Remote Sensing/Geophysics (Other Keyword)
151-175 (289 Records)
Over the last four years, the Midwest Archeological Center has been conducting a project designed to gather information on mound and earthwork preservation across the Midwest Region of the National Park Service. St. Croix National Scenic Riverway in eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin, is one of several parks included in the study. The St. Croix and Namekagon river valleys are home to mounds and earthworks of a variety of shapes and sizes. Some have been dated to the Late Woodland period...
Loyalhanna Lake: A Geoarchaeological Approach to Understanding the Archaeological Potential of Floodplains (2018)
Unlike uplands, floodplains generally yield stratified deposits that may include deeply buried landscapes and archaeological sites. Most state specifications for cultural resources surveys require floodplains to be geomorphically evaluated in order to identify buried landscapes. This is most frequently accomplished via trenching, an effective, but timely, costly, and sometimes destructive method. This project reports on an alternative technique utilizing a multi-proxy methodology coupling...
Lyobaa Project: Results of Subsoil Geophysical Study in the Ancient Zapotec Monuments of Mitla, Oaxaca (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Bringing the Past to Life, Part 1: Papers in Honor of John M. D. Pohl" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper presents the methodology employed, as well as the results obtained from the geophysical research conducted in the archaeological site of Mitla, Oaxaca, during the 2022 season of the Lyobaa Project. In this project, noninvasive geophysical techniques, such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electrical...
Machine Learning Applications with Lidar to Predict Locations of Natural and Cultural Features in the Maya Lowlands (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This project entails creating machine learning models to predict the locations of caves and archaeological features using airborne Lidar (laser scanning) data. The goal of this work is to bridge the gap between machine learning pursued by computer scientists and the types of on-the-ground projects of interest to scientists who seek to improve management and...
The Magnetic View of a Princely Landscape (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Hallstatt period hilltop settlement at Mont Lassois and its environs have been the focus of archaeological interest ever since the discovery of the famous princely grave of the "Dame de Vix" in 1953. Several excavations as well as aerial and geophysical prospections have since explored the sites on top and around the...
Magnetometer Surveys and the Complex Prehistoric Landscape of Poverty Point, Louisiana (2018)
Poverty Point, Louisiana, is well-known for its massive architecture that includes earthen mounds and six semi-circular ridges. Geophysical surveys conducted over the past decade have revealed that the subsurface of this deposit also contains a large, extensive and diverse set of artificially constructed features. In addition, remote sensing demonstrates that features that have been often described as singular constructions are actually a palimpsest of overlapping depositional events. Here, we...
Magnetometry Survey at the Mann Site: A Rich New Dataset on Hopewell Ceremonialism (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Mann site in southwest Indiana is one of the largest Hopewell ceremonial centers in the Midwest and also one of the least studied. The site, which was occupied between A.D. 200 and 500, consists of flat-topped, conical, and geometric earthworks, similar to those from Hopewell complexes in Ohio and elsewhere. The most...
Mapping Agricultural Terraces on the Copacabana Peninsula, Bolivia, Tsing Multispectral Satellite Imagery (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Copacabana Peninsula of Lake Titicaca, in modern Bolivia and Peru, is a landscape that has been heavily modified through the construction of stone terraces on the slopes facing the shores of Lake Titicaca and the intermontane valley systems. Previous research by the Yaya-Mama Archaeological Project has demonstrated that terrace construction began...
Mapping the Maya Hinterlands: A LiDAR-Derived Approach to Identify Small-Scale Features in Northwestern Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will discuss the processes and methods of relief visualization of LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM’s) and classification of secondary data to identify archaeological remains on the Maya landscape in northwestern Belize. The basis of the research explores various GIS and cartographic techniques to visualize topographical relief. Graphic...
Mapping the Younger Dryas Landscape of the San Dieguito Paleochannel (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Humans had established presence on California’s Channel Islands by the Younger Dryas (YD) Period (~12.9-11.7 ky BP), during which stable sea level was relatively stable for ~1 ky. No archaeological sites from this time have been identified on the nearby continental shelf, likely destroyed by subsequent rapid sea level rise, but submerged paleochannels...
Medieval Archaeology as Historical Archaeology, or Why Anthropological Archaeologists Should Take the European Middle Ages Seriously (2024)
This is an abstract from the "New Work in Medieval Archaeology, Part 2: Crossing Boundaries, Materialities, and Identities" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Though by strict definition the study of any literate society might be considered “historical archaeology,” in practice American historical archaeologists largely focus on the centuries after 1492—in other words, the archaeology of the modern world. But modernity was not immaculately conceived;...
Monte Alban’s Main Plaza: New Perspectives Gained Through Geophysical Prospection and Digital Mapping (2018)
Ongoing scholarly debate concerning the function, meaning, and history of Monte Albán’s Main Plaza have important ramifications for our understanding of sociopolitical, economic, and religious life at the Zapotec capital. Although previous investigations have targeted many of the buildings that surround the plaza, none have focused explicitly on the plaza itself. This paper presents the preliminary results of the Proyecto Geofísico de Monte Albán (PGMA), a non-invasive study of the entire Main...
Moving up in the World: Comparing Magnetic Gradiometer Survey Results from Monumental Sites Using Small, Medium, and Large Magnetometer Systems (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The problem with monumental earthwork sites in Ohio is that they are, well, monumental in scale! These large sites, many topping 50 ha in area, are a major challenge for geophysical surveys because they simply require too much time to completely survey. However, recent advances in instrumentation and computers is making it...
A Multi-instrument Geophysical Survey Comparing the Effects of Plowing on the Geophysical Signatures of a Precontact Earthwork in Perry County, Ohio (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ohio is home to a significant number of precontact period earthworks—mounds and enclosures—many of which have been affected by plowing to various degrees. While magnetometer surveys have produced remarkable images of earthwork ditches and embankments in the Middle Ohio Valley, few other instrument types have been employed. For this study, magnetometry,...
A Multi-instrument Geophysical Survey for the Identification of Preclassic Ritual Deposits at Cahal Pech, Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Preclassic (~1000 BC-AD 300) marked the appearance of increased socio-political integration and the emergence of inequality in the Maya lowlands. Over the course of the Preclassic, emerging elites invested in monumental construction projects and consolidated their ritual authority with ceremonial events, which occurred in large public plazas. As one of...
Multi-Method Geophysics in the Frank Church - River of No Return Wilderness, Idaho (2018)
The Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness in central Idaho contains numerous prehistoric archaeological sites being impacted by recreational use. Sites located along the wild and scenic portion of the Middle Fork Salmon River are especially at-risk because of the thousands of visitors who regularly camp along the river within sensitive site areas. Non-ground disturbing methods were needed to determine whether the sites retain sub-surface integrity. Eight sites have been investigated using...
A Multi-temporal Analysis of Archaeological Site Destruction Using Landsat Satellite Data and Machine Learning, Moche Valley, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The destruction of archaeological sites and the loss of archaeological landscapes remains a global concern as populations and urban areas continue to expand. Archaeological sites are not only significant to local communities, national identities, and modern tourist economies but also provide critical knowledge of past sociocultural interactions, settlement...
Multisensor Geophysical Survey of Monte Albán’s Main Plaza (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Monumental Surveys: New Insights from Landscape-Scale Geophysics" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. During the summer of 2017, we conducted a landscape-scale geophysical survey of the Main Plaza at Monte Albán, Oaxaca, Mexico. We obtained full coverage of the plaza with gradiometry, electrical resistance, and ground-penetrating radar and also generated a centimeter-level accuracy map using a drone and a robotic total...
Multispectral Satellite Imagery for Mapping, Modeling, and Interpreting the Archaeological Landscape of Bandafassi, Senegal (2018)
The Bandafassi Plateau of southeastern Senegal today defines a landscape in which ethnic identities (Bedik, Peul, and Malinke) appear to be grounded in "traditional" patterns of settlement and land use, and yet oral histories speak largely of movement at multiple scales—from the fission and fusion of villages, to the migrations of hunters and merchants, to the arrival of foreign invaders and colonial powers. Seeking to better chart the interplay between natural environment and social history...
Nalaquq / “It is found”: Collaborative Heritage Landscape Survey and Spatial Technology with Alaska Native Communities (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Collaborative and Community Archaeology" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the face of a rapidly changing climate, Alaska Native Yup'ik (pl. Yupiit) communities on the Bering Sea are increasingly empowered and motivated to protect their landscape heritage—facilitated in part by collaborative projects with outside institutions like the Quinhagak Archaeological Project (2009–present). In this paper we show how high...
Near-Surface Geophysics in Jicalán, Mexico (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Technological Transitions in Prehispanic and Colonial Metallurgy: Recent and Ongoing Research at the Archaeological Site of Jicalán Viejo, in Central Michoacán, West Mexico" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Near-surface geophysics has been widely used as a tool to determine the distribution of objects at depth with archaeological targets. To identify more specific objects, such as ovens and associated structures, the...
New Evidence for Poverty Point’s Complex Developmental History (2018)
Magnetic survey at Poverty Point reveals new information about ritual facilities, ridge construction and use, and a complex developmental history that included both planned and organic growth. Thirty-eight circles (diameters range from 8 to 66 m with a mean of 35 m) in the plaza are interpreted as ritual facilities. Targeted excavation in four circles encountered large postholes in three but the fourth consists of pits. Magnetic images suggest closely spaced postholes in many circles, possibly...
New Insights into Honduran Archaeology from the Recovery and Reanalysis of an Antique Lidar Dataset (2018)
In response to the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, the US Geological Survey conducted an extensive survey of 15 modern cities in Honduras. This 2000 survey was carried out by the Bureau of Economic Geology of the University of Texas, and the resultant data were used to generate flood risk maps. The survey also produced the first lidar data collection of a Maya site; however, in the early 2000s, lidar algorithms were not capable of performing the same tasks as today. The...
New Magnetic Gradient Survey Results from Two Intermediate-Sized Earthwork Clusters in Southern Ohio: Junction Group and Steel Earthworks (2018)
Ohio is home to hundreds of Woodland period (ca. 300 BC- AD 400) earthwork sites. Most contain mounds and ditch-and-embankment enclosures in geometric shapes. Site size and complexity varies widely, from small, lone circles (often surrounding a mound) in the Early Woodland to the mega-large Middle Woodland Newark Earthworks. How and why earthwork construction moved from small to massive are enduring questions yet to be solved. Recent magnetic survey in southern Ohio at two sites of moderate...
New Methods for Training Historic/Prehistoric Human Remains Detection Dogs (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Canine Resources for the Archaeologist" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Human remains detection dogs have been used with success to detect both historic and prehistoric human remains in various projects in the United States and Europe. However, success has often been marginal, as it is with “search and rescue” cadaver dogs. Three dogs have been trained at the forensic anthropology center at Texas State University on...