Sensors with sense and sensibility. A critical approach about methods in geomátics and non-invasive archaeology

Abstract

Since its emergence, geomatics has radically transformed the analysis of the spatial component of the archaeological record. Far from being a “neutral” toolbox, as a technological product in itself it has shaped, based on very diverse theoretical assumptions, the way in which information is recorded, represented and analysed. This impact is especially evident in the case of so-called “non-invasive archaeology” (surface and geophysical survey, remote sensing) which works primarily at a landscape scale. However, the accelerated technological development and the overwhelming availability of geodata have had the perverse effect of replacing the integration of these resources within a methodological scheme with their uncritical use, giving priority to an assessment of technology as something beneficial in itself. In this paper we offer a critical review of how this process has developed over the last 30 years in Spanish archaeology. After that we will raise some problems and challenges of the present moment and their possible future evolution. It is argued as a main thesis that explanatory models at a paradigm scale and the historical questions that arise from them are the driving force that should drive decision-making about the procedures to be used, thus giving its fullest meaning to the concept of archaeological methodology.