Revealing and modelling geographical knowledge of ancient societies

Abstract

To what degree is geographical knowledge reflected in material remains, how we can investigate it, and is it adequate to map material remains as a category of past people’s geographical knowledge? These questions hold the strongest importance for geosophy. This paper argues that spatial knowledge - namely knowledge represented in spatial structures - is a manifestation of social knowledge up to a certain level, and material remains enable discovering spatial structures. We can reveal and model spatial knowledge of the past using landscape archaeological methods, although there are certain limitations. Spatial knowledge is reflected by material remains but the material remains may be under-determined or biased. This paper discusses the meaning of space, the different kinds of space, and spatial knowledge, turns to modelling as an important research tool and presents different kinds of spatial knowledge, namely topological, metrical, and structural knowledge.