. The present study analyzes Early Iron and Urartian (Biainili) fortified architecture in the Lake Sevan region of Armenia (1100–700 BCE). A Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach to classic GIS intervisibility analysis demonstrates that these ancient people constructed an elaborate fire beacon system. Random-point simulation, statistical validation and historical documentation support these findings, and show that the spatial organization of these fortress-states was the result of regional coordination. The analysis described in this paper constitutes a novel method for discerning the agency of social actors. Moreover, the study reveals that a fire beacon system was already in place by the Early Iron period, and its continuation during the Urartian period betrays a preoccupation with persistent conflict in this ancient landscape of warfare.

This paper deals with the hill-forts of the medieval tribe of ulychi who came to a region of Southern Buh river in the late 10th century AD and left here about 50 remains of hill-forts. We know about the time of their appearance here from the chronicle, in which it is written that due to military conflicts with the Kyiv princes Oleg and Igor (10th century AD) «Ulychi lost their capital-«Peresechen» (which means «passed through town» or «intersected town») and went and settled «by Boh river» (today-Southern Bug river). Today, the antiquities of ulychi people are being studied by the Archaeological expedition «Ulychi», created in December 2018 jointly by the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv) and Vinnytsya Regional Museum of Local History. The expedition conducts reconnaissance survey in search of hill-forts and settlements of ulychi people, topographic measurements, archaeological research for the purpose of verifying the dating of the fortifications, as well as carries out monitoring and aerial photography to establish the current state of archaeological sites. On a territory of two hill-forts of ulychi people-Sazhki and Chervone were conducted a large-scale archaeological research in 1970s and 1980s, the author of which was Pavlo Khavlyuk. The results of these studies showed the peculiarities of their way of lifepottery, jewelry, weaving and other crafts. The well-known researcher Mykhailo Kuchera also paid an attention to the location of ulychi hill-forts in Southern Buh region in the 1980s. Nowadays we can observe massive ground fortifications of these hill-forts, reaching more than 5 m in height. Among the special characters of ulychi hill-forts are the construction of shafts with stone covering, the placement of wells inside the fortifications, and the protection of water sources by additional fortifications. One of the interesting traditions of hill-forts location is paired settlements located across the ravine or on the neighboring capes not further than 500 m from each other (such as hill-forts Tarasivka or Sosny). Considering the basic version that ulychi people in the territory of Southern Bug basin are not an autochthonous population, we are inevitably faced with the question of how exactly they used the space in which they decided to settle? The Ulychi people become identifiable at the end of the 10th century, in a region that until then had belonged to the distribution area of the Raikovetska archaeological culture of the 8 th-10th centuries. We find the stratification of this culture at the places of the construction of the hill-forts of ulychi (Voronovytsia 1), in the nearby settlements (Gostynne, etc.). The nature of the interaction between the autochthonous and the newcomer population will obviously be hidden from us forever. Only the fact of direct contact is indisputable. It should also be noticed, that has been found no more than ten the settlements of 8th-10th cent. of Raikovetska culture in the Southern Buh region, while in the neighboring regions (Middle and Upper Dniester) it is a time of cultural flourishing and the existence of many hundreds of Raikovetska culture settlements.

The report describes an ArcGIS toolbox that provides the facility to calculate the Fuzzy Viewshed as proposed by Ogburn 2006, which modify the original proposal by Fisher. It produces a Fuzzy Vieshed raster in which, as customary in 'regular' (i.e., binary) viewshed rasters, 0 indicates cells that are not visible, 1 indicates cells that are visible. However, unlike binary viewshed, values between 0 and 1 correspond to a drop in visibility as function of the target distance AND target size.
The toolbox can be downloaded from the link provided in the report.

A review of the archeological and non-archeological use of visibility networks reveals the use of a limited range of formal techniques, in particular for representing visibility theories. This paper aims to contribute to the study of complex visual relational phenomena in landscape archeology by proposing a range of visibility network patterns and methods. We propose first-and second-order visibility graph representations of total and cumulative viewsheds, and two-mode representations of cumulative viewsheds. We present network patterns that can be used to represent aspects of visibility theories and that can be used in statistical simulation models to compare theorized networks with observed networks. We argue for the need to incorporate observed visibility network density in these simulation models, by illustrating strong differences in visibility network density in three example landscapes. The approach is illustrated through a brief case study of visibility networks of long barrows in Cranborne Chase.

Study area 0 km 1000 N For years it has been assumed that tower kivas were observation points, using their high vantage to relay communications across the landscape, or acting as defensive outposts among the local population. Few of these enigmatic structures have been excavated, and archaeologists have consequently turned to landscape survey methods to understand their role and function. Here, the authors contrast visibility and intervisibility within the surrounding viewshed of two tower kivas, Kin Ya'a and Haystack, providing an alternative perspective to traditional interpretations by suggesting that rather than acting as lookout points, they were instead central places built to be looked upon by the surrounding community.

The Wari empire (AD 600–1000) deployed a variety of strategies to consolidate its provinces in Middle Horizon Peru. One strategy may have been building imperial sites in places with large visual magnitudes, which are attrac- tive to empires because they are more defensible, they are suitably located for direct and implied surveillance, and they project a visually-dominant presence on the landscape. In the Sondondo Valley, Peru, the Wari empire made a significant investment of labor and resources in the construction of terraces, roads, and five imperial sites. The viewsheds of these sites are compared to those of 20 non-imperial sites, 495 randomly-placed individual sites, and 99 randomly-placed groups of five sites each. Parametric and non-parametric comparisons reject the null hypothesis that there is no difference between viewsheds. Imperial sites had significantly larger and better-coordinated viewsheds, as estimated from overlap and coverage indices. These results support the argu- ment that imperial agents' site-placement decisions considered the benefits of locations with large viewsheds. From these sites, the empire's representatives effectively advanced imperial goals for two and half centuries. Similar factors may have been salient in other imperial settings, so this approach may help explore site-placement decisions in other regions.

Throughout time, cultures have manipulated the landscape for a variety of reasons, including the promotion of social control. One approach to facilitating this control is through omnipresent surveillance, known as a Panopticon design. Though the Panopticon is more commonly associated with structural design in industrial societies, the large earthen mounds constructed by prehistoric civilizations could have also played a role in maintaining social order. To explore the applicability of the Panopticon concept in a prehistoric context, visibility of the largest manmade earthen mound in the New World, Monks Mound, was modeled in a geographic information system. Results indicate that the terraces on the mound and the powerful individuals residing there would have been visible to most of the population, even when accounting for subsequent landscape modifications. This level of visibility would have projected an omnipresent threat of surveillance, possibly facilitating social order and cohesion among such a large population.

Abstract - The Rio Abajo region of central New Mexico has for centuries been a natural route for trade and the exchange of ideas along the Rio Grande.  The natural corridor for travel has also historically been a route for advancing and retreating armies, notably during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and during the American Civil War.  It can be reasoned that the area benefitted and suffered from similar trade prehistorically.
    Using Marshall and Walt's 1984 study as a guide in this study, over forty prehistoric sites were visited to verify their locations.  GIS viewshed analysis of fourteen Late Elmendorf phase sites (A.D. 1100-1300) and twenty-nine Glaze A sites (A.D. 1315-1425) in the area indicates that while partially a byproduct of the natural geography of the area, line-of-sight communication between the pueblos of each phase may have been a concern.  The defensive positioning of some sites in the area indicates that warfare may have been a concern in both periods, and the strategic locations of "citadels" during both periods may point toward a planned regional defense by the prehistoric inhabitants of the region spanning both time periods.

The European Bronze Age is often considered to have seen a dramatic increase in the exploitation of natural resources, maximisation of agricultural productivity and competition over trade routes, in order to facilitate a burgeoning prestige goods market. In Ireland, this can be linked with elite elements of ranked society and the construction of hillforts. These monuments were a central focus in the landscape and a symbol of an elite's power and authority. They may also have represented an elite's ability to trade high-status goods and as such, were essential in attracting traders. Therefore, it would have been essential to construct a hillfort in a prominent or strategic location. This interpretation is supported by the position of some hillforts overlooking distinct natural routeways. However, in situations where topographical variance is less defined, such as on escarpments or more open landscapes, it is difficult to define whether a monument is 'strategically' placed or 'prominent' in the landscape, and the use of these terms become subjective. In this regard, the use of cumulative viewshed analysis can help to quantitatively define the locational element of a hillfort. The examples described in this paper suggest that some hillforts were deliberately positioned in the most prominent parts of their respective regions, reflecting an innate knowledge of the local landscape and implying prominence was a key characteristic that influenced the location of a site.

Long-term changes in visibility patterns between urban settlements are considered an important factor for understanding Iberian settlement locations in Southern Spain. From some settlements the surrounding landscape and other settlements could be visually controlled, and some settlements are argued to be inter-visible to allow for communication through visual signals. However, the study of how these visibility patterns changed in the subsequent Roman period in this region is largely ignored.
In this paper, we argue that visibility might still have structured interactions between communities in Roman times and should not be dismissed out of hand merely because more and other data sources are available as compared to the Iron Age. However, the way in which it affected human behaviour might have been different in Roman times as compared to the Iron Age. We argue that simulating archaeologists’ hypotheses about the emergence of inter-settlement visibility is a promising way of understanding such differences. To do this we use exponential random graph modelling (ERGM), a statistical network simulation modelling technique that allows us to simulate hypotheses about the emergence and long-term change of visibility networks. We combine this approach with an exploratory analysis of the observed visibility networks between identified urban settlements, which will reveal similarities and differences in the changing patterns of visibility networks through time. The results of the ERGMs are then compared with the changes in the observed network structure. We conclude that our knowledge of the changes from the Iberian to the Roman settlement pattern suggests only gradual changes in the role of visibility in structuring inter-settlement interactions, possibly followed by a disintegration of the visibility network after the Roman Early Imperial period.

Paper for the conference “Olkas. From Aegean to the Black Sea. Medieval Ports in the Maritime Routes of the East”, Thessalonike, December 2013 (cf. http://www.olkas.net/com/9_Conference) .

Published in: Medieval Ports in North Aegean and the Black Sea.
Links to the Maritime Routes of the East. International Symposium
Thessalonike, 4-6 December 2013. PROCEEDINGS. Edited by Flora Karagianni. Thessalonike 2013.

In 2012, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft granted funding to the major
collaborative research focus “Harbours from the Roman Period to the Middle Ages”
(SPP-1630) with the aim of interdisciplinary research on the phenomenon of the
“harbour”. One of these projects, “Ports and landing places at the Balkan coasts of
the Byzantine Empire (4th-12th century). Monuments and technology, economy and
communication”, focuses on the coastline from Dalmatia via the Aegean Sea to the
western Black Sea and the Danube delta. Based on an analysis of all available
sources and archaeological evidence, the aim is a complete survey of the coastal
towns, bays and estuaries documented in these regions for the period 300-1204 AD;
this should make possible differentiations with regard to the respective local significance
of harbours for regional communication as well as for long-distance trade.
The project will use the well-established methodological toolkit of the Tabula
Imperii Byzantini for the survey of the historical and monumental evidence in order to
augment the data basis of the already existing volumes of the TIB. At the same time,
we intend to combine this information with digital geo-data both from published material
(in print and online) as well as from own exploring voyages in the region; on
this basis, modern tools of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) can be used for
the analysis of maritime sites and transport systems. The aim of the present paper is
a demonstration of the explanatory value of instruments of GIS as well as of network
analysis on various levels for research on maritime sites, regions and networks with
three short case studies in order to illustrate the potential of our approach within
Byzantine maritime studies. These three case studies have been selected from regions
within the modern borders of Greece (respectively beyond for the last one),
which is the area of responsibility of the author of this paper in the above mentioned
project.

Roman watchtowers were erected at strategic points
along the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Various
functions have been attributed to such towers. One of
these functions was the transmission of messages or
communications. These would have been relayed by
optical signals. It is therefore assumed that sight-lines
existed between watchtowers. This paper discusses
the extent to which the existence of such visual relationships
may have played a role in the location of
watchtowers, on the basis of a landscape archaeology
case study. The selected study area includes a section
of the Lower Austrian “Danube Limes” near Mautern,
where several burgi were discovered on the south
bank of the Danube River, west of the fort at Favianis.
Visual field evaluations based on a digital terrain
model (DTM) spatially analyze the visual relationship
between burgi, as well as between them and the fort,
in a Geographic Information System (GIS).

The present paper analyses a cluster of five Getic fortresses in the area of Cotnari (Iași County, Romania). The most important is the one of Cotnari - „Cătălina”, covering a total surface of about 70 ha. All other forts are in its view shed. The cluster of forts represents a defensive system built at the contact between the hilly woodlands of the Moldavian Plateau with the Jijia plains. The diggings of 1970 and more recent geomagnetic scans show that the fortress of Cotnari was not intensely inhabited. Its purpose was to serve as a refuge for the neighboring populations.

"Although the megalithic phenomenon in southern Iberia has been studied since the mid-nineteenth century, little attention has been paid to the role that megalithic structures played in the organization of prehistoric landscapes. Just as in other areas of Europe, however, southern Iberian megalithic structures must have played complex roles in the social organization of landscapes that go far beyond their use as funerary containers. Using examples from our work in southern Iberia, we employ GIS-based spatial analysis to explore for the first time various aspects of the landscape dimension of these monuments. We discuss three case-studies for which fresh field data have been recently made available. In the first (Almadén de la Plata) we find patterns of association between medieval transhumance routes and megaliths, and we use cost-surface modelling to suggest that medieval routes may reflect earlier, prehistoric patterns of movement which in turn suggest that megalithic structures functioned in this area as waypoints within an emerging mobility system for people and livestock. In the second case (Aroche) we show correlations between the locations of megaliths and theoretical territories defined by isochrones and contrast this pattern with the distribution of nonmegalithic funerary sites of the Early Bronze Age, concluding that the spatial distribution of megaliths in this region may relate to their role as landmarks. Lastly we describe a far more specific relationship which we have encountered in the Antequera region, where we believe we have identified a relationship between the orientation of the megalithic structure of Menga, a prominent natural feature and several newly discovered prehistoric sites. Together, these three examples suggest that the current focus on typology, chronology and contents in the study of Iberian megaliths needs to be matched with efforts to identify and interpret the often highly complex structure of the prehistoric landscapes of which they form an integral part."

ENGLISH: "Movement is an intrinsic activity to the human being, whose execution is necessary to carry out any task in daily life. Due to its relevance, movement patterns are important not only for the cognitive, cultural, social, economic or political impact that they entail, but also because they are of great value to understand diverse problems such as the construction of identities, the definition of territories, technological exchange or the development of processes of social complexity. In this article, GIS tools are used to analyze the possible dynamics and movement patterns of the societies of the Late Prehistory of Western Sierra Morena (provinces of Huelva and Seville, SW Spain) and their landscape implications. Among the topics discussed are the variables and factors that influenced the design and layout of the road networks, the degree of continuity and the diachrony that these roads met, the archaeological evidence that remained of the landscape and the main material elements that could have served as an aid to terrestrial navigation."
SPANISH: "El movimiento es una actividad intrínseca al ser humano, cuya ejecución es necesaria para llevar a cabo cualquier tarea en la vida cotidiana. Debido a su relevancia, los patrones de movimiento de una sociedad son importantes no solamente por el impacto cognitivo, cultural, social, económico o político que conllevan, sino también porque son de gran valor para entender problemas diversos como la construcción de identidades, la definición de territorios, el intercambio tecnológico o el desarrollo de procesos de complejidad social. En este artículo se utilizan herramientas SIG  para analizar las posibles dinámicas y patrones de movimiento de las sociedades de la Prehistoria Reciente de Sierra Morena Occidental (provincias de Huelva y Sevilla) y sus implicaciones paisajísticas. Entre los temas tratados se encuentran las variables y los factores que influyeron en el diseño y trazado de las redes camineras, el grado de continuidad y la diacronía que dichos caminos conocieron, la evidencia arqueológica que de ello quedó en clave paisajística y los principales elementos materiales que pudieron servir como  ayuda a la navegación terrestre."

The ballgame, played in an open-air public facility, was an integral institution for most major Mesoamerican centers. Although its social roles likely included political and social mediation among polities or communities, who could witness a game? Our estimates of the numbers of viewers derive from lines of sight toward the playing alley from nearby construction and plazas or other open ground. Focusing on centers in south-central and southern Veracruz, Mexico, we assess court viewership relative to people accommodated in the main plaza to determine the degree to which prime ballgame viewership was restricted. Ratios of prime viewers to plaza capacities for primary and secondary centers show that relative limitations in viewership did not covary consistently with the settlement hierarchy. We show that viewership was markedly curtailed compared to public assembly space in plazas and likely favored the upper echelons of society. El juego de pelota fue una institución característica de la mayoría de los centros arquitectónicos mesoamericanos y se juego en una cancha pública al aire libre. Si bien las funciones sociales del juego incluían mediación política y social entre grupos y comunidades, ¿quiénes pudieron presenciar un juego? Nuestras estimaciones de la cantidad de espectadores del análisis de líneas visuales hacia la cancha desde los edificios ubicados en sus inmediaciones, plazas u otros espacios abiertos adjuntos. Centrándonos en los sitios principales en el centro-sur y sur de Veracruz, México, evaluamos el número posible de espectadores con vista a la cancha en relación con la cantidad de personas que podían caber en la plaza mayor, con el fin de establecer qué tan limitada fue la observación directa de un juego de pelota. La proporción entre el número de espectadores con vista directa y la capacidad de la plaza mayor en los centros de primer y segundo rango indica que el grado relativo de limitación visual no variaba según la jerarquía de asentamientos. El número máximo de espectadores con vista directa de un juego fue mucho menor que la capacidad del espacio público para asambleas. Los juegos de pelota parecen haber favorecido las clases sociales altas.

Although different types of late prehistoric tombs are found in the western part of the province of Granada (Andalusia, Spain), they all have certain hypogean features. Even in the famous megalithic necropolis Las Peñas de los Gitanos (Montefrío), semi-hypogean characteristics are apparent in its deep foundations. In other cases, such as those of Zujaira (Pinos Puente) and Sierra Martilla (Loja), the hypogean character is more obvious. Additionally, visibility to and from tombs did not play an important role in tomb’s location, except in the case of Sierra Martilla, while hidden graves can be found in all of the necropolises, as visibility analysis using GIS indicates. A discussion of the true functions and monumentality of graves thus becomes necessary. We suggest that placement of most tombs is not based on territorial control, even if they are located in cultivation areas. The main function of funerary ritual may be related to avoiding the risks that visible differences in wealth and resource mobilization in funerals could potentially