Taking High Tech Back to Basics: GIS and the Three Dimensions of Archaeology

Summary

In many ways, the Willey and Phillips’s (1958) Method and Theory in American Archaeology still sets the parameters of how we conceptualize the units of North American archaeological classification. The authors defined three types of units, in theory independently based on time, space, and material content. Integrative units juggled the three dimensions to create local sequences, which then built into larger and larger constructs. Wide use of various dating mechanisms and detailed studies of material culture have developed our understanding of the temporal and material dimensions substantially, but substantive systematization of spatial units has lagged. GIS offers a newly rigorous technique for the definition of spatial parameters. This paper will consider the Willey and Phillips unit concepts, particularly at the area and regional level, with data from Mississippian and Medieval European case studies. The primary challenge at this point is obtaining the data.

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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