A multidirectional model for studying mobility affordance of past landscapes

Abstract

This paper presents an approach to modeling human mobility across regional landscapes that considers all possible directions of travel in order to generate a continuous surface of movement probability. The approach improves upon models of human movement that rely on calculating travel costs between discrete points on the landscape by providing a way to examine how landscape features shape the potential for movement. I show how this method can be used to examine questions of mobility affordance, and the consequences for understanding how humans experienced past landscapes. To demonstrate the usefulness of this approach, I apply the methodology to examine the use of hilltop fortifications for controlling mobility during the Late Intermediate Period (1000–1450 CE) in the Colca Valley of the southern Peruvian highlands.