Internet Archaeol. 16. Van Hove. Cost

3.3 Cost

Not only the qualitative yield but also the cost with regard to a usable area plays a significant role in subsequent effective land use. Similar to yield, cost is calculated on the basis of habitat structure and how people are attempting to utilise it at specific moments in time. Within GIS, cost can be assessed by performing a cost-surface analysis. This necessitates the creation of a friction surface, which reflects a well-chosen and plausible assumption of the cost involved in traversing a particular terrain (van Leusen 1999, 215-18). It is important to note that cost-surface analyses based on environmentally influenced friction surfaces only are not always representative of real-world situations. Even if the environment constrains human activity heavily, social, cultural and religious perceptions of particular zones can determine their final integration within human society and their subsequent use. This is because a perceived distance is very different from a geographical distance, just as a perceived cost does not necessarily coincide with a geographical cost. Human values are so much more than just passive by-products of environmental pressures and are as important, if not more so, compared with ecological data when looking at an economic situation (Jensen 2003, 182). Wheatley and Gillings (2002, 155) emphasised that there is more to cost surfaces than merely slope and energy expenditure on a physical basis, as patterns of movements within landscapes are influenced by symbolic resources too. Areas defined as wild, belonging to other groups, associated with burial, ritual or female exclusion are associated with cost on different levels. The concept of 'human cost' can thus involve material and socio-cultural elements. This is of importance when evaluating the chosen land-use plots resulting from the GIS simulations.