Internet Archaeol. 16. Rajala. Research process

7.3 Research process

GIS has to be seen as a sensible and essential tool instead of being considered as creating a new theoretical world of its own (cf. section 3.2). In the same manner as statistics, GIS tests evidence that certain associations could have existed. Considering the pessimistic tone of some scholars and the bipolarised view of GIS, realistic and pragmatic points of view allow the construction of a positive theoretical background for any archaeological GIS studies. According to these philosophies, concerns and criticisms are a natural part of the hermeneutic spiral of a reflexive research process. The history of GIS studies is an example of such a spiral. Firstly, GIS was presented as an answer to all analytical problems and different research modules were used uncritically. Then, the understanding of the methods improved, and as a result, ecological determinism was condemned and phenomenological solutions were suggested. Now, using more philosophical arguments GIS can be used constructively to answer archaeological questions.

In order to use a method correctly, we have to review its place in the reflexive reasoning process and view it only as a means to a solution. GIS can be used to accumulate more knowledge of archaeological situations. It makes sense if a research process is justified by archaeological theory and the reliability of results is tested by the accumulation of new archaeological knowledge. Traditional archaeological explanations are only very rarely more complex than the results of simple GIS models. By bringing processual and post-processual thinking and scientific and humanistic aspects together, through an emphasis on philosophical realism, the GIS method can be fully embedded within archaeological reasoning. As Wheatley and Gillings (2002, 237) have noted 'an embedded, theoretically and archaeologically informed GIS will not only lead to much better archaeology but will also result in GIS-based studies making their own contribution to the development of archaeological theory and practice'.