Abstract Deep mapping is a recent concept in the humanities that approaches the “thick descriptions” of place, i.e., the complexity of human interactions with space and the many narratives arising as a result. Sacred places are particularly suitable for deep mapping, as they triangulate space with the authority of the divine but also key moments in the lives of humans. With its embrace of the variety of dynamics of space, its multi-vocality and temporal depth, and the fuzziness of data, this approach has much to offer for the ancient world, but until now has rarely been applied. In this article, we discuss deep mapping as a holistic approach and its use with archaeological and historical data. We apply the concept to the sanctuary of Asklepios near Pergamon (in western Turkey). After examining its long history as a central sacred place for over 700 years, we then discuss our implementation of GIS and especially the transformation of the mass of data – archaeological, epigraphic, literary – from the sanctuary into information layers (shapefiles) for GIS. At the core of this article are the deliberations and decisions taken to structure the data for the GIS, but also in presenting it via story maps, as a public outreach tool, with a reflection on the entire process at the end.
Christina Williamson (Wed,) studied this question.