ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact of critical thinking, consequences of aggregation vs. analysis platforms, temporal analysis, three-dimensional data presentation on historical questions and their theoretical underpinnings. Inherently, mapping platforms are designed to approach datasets along two main principles: data aggregation and data layering. Developments over time not only take place on a surface or plane but involve refigurations in all three dimensions, length X, width Y, and height or depth Z. Three-dimensional axes must therefore be integrated with the temporal axis T to make such datasets representative. Adding 3D information into cultural mapping projects is a vital next step forward. Digital cultural mapping, whether in 2D or 3D, is a powerful way to analyze or present information. It provides a heady combination of realized and potential research power. More importantly, at a fundamental level, digital cultural mapping is often used to display developments, for instance, through the inclusion of time sliders, which give users the option to display diachronic stages.
