Testing the validity of network analysis results in research on local transport networks
Mark Groenhuijzen, Philip Verhagen
Abstract Computational archaeology provides valuable tools for the reconstruction and analysis of transport networks. One such approach is a combination of a network constructed using least-cost paths and network analysis (Verhagen et al., 2014; Groenhuijzen and Verhagen, 2015), which can potentially provide valuable information regarding settlement location choice, site hierarchy, the role of settlements in transport networks and so on. However, testing the validity of the network analysis results and the archaeological interpretation thereof has so far been largely neglected. One of the key questions is thus: how reliant are the results of network analysis and their interpretation on nuances and uncertainties in the methodology and the dataset? This paper aims to test the robustness of network analysis results by measuring and analysing the development of local network statistics in randomly emerging transport networks. It is applied on a case study involving the Dutch part of the Roman limes, an area which is particularly interesting for research on local transport networks in the light of social and economic relations between the local rural population and the Roman military population, and an area for which a large amount of archaeological and palaeogeographical data is available.
Groenhuijzen, M. R., and P. Verhagen. 2015. “Exploring the dynamics of transport in the Dutch limes.” eTopoi Journal for Ancient Studies Special Volume 4: 25-47. Verhagen, P., T. Brughmans, L. Nuninger, and F. Bertoncello. 2014. “The Long and Winding Road: Combining Least Cost Paths and Network Analysis Techniques for Settlement Location Analysis and Predictive Modelling.” In CAA2012. Proceedings of the 40th Conference in Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology, Southampton, United Kingdom, 26-30 March 2012, edited by G. Earl, T. Sly, A. Chrysanthi, P. Murrieta-Flores, C. Papadopoulos, I. Romanowska, and D. Wheatley, 357–366. Amsterdam: Pallas Publications.
