Using GIS in Archaeological Research: A New Look at Hunting Rock Art Sites

Author(s): Kendra Rodgers

Year: 2015

Summary

Place, space, and movement are core concepts for analyzing how cultural behaviors of traditional hunting societies shape a landscape. Sites mark the use of a landscape and connect people to particular events, movements, or places on this landscape. Analysis of rock art must consider who created and used this art and the roles it played in shaping landscape use. Panels depicting hunting scenes have been recorded at communal hunting sites, in rockshelters that served as habitation areas, and as isolated panels. Common archaeological evidence of hunting includes faunal remains, stone tools, architectural features, and topographic features that provide favorable vantage points. Notably, the presence of hunting images may be interpreted as overall evidence for hunting behavior, but unlike other artifacts are not individually interpreted as a sign of hunting.

Assuming these images played a role in hunting behaviors whether in the form of actual subsistence practices or hunting like rituals, I use spatial analysis and traditional archaeological methods to take a new look at the potential relationships between hunting-themed rock art locales and surrounding archaeological sites in the landscape at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site to gain insight into the placement of images and the land use of the area.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

Cite this Record

Using GIS in Archaeological Research: A New Look at Hunting Rock Art Sites. Kendra Rodgers. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 398280)

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Spatial Coverage

min long: -113.95; min lat: 30.751 ; max long: -97.163; max lat: 48.865 ;