Integrating Aerial Kite and Drone Imagery into the Moche Valley Settlement Database (MVSD)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This poster presents the results of 5 seasons (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022) of aerial kite and drone imagery from the Moche Valley and the integration of these data into the Moche Valley Settlement Database (MVSD). The MVSD is a collaborative initiative that is synthesizing Prehistoric (~10,000 BCE – 1500s CE) and Viceroyalty Era (1500s – 1800s CE) settlement patterns in the Moche Valley of Peru from a variety of sources ranging from legacy and modern archaeological surveys to historical maps and census data. Working under the non-profit Mobilizing Opportunity through Community Heritage Empowerment (MOCHE Inc.) and the Proyecto Arqueológico Reconocimiento de la Frontera Alto Moche (PARFAM), the authors collected aerial imagery data using a variety of platforms over a period of 7 years. The resulting imagery was refined to produce over 110 sets of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and Orthophotos that record hundreds of archaeological sites and features – everything from monumental adobe huaca mounds to elaborate hilltop fortresses – in the Moche Valley. These data were then integrated into the larger MVSD where they have been used to better understand Indigenous settlement histories in the region as well as modern patterns of site preservation and destruction.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36671.0