Gis (Other Keyword)
51-75 (275 Records)
In the Andahuaylas region located in the southern central highlands of Peru, archaeologists have documented the presence of three critical cultural occupations: Wari, Chanka, and Inka (ca. AD 700-1400). Previous investigations claim that environmental change may have influenced collapse and played a decisive role in resettlement patterns. Using spatial data from 86 surveyed sites, this study investigates how state collapse, reorganization, and environmental transformations influenced settlement...
Dynamic Communities in Early Medieval Aquitaine: A GIS Analysis of Roman and Medieval Landscapes in the Vézère Valley, France (2016)
The transition from Roman to post-Roman Europe represents one of the sharpest breaks in the archaeological sequence of Europe. Over the past two decades, European archaeologists have increasingly argued for the necessity of a regional perspective to this transition. They argue against an interpretation that views the Roman-Medieval transition as a pan-European event, and instead, reframe the break as a series of localized events with independent chronologies and histories. Although...
The Earliest Catch: The Origins of Salmon Fishing in the Alaskan Interior (2015)
Ethnographic records indicate that salmon fishing was a primary activity for Athabaskan people living in Alaska’s interior. Evidence of fish use in antiquity is difficult to assess due to the highly degradable nature of delicate fish bones. Fishing in the archaeological record is identified by fishing tools in addition to faunal remains. This poster will discuss the antiquity of salmon fishing in Alaska's interior through a GIS-based comparison of anadromous fish streams and evidence of fishing...
An Early Archaic Melting Pot in the Southern Rocky Mountains: Early Holocene Mobility and Settlement Patterns in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado (2018)
In comparison to the Late Paleoindian Period (10,000-8,000 rcybp), the Early Archaic (8,000-6,500 rcybp) in the Gunnison Basin, Colorado is a poorly understood time because of its relatively light archaeological signature. Not only is the archaeological record more ephemeral, but we also see a change in technologies, such as projectile points types, in this transitional period. Some archaeologists explain these observations as a result of changing environments and shifting settlement processes...
Early cities or large villages?: settlement dynamics in the Trypillia group, Ukraine (2017)
During the 4th millennium BC a number of considerably big settlements have developed in the territory of modern Ukraine, thus constituting the biggest sites in Europe at that time. Mostly investigated only as single entities these "mega-sites" have never been considered thoroughly as part of the whole landscape of Trypillia settlements. Some scholars have argued that these could have been examples of early formed urban centres (aka "proto-cities"), others, instead, proposed that these were big...
Enter the Void: A GIS Analysis of the Visibility of Empty Spaces at Copan, Honduras (2015)
The concept of visibility: what or who is visible and who can see what, provides archaeologists with information about power, ideology, and interaction. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow us to quantify the visibility of archaeological features in landscapes and 3D visualizations and gives us a way to experience these past landscapes. In Maya archaeology, most visibility studies measure the visibility of monuments as a means to understand the role of architecture within ancient Maya...
The Epiclassic outside of the Basin: Measuring Population and Settlement Dynamics in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Central Mexico after Teotihuacan: Everyday Life and the (Re)Making of Epiclassic Communities" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Shared characteristics between settlements create the archaeological classification of the "Epiclassic" in central Mexico. These characteristics include rise in militarism, increase in long-distance networks, the upswing in regional centers vying for power, and a boost in art, architecture, and...
Establishing Community: Post-Civil War Placemaking in Rural Tennessee (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Working on the 19th-Century" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In the 1860s, African Americans sought to create separate physical spaces and cultural institutions of their own, specifically churches, cemeteries, and schools. Tennessee State Historian Dr. Carroll Van West has hypothesized that the nexus of these institutions, as well as fraternal lodges and businesses, was the basis for early African American community...
An Examination of Spatial Relationships using GIS data from the Basketmaker Communities Project (2015)
The Basketmaker Communities Project (BCP) is a multiyear investigation by Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado of one of the largest Basketmaker III communities known in the central Mesa Verde region. This paper examines a combination of artifact, architectural, and spatial information from 97 sites collected by Woods Canyon Archaeological Consultants and Crow Canyon Archaeological Research Center. By using ESRI’s GIS software to analyze (BCP) data this study applies...
An Examination of the Spatial Distribution of the Tissue Fragments created during an Explosive Event (2016)
In the field of forensic science, the investigation that follows an explosive attack is one of extreme importance. There are, however, few universally accepted methods for the location and recovery of human remains after an explosion, especial in the cases of an IED or suicide bomb attack. This explains the paucity of available research and guidance on the subject. The research presented here aims to improve practice both in terms of recovery of the victims and in determining the characteristics...
Exploring fire use at Sibudu Cave using the kernel density tool in ArcGIS (2015)
This project utilized Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in an attempt to better understand fire use at the Middle Stone Age site of Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Our project focused on the Howiesons Poort deposits (HP; ~65-62 ka). Hand drawn maps of layers/features were digitized by S. Bentsen; these maps were combined with faunal data from each feature and 50 x50 cm quadrant. Using the kernel density tool, density maps were created which allowed for an assessment of the relationship of calcined...
Exploring Land Usage at Tannehill State Park: Giving Artifacts a Context through Watershed Mapping (2015)
Tannehill Historical State Park encompasses a resource rich environment that has supported human settlement for thousands of years. Dozens of possible sites have been identified across the park’s landscape, but few are thoroughly investigated, leaving a gap in current understanding of settlement patterns and land usage in prehistoric times. Josselyn Site 2G, a large surface collection, is one site where little is known. It holds projectile points indicative of the Middle Archaic, Late Archaic,...
EXPLORING PHOTOGRAMMERY AND AERIAL ARCHAEOLOGY FOR INNOVATIVE MAPPING AND SURVEYING AT HEART MOUNTAIN, WYOMING (2017)
Heart Mountain is an impressive geological anomaly visible across the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming. This unusual-shaped butte stands out among the many mountain ranges and basins in this part of the state. Identified on the earliest fur trapper maps, Heart Mountain has served as a recognizable landmark for centuries. The Crow (or Apsaalooké) tell stories of vision questing, buffalo hunting, camping, traveling, and fighting at Heart Mountain, and it was part of their reservation in 1868....
Exploring the Environmental Conditions of 17th Century Spanish Ranches in New Mexico (2016)
In the early 17th century Spanish colonists came to New Mexico seeking agricultural opportunities to gain wealth and status. Obtaining access to environmental resources proved to be difficult due to a harsh climate and a large population of indigenous people occupying the best agricultural land. Little is known about the colonists that settled on the rural landscapes\ since nearly all documentary evidence and structural evidence was destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and few archaeological...
Exploring the relationship between coastal geomorphic processes and archaeological site distributions in central Puget Sound of Washington State (2015)
Although the uneven distribution of precontact archaeological sites along the Puget Sound shoreline is widely recognized, limited research has been undertaken to systematically consider how this pattern may relate to local anthropogenic and geomorphic factors. In this study, we consider archaeological site distributions through the lens of shoreline geomorphology and discuss possible reasons for any observed relationships. Using publically available drift cell data, we categorized the shoreline...
A Fabric and Spatial Analyses of the Artifacts Recovered from the Ryan-Harley Paleoindian Site (8JE1004) in North Florida (2018)
The Ryan-Harley site (8JE1004) is a Suwannee point site located in North Florida along the Wacissa River. Ryan-Harley is significant because it is the only archaeological site in the Southeast United States where diagnostic Suwannee material has been recovered in-situ within a discrete geological layer through extensive excavations. A broad faunal assemblage interpreted as dietary remains was also recovered from the same stratigraphic layer as the Suwannee material. Taxa identified include...
The fish of Fort Morris: A GIS-based study of human-environment interaction during the American Revolutionary War (2017)
Situated at the mouth of the Medway River in coastal Georgia, Fort Morris provided protection for the bustling port city of Sunbury. During the Revolutionary War the fort was first controlled by American forces and later by the British, and while the fort’s history is well-known in local lore archaeological analyses are shedding new light on everyday life at the site. This paper draws on the identification of fish bones to provide an inventory of the fish taxa consumed by soldiers at the fort on...
Formation and Transformation of Communities in Prehistoric Khorasan (2017)
This paper evaluates the previously proposed sequence of transformations in prehistoric social organization in Northeastern Iran (Khorasan) using geospatial analysis of settlement distributions. The proposed sequence begins with agricultural villages during the Neolithic and Early Chalcolithic, transitions to craft-producing towns during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, culminates in a process of proto-urbanization and the emergence of state-like structures during the Middle Bronze...
Fortified lookouts and border patrol in the Late Intermediate Period Colca Valley, Peru (2015)
During the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1450), the Colca Valley in the southern Peruvian highlands was heavily fortified. Survey of hilltop fortifications (pukaras) identified a class of large non-habitational pukaras located along the rim of the valley that were perhaps designed to monitor the vast expanses of puna surrounding the valley. Additionally, a prehispanic road which leads into the valley from the south passes through a primary defensive wall at one of the sites—further...
From Freetown to the City Up North: Mapping Rural to Urban Migration in Early Twentieth Century Austin, Texas (2018)
The mobility patterns of rural black southerners who relocated to southern cities during the early 1900s is an often-overlooked topic in discussions of early twentieth century rural to urban migration. Using geographic information systems (GIS) software to map and analyze census records, city directories, and other historical documents, this paper presents a micro-level case study of the migration and settlement patterns of former residents from Antioch Colony, Texas between the years of 1900...
From Maps to Lives: Participatory Archaeology and the Fate of the Amazon in the Digital Age. (2016)
The collaborative turn in archaeology has had important impacts on Amazonian research over the past several decades. It uses participatory research strategies and public archaeology to promote inclusive research partnerships. One aspect of collaboration that is still seldom addressed is the use of digital technology in archaeological analysis and dissemination. The Xingu project, which included local digital documentation and video and a long-standing project of archaeological GPS mapping and...
From Plain Wares to Polychromes: A Geospatial Evaluation of Ceramics in the Casas Grandes Region (2017)
The past twenty-five years have seen a significant increase in archaeological fieldwork in the Casas Grandes region of Chihuahua, Mexico. Among significant issues in Casas Grandes archaeology is the relationship between sites close to Paquimé and those in its borderlands. Investigations into ceramic distributions across the landscape have the potential to provide a greater understanding of the relationship between sites and their relationship to Paquimé. In this study, we reexamine Carpenter’s...
From the Empirical to the Conjectural: Using Spatial Analysis to Determine Population Settlement Patterns on the Uncharted Mesa Verde Landform (2016)
A consistent issue that arises in archaeological studies is the absence of a complete set of data on which to perform analyses. Data may be unavailable for a variety of reasons, but its absence often inhibits complete understanding of a population in a defined area. In southwestern Colorado, survey coverage on the Mesa Verde landform is limited to the extent of Mesa Verde National Park, and therefore settlement studies are limited to less than one third of the prominent landform. To fully...
Gardens and Forking Paths: A Genealogy of Landscape and Subject Formation in the Zaña Valley, Peru (2015)
Recent archaeological research has called attention to the performative dimensions of imperial built environments, shedding new light on how regimes and subjects emerge (and persist) in acts of place-making, urban planning, and monumental construction. However, our focus on clarifying the semiotics of imperial architecture has drawn attention away from longer-term process of subjectification and elided the role that landscapes play within them. The study of landscapes in Peru's Zaña valley...
Geophysical investigations at the Bronze Age site of Békés 103 in Eastern Hungary (2016)
In archaeological research both non-invasive and weakly invasive methods are often employed without, or prior to, excavation. Surface collection, geophysical survey and shovel testing are the methods that have been employed at the site of Békés 103. Despite the difficulty imposed by the soil conditions and the nature of the targets themselves (cremation graves), geophysical measurements employing a variety of techniques (gradiometry, soil resistivity and electromagnetics) were applied in tandem...