Creating a Digital Twin of tumwata Village: Combining Historic Narratives and 3D Modeling

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Tumwata Village, located at Oregon City, Oregon, holds a complex archaeological record of thousands of years of Indigenous lifeways, overlain by nineteenth-century settler and commercial expansion, and twentieth-century industrial domination. The resulting complexity presents a challenge for archaeologists attempting to understand both this complicated intertwined mix of brick, steel, and oral tellings. In doing so it presents a unique opportunity to integrate historic documents with emerging technologies to untangle physical structures and better untangle the complex history of site. Prior to, and during demolition of the old Blue Heron Paper Mill, we used the 3D capabilities of ArcGIS, the digital modeling techniques of photogrammetry and lidar, and historic documents, to create a digital model of tumwata Village. This has allowed the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde-Historic Preservation Office to reach the dual goals of useful redevelopment and preservation of the site’s heritage.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 52892