Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Archaeological Investigation Of An Iron Age Fortress On Dana Island, Turkey, Nathan C. Mcburnett

Purdue GIS Day

In this project, the Bogsak Archaeological survey team investigated a fortress on the northern crest of the mountain on Dana Island, located just off the coast of Turkey in the Rough Cilician Region. Although the interior remains of the fortress, consisting of a large number of ceramics and architectural features such as a basilica, were dated to the Late Roman Era, we found that the fortress itself actually predates this. Based on ceramic remains being used as aggregate in the fortress wall, the team was able to date the fortress itself to the Iron Age (Classical Era). GIS software was …

Landscape-Scale Geophysics At Tel Shimron, Jezreel Valley, Israel, Rachel Grap

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry were used at Tel Shimron, an archaeological site in Israel’s Jezreel Valley. GPR primarily measures electric properties while magnetometry measures magnetic properties, making them complementary methods for subsurface prospection. Magnetometry can be collected and processed quickly, making it an ideal landscape-scale reconnaissance tool. It takes more time to collect, process, and interpret GPR data, but the result is a higher resolution dataset. In addition, GPR often works better than magnetometry in desert environments such as the Jezreel Valley. Conventional wisdom suggests that GPR should not be used as a landscape-scale reconnaissance tool unless there is …

A Catch 22 Of 3d Data Sustainability: Lessons In 3d Archaeological Data Management & Accessibility, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Jennifer Von Schwerin

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeologists can now collect an inordinate amount of 3D data. But are these 3D data sustainable? Are they being managed to make them accessible? The MayaArch3D Project researched and addressed these questions by applying best practices to build four prototype tools to store, manage, visualize, and analyze multi-resolution, geo-referenced 3D models in a web-based environment. While the technical aspects of these tools have been published, this position paper addresses a catch 22 that we, as archaeologists, encounter in the field of 3D archaeology – one that formed the initial impetus for the MayaArch3D Project: that is, while the quantity of …

Here There Be Herders: Comparative Archaeological Survey Of Bronze Age Monumental Landscapes, Charles Ronkos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Within our global understanding of the human story, nomadic pastoralists are often featured as marginal, or at best ancillary, to a narrative on sedentary civilizations of increasing complexity. Research on these groups has been limited by this conception, and by a minimal signature in the archeological record. However, revolutionary technological and methodological advances in the field have allowed for increased complexity in current research on the emergence of pastoralists in antiquity. As a region with an extensive nomadic pastoral history, and as a nation reviving its interest in the past, Mongolia is ideal for such studies. However, for large swaths …

An Iterative 3d Gis Analysis Of The Role Of Visibility In Ancient Maya Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

For several decades, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have held center stage in archaeological studies of ancient landscapes. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) technologies such as airborne LiDAR and aerial photogrammetry are allowing us to acquire inordinate amounts of georeferenced 3D data to locate, map, and visualize archaeological sites within their surrounding landscapes. GIS offers locational precision, data overlay, and complex spatial analysis. Three-dimensionality adds a ground-based perspective lacking in two-dimensional GIS maps to provide archaeologists a sense of mass and space more closely attuned with human perception. This article uses comparative and iterative approaches ‘tacking back and forth’ between GIS and 3D …

The Archaeology Of Sam Rayburn Reservoir, Edward B. Jelks

CRHR Research Reports

This is an archeological study of the McGee Bend Reservoir (Sam Rayburn Reservoir) area of eastern Texas as revealed through the analysis of 14 sites that were excavated there between 1956 and 1962. The reservoir, currently under construction on the Angelina River near Jasper, will be some 50 miles long when completed in 1965, with major arms extending up Ayish and Attoyac bayous. The lake will be named for the late Sam Rayburn.

Most of the archeological work was done during extended field seasons in the fall months of 1956, 1957, and 1960; a brief season in the fall of …

Archaeological Gis Analysis Of Raised Field Agriculture In The Bolivian Amazon, Thomas W. Lee

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Modern agricultural systems have been criticized for their detrimental effects on the environment and a general emphasis on crop yield rather than long-term sustainability. Traditional forms of agriculture may provide case-specific examples of sustainable alternatives for contemporary societies. In the seasonally inundated savannas of the Llanos de Mojos, pre-Columbian Indians piled earth into ‘large raised field platforms’ elevated high enough above the floodplain to allow crops to grow. Archaeological evidence indicates that raised field agriculture supported much larger populations than those found in the Beni today. The examination of satellite imagery has revealed more than 40,000 individual fields spread across …