Exploring past mobility processes Ontological reasoning based on knowledge of socio-cultural practices and archaeological remains

In this article we propose an original approach designed by archaeologists and a computer scientist for knowledge creation in studies of movement. Using case studies, we analyze how researchers have identified, conceptualized, and linked the material traces describing various movement processes in a given region. Then, we explain how we construct ontologies that enable us to explicitly relate material elements, identified in the observed landscape, to the knowledge or theory that explains their role and relationships within the movement process. Combining formal pathway systems, so-called "Path framework systems" and informal movement systems, so-called "Pathway systems", through these case studies, we argue that these systems are not hierarchically integrated, but rather intertwined. We introduce a new heuristic tool, named the "track graph", that records observed material features in a thematically neutral form. The "track graph" can then be employed to reconstruct the trajectories of journeys which follow different movement logics.