Ciudad de Dios: An Analysis of Destruction Using Drone Technology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In July of 2018, the archaeological site of Ciudad de Dios, located in the Moche Valley of the north coast of Peru, was surveyed using a drone. The digital map was then used to not only analyze the settlement’s organization, but also the natural and unnatural destruction that has affected the preservation of the site. Excavated by MOCHE Inc. in 1998, Ciudad de Dios was drone mapped in 2016 before the El Niño Costero of March 2017; the delayed El Niño resulted in amplified rainfall, bringing floods of liquid mud and large boulders that devastated the country. One year after this event, the resulting drone map, in conjunction with the previous 2016 map, allows for the analysis of the effects left by not only the El Niño, but also site destruction caused by modern settlement expansion. The map data from both 2016 and 2018 can assist in understanding the destruction to global archaeological complexes in environments where such risks are present.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25342