Investigating Landscapes in the Maya Lowlands: Integrating Geospatial and Environmental Sciences to Identify Archaeological Features in Northwestern Belize

Summary

Satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are invaluable noninvasive archaeological tools. The combination of remotely sensed datasets with GIS, geomorphological and ecological factors, and environmental variables associated with known archaeological features can produce a multivariate statistical predictive model. The authors will test the utility of integrating high resolution multispectral satellite imagery, lower resolution multitemporal satellite imagery, georeferenced archaeological survey maps, and ecological land cover classifications within a GIS, to identify linear and agricultural features under continuous canopy in northwestern Belize. Various enhancement and processing techniques, such as image band transformations and vegetation indices, will be utilized to classify geomorphological and ecological factors. The results of these analyses will be compared to environmental variables associated with known archaeological features situated under similar canopy conditions. This will enhance statistical validity and serve as a baseline to determine probable areas of interest which will be ground truthed in the upcoming field season.

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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