What Remains: Using LiDAR to examine the effects of plowing on memories and mounds in Illinois

Author(s): Adam Sutherland; Montana Martin

Year: 2016

Summary

Constructing monuments is, in essence, a construction of memory. Conversely, destruction of monuments can be the erosion of memory. Pre-Columbian peoples in the Americas built and maintained monuments as a form of memory-making and place-making. Digital Elevation Models (DEM) provide us an opportunity to re-discover the monuments and re-animate the memories that have been obscured since European arrival. Using LiDAR data, geo-referenced with historic maps, we look at the present state of Pre-Columbian mounds in Illinois. In this paper we discuss how the continued destruction of Native American mounds is not only the deterioration of archaeological potential but, also the further erasure of Native American memory and connection to the landscape.

Cite this Record

What Remains: Using LiDAR to examine the effects of plowing on memories and mounds in Illinois. Adam Sutherland, Montana Martin. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 405093)

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Keywords

General
Landscape • LiDAR • Memory

Geographic Keywords
North America - Midwest

Spatial Coverage

min long: -104.634; min lat: 36.739 ; max long: -80.64; max lat: 49.153 ;