GIS, Identity, and the Sacred Landscape

Summary

GIS techniques are no foreigner to Mesoamerican studies though the hybridization of digital analytics and human identity is incomplete. In recent years suites of technologies have allowed for better visualization of data within archaeological projects. Though computer programs and higher profile data-gathering techniques have become widely embraced by the archaeological community, research should be rooted in cultural proclivities as well. By recording the complex shifts in topography via remote sensing, drafting architecture based on satellite derived data, and using excavation data to corroborate architectural data within the paradigms of computer driven analytical techniques, new patterns and questions emerge. This paper will focus on recent GNSS mapping of the archaeological site of Cancuen in the Transversal region of the interface between highlands and lowlands. The site offers a unique application and integration of GIS techniques while acknowledging the importance of the human element behind the constructed landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Erotetics, GIS, and Data Resolution: Spatial Analysis in Archaeological Practice

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17637