Modelling and Interpretation of the Communication Spaces of the 3rd and Early 2nd Millennium BC in Europe Using Diversity Gradients

Abstract

Assuming that it is possible to make inferences about the intensity of communication in a given region on the basis of the degree of diversity among archaeological data, a GIS-supported project was undertaken to model communication spaces for the 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Diversity calculations were made on the basis of the frequency of various types of copper and these results were combined with biogeographic data in a model in which the cost of crossing the landscape was also taken into account. A Europe-wide random sample of chemically analysed copper artefacts allows the reliable, unified evaluation of different regions and thus forms the basis for a prototype model capable of evaluating European landscapes in the Aeneolithics and Early Bronze Age as interaction and communication spaces.