Beyond GIS : the archaeology of social spaces

The growing use and increasing sophistication of GIS methods to manage archaeological data is not related to an increase in use diversity. After two decades on a trial basis, we evaluate in this paper the current ability of Spanish Archaeological GIS applications to meet the expectations placed upon them, especially concerning their role on archaeological method and theory. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we summarize the main trends in Spanish GIS-based applications over the last years using a sample of the most recent bibliography. Next, we critically examine and evaluate the inherent shortcomings of some existing GIS applications, and finally we review different underlying conceptions of space in GIS projects and propose how such a software can be integrated into a proper theory of social spac