Archaeologies of Space: an inquiry into modes of existence of Xscapes

This text will deal with space, an important issue in human research, as it is a core element in human experience and society, inherent to the very possibility of reality. It tries to overcome the fact that, as a concept, it has not been properly appraised in archaeology, despite its importance. This proposal is based on the principle that actively engaged with the material world, there is a certain way of shaping space that underlies human action and its materialization, making it possible to produce order. A spatial form is never independent of the systems of representations that appear to monitor it, something that I will call the “concept of space”. My aim is to study it through the objectification of concepts of space in material culture, by means of an interpretive and symmetrical approach to archaeological phenomena,

which are characterized by presenting a meaningful and visible spatial articulation. This is the case of the first funerary and ceremonial monuments, domestic architecture, rock art and fortifications, as well as early field-systems and land use. In other words, my concern (now and for the future) explores the forms of space through time to detect their spatial regularities, and from them the cognitive representations of space. This objective calls for a review of different socio-cultural contexts in order to examine whether or not they present correspondences (and which, how and why) between the different ways in which their space is materialised.