Measuring the Mental – A Quantitative Approach to Mental Landscape Concepts in Prehistory

In the prehistoric archaeology dealing with metaphysical subjects like the mental construction of the landscape is problematic as forasmuch as the primary sources are very limited, or respectively seem to be very limited. Not least because of this apparent lack of source, but also for the reason of research tradition, the application of empirical methods to cognitive matters is relatively scarce. In the course of the post-processual archaeology the quantitative methods are routinely abstracted away from questions dealing with mental concepts, even harshly criticized, and phenomenological approaches are favoured instead. This paper deals with a methodical-theoretical aspect of prehistoric mental landscape structuring using the Bronze Age landscape as example, stressing its material dimension and hence its quantitative potential for empirical analysis. It is a sketch of ideas and a suggestion of concrete possibilities toward bridging the boundaries of paradigms and toward combining quantitative methods and metaphysical subjects in prehistoric archaeology.