Abstract

Defining Natural Regions through Topographical Analysis in GIS
Track: Archaeology
Author(s): Daniel Lowenborg

This paper investigates the background of the territorial organisation in the Malaren Valley in central Sweden. The administrative units of the area that is known from late 13th century, the hundare (hundred), is shown to have been organised around a communication network. This is analysed as watersheds in a hydrological analysis of the topography using the tools of the Spatial Analysis extension of ArcMap. This new approach to analysing social territories based on the physical landscape explains some of the background to the development of the hundare, and highlights some aspects of their nature. The method, however, is argued to be a general method for understanding natural regions in pre-historic societies that could be valid globally provided that certain preconditions are met. Further examples of similarities between natural and cultural regions are given from Hawaii and the United Kingdom.

Daniel Lowenborg
Uppsala University
Box 626
Uppsala , Uppsala 751 26
Sweden
Phone: +46184711570
E-mail: Daniel.Lowenborg@arkeologi.uu.se