Snake Chaps and Shapefiles: Public LiDAR as a Tool for Archaeological Exploration in Mid-Atlantic Wetlands

Summary

The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina was home to disenfranchised Native Americans, enslaved canal company laborers and maroons who lived in the wetlands temporarily and long term ca. 1660-1860. In the past decade, the Great Dismal Swamp Landscape Study (GDSLS) has intensively investigated only a few maroon and enslaved labor sites, leaving vast swaths of inhospitable and challenging swampland archaeologically unexplored. Current research seeks to identify new sites in remote areas of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Publicly accessible LiDAR data, coupled with historic land documents, facilitates study of this difficult to access region by allowing researchers to identify and locate specific topographic features of interest, build terrain models and target specific areas for field survey. This reduces impact on the environment and on the field budget. This poster explains the methodology and initial results of the most recent exploration efforts in the Great Dismal Swamp. Filling in gaps in the map will expand our knowledge of the complex physical and social landscape of the Swamp and support future stewardship of the archeological resources in the area.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16512