Tomoyuki USAMI / Hiro’omi TSUMURA
(Graduate School of culture and information science, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan)
Abstract: The purpose of the study is to indicate an approach to spatial-temporal organization and the interaction with a series of Middle Age sites located in the Omani principal cities, and to interpret human behavior patterns in each society.
About 300 forts have now been identified with this project, some of which are World Heritage sites, are widely distributed throughout the surrounding sites and villages. Some of these structures are of simple design, such as watch towers, and some are much larger and designed to defend their community. The marine cities Muscat/Sohar, which had been the base of marine trade before the Age of Discovery, and the inland urban centers of Nizwa/Bahla are the target areas of this investigation.
First, through ground truthing remotely sensed imagery, some frameworks were suggested to classify the period, scales, and types of forts, and then we explore the time series changes in each spatial location, based on an analysis of a variety of environmental attribute values. Next, to consider interactions between these influences and human behavior, the models of the site-catchment and theoretical main routes based on a series of site allocations were developed. Finally, viewshed analysis was also applied to show the time series transition and cumulative effect of inter-visibility of forts.
As a result, it developed that the function of forts with the same rank has wide differences in each period and area. The tendency, on the whole, to accumulate visibility with the time series was identified in such circumstances. It is significant that the unit of common/uncommon landscape and living space was constructed with the concept of human movement and visibility, which is consistent with known epistemology, developing these issues based on the spatial organization of forts: 1) Where were they located? and 2) How they interact with each other in space?
Keywords: Fort, Human Movement, Inter-Visibility, Spatial-Temporal Organization