Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 51 (2023) 104155 Available online 6 August 2023 2352-409X/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Communication networks in archaeology: The case of Mycenaean Messenia George Malaperdas a, * , Apostolos Sarris b a Laboratory of Archaeometry, University of the Peloponnese, Old Campus, 24131, Kalamata, Greece b Sylvia Ioannou Chair on Digital Humanities, Digital Humanities GeoInformatics Lab, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus, Cyprus A R T I C L E INFO Keywords: Communication networks Archaeology Mycenaean Messenia Network analysis GIS ABSTRACT Scientists are regularly troubled with the way ancient societies communicated, interacted and functioned due to lack of written records. However, many of the artefacts and remains of material culture found along excavations suggest trading networks and communication exchanges among different settlements.Οften, the geographical location of a site and its analysis can provide further insight into such communication networks. The aim of this paper is to study the interconnectivity among the organized settlements of the Kingdom of Nestor, i.e. the modern area of the Messenian Prefecture (Bennet, 1999; Nakassis, 2013; Simpson & Dickinson, 1979; Simpson, 1981), and attempt to derive the movement pattern within the rural landscape of the region. This methodology could also be applied to other aspects of organized societies, enhancing our knowledge of the widely unknown Ancient Networks. Furthermore, the authors introduce an additional application of GIS beyond spatial imaging and prediction modeling. Mycenaean Messenia is examined in this paper for two main reasons. First, the Mycenaean period is one of the historical periods in Greece without extensive written documentation excepting a limited number of clay tablets, and offers no specifc testimonials of the functions of the residential complexes developed in the area. Second, based on the abundant number of settlements and burial sites found within the region, Messenia seems to have been a prominent and fourishing area during the Mycenaean period. 140 sites are examined in this study, a particularly large number when taking into consideration their archaeological signifcance. All the information was sourced the archaeological research that has been carried out in the area, as well as from the archives and catalogues of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia (Liko, 2012; Simpson & Dickinson, 1979; Simpson, 1981, Simpson, 2014). 1. Introduction Geospatial analyses are well-established and applied by archaeolo- gists for studies related to predictive models (Mehrer & Wescott, 2006; Malaperdas & Zacharias, 2018), the study of movement (Gupta & Dev- illers, 2016) and the study of the natural environment in relation to ancient settlements or ancient funeral monuments (De Reu et al, 2011). Among these analyses, Agent Based Theory and Network theory have been introduced in the archaeological domain to study among others communication, transport and networks of commerce and exchange with the landscape. Network theory is depicted in the sense that “a network is a junction of nodes that are connected by lines, which are called arcs. We assume that various materials can fow between the nodes and through the edges (from transport and distribution systems to transport and communication between nodes)” (Georgiou et al, 2015). A visual panorama between nodes (places of reference) and arcs (connecting lines) is used to represent the particular connectivity re- lations (Collar, et. al, 2015; Dederix, 2017; Peeples, 2019; Scholnick et al., 2013; Starosielski et al., 2013; Young et al., 2018; Malaperdas, 2022). 1.1. The urban network An urban network is defned as “a set of interdependent centers included in a spatial unit” (Aggelidis, 1994). This concept can be approached from a physical, operational and administrative point of view. It contains the concept of settlements through their dual dimen- sion, as natural entities but also as socio-economic nodes. Consequently, their spatial distribution, size, location and their socio-economic func- tion are the basic components of the defnition and organization of the urban network (Roidou, 2014). It is obvious that the settlements, small or large, develop different * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: envcart@yahoo.gr (G. Malaperdas), sarris.apostolos@ucy.ac.cy (A. Sarris). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jasrep https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.104155 Received 16 January 2023; Received in revised form 13 July 2023; Accepted 27 July 2023