ABSTRACT
In this chapter we present some thoughts on the development of ‘spatial archaeology’ more generally and why we think it is fundamental to much of what we do as practicing archaeologists. Specifically, we consider the centrality of space to everyday life and archaeology as a discipline, and lay out some of the relations that archaeological space finds itself entangled with, such as time, practice and representation. Following this, we offer a brief historical overview of the development of spatial analysis in archaeology. This is then followed by a consideration of why concepts of space and spatiality underlie much archaeological thought, what can be called ‘spatial thinking’ in archaeology, and how this relates to what is understood by ‘spatial analysis’. The chapter concludes with a careful consideration of what it means to think spatially in order to foreground the goal of the volume as a whole, which is to make a positive contribution to the on-going development of archaeological spatial literacy at a time of significant theoretical and methodological transformation.
