GIS, critique, representation and beyond

Abstract

Geographical information systems (GIS) have been a part of archaeological research practices for over two decades, yet many significant questions related to the technology remain unanswered. Long-standing ambiguities about GIS use in archaeology can be associated with a particular research atmosphere within the discipline, where a large number of practitioners consider theory-laden critical approaches to GIS optional, if not peripheral, to conducting spatial analysis. This article calls on archaeological GIS practitioners to carry existing GIS theory and critique to another level. It also argues that the critique of the epistemological implications of GIS use in archaeology has largely (and at times rather implicitly) been structured by representational thinking habits and that a move to non-representational thinking would provide novel considerations of the technology.