Geospatial Analysis of Areal (Polygonal) Units: Applications at the Site Level

Summary

Currently, and for the first time in the age of GIS, there is a growing resurgence of interest in intra-site level spatial analysis. Many studies focusing on the application of GIS technology to site level phenomena focus, either explicitly or implicitly, on the analysis of fine resolution datasets. Realistically, however, few archaeological data are recorded as sub-centimeter points. The majority of archaeological data tends to be recorded at the resolution of the 1x1 or 2x2 meter excavation unit. These data are best considered as areal units; however, doing so presents a number of problems both technically and statistically.

This poster will present results of the recent application of GIS-based intra-site spatial analysis using areal units to the pre-2014 chipped stone assemblage of 'Ais Giorkis, Cyprus. 'Ais Giorkis is an Early Aceramic Neolithic site (c. 9.5 kya) located in the western foothills of Cyprus’ Troodos Mountains that has produced a chipped stone assemblage exceeding 250,000 pieces. This assemblage was recorded at a variable resolution, generally lower than 2x2 meters making it an excellent test case for lower resolution applications of GIS-based spatial analysis. This poster demonstrates several successfully answered questions using areal data at the site level.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage