Paper short abstract:

This paper presents preliminary thoughts on the potentials of spatial analysis methodologies for investigation of eremophilia (love of solitude or deserted places) as an embodied, socio-spatial phenomenon in early urbanism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper represents the preliminary stages of an investigation of changing relationships between 'individual' and 'community' in the context of early urbanism. A widely accepted view holds that urban life isolates or alienates the individual human being, but archaeological attempts to evaluate the validity of such a view in relation to early urban societies have been rare. Writings on solitude, particularly psychological and sociological works, have often presented it as a malady. To distinguish the solitude examined here from such a perceived ill, the term 'eremophilia' - love of solitude, or of deserted places - is used.

Application of a variety of methods of spatial analysis should enable the investigation of eremophilia as an embodied, socio-spatial phenomenon. Consideration of eremophilia as an aspect of human interaction with an urban world is likely to entail analysis on meso- and macro-spatial levels. While household worlds should not be forgotten, we cannot impose present-day cultural norms, together with ideas of progress and globalisation, upon the archaeological remains. Berdyaev's proposed correlation between humankind's 'expanding horizons' and the individual's increasing sense of isolation is illustrative of this, relying upon the assumption that 'living' in the past happened solely within household spheres, and only recently began to occur in 'the world' as a whole. It is proposed that, on the contrary, experiences of solitude are influenced to a greater degree by sensory stimuli, particularly those leading to awareness of activity outside one's control and beyond one's immediate surroundings, than by social factors.