Silvia GĂłmez Senovilla

Research areas and topics

Research Focus:

Settlements and space in the Near East and Egypt during the Bronze Age

Interest in Synthesis

My PhD research analyses ancient settlement pattern distribution and its evolution during the Early Bronze Age II-IV and the Middle Bronze Age (c. 2700-1500 BC) in Egypt and the Near East, including north Syria, eastern Anatolia, modern Lebanon and the territories of historical Palestina. By utilising an approach that combines methodologies in Digital Humanities with historical analysis, it studies domestic space to serve the broader purpose of analysing the structural, connective and configurational properties of a general space, and elucidate if this is a reflection of cultural diversity in population.

These values enrich the study of the structuration of space. As it is known, the grade of permeability of buildings and an analysis of the street and road systems can be critical to recognise if space is privately or publicly used, and how that use changes over time. These questions are appropriate when analysing the way spatial patterns affect human behaviour, or how a particular power used space to constrain certain attitudes. I am interested in combining statistical analysis such as aoristic weighting -for the periods the data are scarce due to flimsinness of the excavation processes- and GIS and spatial tools in order to try to elucidate the patterns of change for each settlement, focusing in its configuration and evolution.

 

Collaboration Interests

I would be interested to connect with fellow archaeologist and egyptologists, but of course with researchers coming from the fields of anthropology and social sciences as well as digital humanities and spatial analysis.

In recent years, quantitative tools have questioned traditional interpretations in the Humanities, especially within social studies. Their utility in challenging the established narratives has already been explored in a few subject areas as Mesoamerican or ancient Greek and Roman archaeology but its use is still in its infancy in Egyptology, besides counted exceptions.