Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mapping The Landscape For Archaeological Detection, Preservation, And Interpretation: A Case Study In High Resolution Location Modeling From The Blue Mountains Of Northeastern Oregon, Trent Skinner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Archaeological location modeling (ALM) is an important tool in most survey strategies, and has contributed substantially to economizing efforts to locate and characterize the archaeological record. The increasing availability of high resolution (<3m) airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) data has the potential to refine the application and ultimately the role of ALM. This research tests the precision and accuracy gained by incorporating lidar derived data into an ALM. The site records and other environmental data used in this study were all generated over the last four decades by the resource specialists of the Malheur National Forest. The Weights-of-Evidence (WofE) probability method (Bonham-Carter 1994) was used to produce two ALMs; one based on a 10m digital elevation model (DEM) created from satellite imaging, and the second from a 3m resolution lidar derived DEM. Independent variables (e.g., slope, aspect, distance to water, etc.) commonly used in ALM were largely replaced by index variables (e.g., slope position classification, topographic wetness index, etc.). The final models were classified into areas of high, medium, and low archaeological potential, then cross-validated against a reserved random dataset. Models were then compared using the Kvamme gain statistic and site to area frequency ratio. The 3m model demonstrated a significant improvement over the results obtained from the 10m model and the current probability model used in the study area. A number of factors including model resolution, statistical methodology, and the character of the independent and dependent variables all contributed to the increase in precision and accuracy. The incremental improvement in modeling efficiency demonstrated here will create time and cost saving in the management and preservation of cultural resources, and ultimately contribute to a better understanding of patterns of past human land use.

Tactics, Strategies, Spaces, And Places: The Spatial Constructions Of Race And Class On Virginia Plantations, Andrew Philip Wilkins

Doctoral Dissertations

This research incorporates overseers into the discussion of how constructed space and social relations informed and shaped one another on colonial and antebellum Virginia plantations. Studies of plantation space and landscape often contrast slave owners and slaves in dualistic views of plantation societies. My question is how the organization, use, and meaning of spaces at multiple scales intersected with the historical constructions of race and class. I address this question through a detailed examination of plantation layouts, quarter arrangements, outdoor spaces, and architectural spaces to identify meaningful distinctions or similarities between the spaces created for and by slaves and overseers. …

Shifting Ground: Rethinking Concepts Of Continuity And Change In Late Iron Age And Early Roman Landscapes Of Southern England, Lara Ghisleni

Theses and Dissertations

What kinds of landscapes does the segmentation of space and time by the Late Iron Age/Early Roman transition create, include, and exclude? What continues, changes, and co-exists, and how is the landscape interconnected in the context of these negotiations? This thesis re-conceptualizes continuity and change during the Late Iron Age (100 BCE–CE 43) and Early Roman period (CE 43–CE 150/200) in southern England, exploring how relationships with place and landscape generate the contexts for community formation and transformation. Despite the deconstruction of the traditional acculturation paradigm—Romanization—it has proven difficult to circumvent binary categories of identity and process that relegate continuity …

Modeling Early Archaic Mobility And Subsistence: Evaluating Resource Risk Across The South Carolina Landscape, Joseph E. Wilkinson

Theses and Dissertations

Previous models predicting Early Archaic mobility and subsistence strategies in South Carolina have evaluated behavioral negotiations of specific resource distributions. A new model is presented using empirical datasets that quantify and evaluate the quality and geographic distributions of lithic raw materials and drainage systems in the state. By utilizing datasets from private collections and landscape elevation data, this model is generated using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software in order to produce a "Risk Landscape" from which predictions of site density, artifact density, lithic raw material diversity, and the condition of lithic toolkit assemblages can be generated based on landscape location. …

An Integrated Archaeological Investigation Of Colonial Interactions At A Seventeenth-Century New England Site, Maeve E. Herrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is the ways in which interactions between Indigenous peoples and English settler-colonists were manifested in the landscape at a seventeenth-century site in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. Magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar allowed for the location of anthropogenic and geological features on the landscape, and for the seventeenth-century landscape to be recreated. This reconstruction indicated that Europeans and Indigenous peoples may have been cohabitating the site. Archival research helped to uncover what types of interactions may have been occurring at the site. Excavations uncovered "Indigenous" artifacts in a "European" context, leading to the reconsideration of the prevailing perspectives …

A Geography Of Grief: An Exploration Of The Significance Of The Northern New Mexican Landscape In The Grieving Process, Treska Lydia Stein

Senior Projects Spring 2017

I grew up within this landscape, yet I have never tired of the way the elements of stone, dust, and sky seem to writhe and pull away from one another. Alternately piercing through the earth as craggy mountains, or slicing deep canyons into the muted grey green expanses of crumbly earth, this land seems to cower beneath a blisteringly blue sky.

In this land that fills our palms with the spines of tender cacti, and purple afternoon monsoons melt our roads into clay slicks with their deluge—I explore how the same intensity of this place, which forces drivers to relinquish …

An Investigation Of Historic Landscape Occupation, Transformation, And Interpretation At Windigo, Isle Royale National Park, Marley Chynoweth

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Windigo Ranger Station, Isle Royale National Park, is an historic landscape that provides a gateway to wilderness at one of America’s least visited national parks. Aspects of isolation have helped preserve Isle Royale’s extensive natural and cultural resources, making it an enticing setting for researchers and outdoor enthusiasts. This thesis combines information gathered from archaeological fieldwork and archival research to construct a narrative of landscape transformation at Windigo, Isle Royale National Park. From historic industrial townsite to contemporary NPS visitor port, this narrative highlights three prominent eras of landscape occupation headlined by the Wendigo Copper Company, Washington Club, and a …