Gazed pottery: an archaeometric-cognitive approach to material culture visuality

Abstract

This paper presents a study of visual perception through the application of eye-tracking of prehistoric ceramics. The study is a feasible methodology to understand the agency of material culture through quantitative techniques, which allows for the analyses of possible relationships between visual-perceptual behaviour, material culture and social complexity. In particular, the horizontality of gaze is shown to be associated with pottery from early periods and its verticality increases in pottery materials from later, more complex societies. These, and other results, confirm that differential patterns of visual response by observers are determined by the material characteristics of each ceramic style. Implications for improved interpretation of archaeological phenomena are discussed including the possibilities of new applications for heritage management. Therefore, eye-tracking analysis appears to be a powerful and profitable archaeometric technique.