A 3D Landscape Analysis of Stelae Visibility at Copan, Honduras

Summary

From the early 5th to early 9th centuries, a dynasty of sixteen kings ruled at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. In the mid-7thth century, Chan Imix K'awiil or Ruler 12, is believed to be the first of Copan’s rulers to erect stelae outside the city’s main civic-ceremonial group. Why did he do this? Did these stelae exist as solar markers? Did they serve as territorial markers? Or, were they part of a communication system? Scholars have set forth these and other hypotheses, to explain the purpose of the valley stelae. In this paper, we use traditional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the MayaArch3D WebGIS to perform visibility studies using GNSS GPS data of the stelae and terrain modeled from airborne LiDAR data. We then evaluate our results using additional archaeological and iconographic data in relation to existing hypotheses and explore new potential interpretations for the placement of these stelae in the Copan Valley.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• MayaArch3D: Building a 3DWebGIS Documentation and Analysis System for Complex Archaeological Sites   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage