Radar, LiDAR, Drones, and Donkeys: the Evolution of Archaeological Mapping Technologies in the South Central Andes

Summary

In this paper, we review our use of digital technologies to model archaeological landscapes over the past two decades in Peru and Bolivia. We focus on three scales of analysis in four thematic areas that leverage state of the art technology and GIS modeling as a means for understanding the archaeological record. Our scales run from the built environment of local sites and monuments to regional agricultural landscapes to subcontinental interaction spheres. We look thematically at modeling urban space in ancient cities to creating anthropogenic hydraulic networks in agrarian systems. At the broadest scale, we examine the relationship between regions through the analysis of ritual landscapes and the networks of roads that link places together and how digital technologies have allowed us to integrate these scales of analysis in our work on the Wari and Tiwanaku states of the Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• High-Tech Storytelling in Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14973