Pre-Historic Archaeological Site Location Modeling Using Raster Overlay Analysis in GIS

Summary

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the ability to create a viable site location model of pre-historic archaeological sites in the Columbia Plateau Region that are older than 15,000 BP. The site location model is created by analyzing several different variables: previously discovered archaeological sites in the Columbia Plateau Region older than 10,000 BP, Missoula Flood modeling, Bonneville Flood geological evidence, and prehistoric climate data. The prehistoric site locations are used to determine habitation variability such as distance from water, slope, and elevation. The paleo climate data is used to determine what type of environments people of the Columbia Plateau were willing to live in, and apply that to climate data from 15,000 BP to determine habitation variability. Since no archaeological evidence would have withstood the Bonneville and Missoula Floods, a flood pathway shapefile is created as a limiting variable. All of the data is compiled and imputed into a GIS program, and by using the raster overlay method, a site location model completed. The process of creating this viable preliminary model also clarifies previously unforeseen steps needed to refine and improve it into a working model.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage