Architecture in Negative: Mapping Social Space at Carrizales, Peru Using Low Altitude Aerial Photography and Photogrammetry

Summary

In the late 16th century CE, Spanish administrators and clergy sought to reconstitute indigenous Peruvian subjects by forcibly resettling them into planned towns called reducciones. Mapping domestic space in these new settlements (and those that preceded them) has been a crucial element of archaeological research that seeks to understand reduccion's impact on native households. However, on the Peruvian coast, where both late prehispanic and early colonial period domestic structures are dominated by highly perishable quincha (unburnt wattle and daub) constructions, the absence of standing architecture presents significant challenges to efficient mapping of settlement and household structure. Our research at the site of Carrizales has addressed these issues by employing several modes of data collection (pole- and kite-aerial-photography, as well as fixed wing UAVs) to generate microtopographic models of quincha wall foundation trenches and other "negative" impressions of architectural elements, allowing for robust reconstructions of how indigenous domestic space was reconfigured following the reducción process.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Ancient Architecture and Spatial Technology: A Global Perspective

Keywords

Spatial Coverage