Database management and cultural resource management (CRM) applications began in the mid-1980s, and toward the latter part of the decade, GIS was being used in site prediction models.

By enabling the management of extensive spatially related databases, GIS has provided archaeologists with a powerful analytical tool, one that can lead to the discovery of the various levels of spatial patterns in the archaeological record. This in turn can lead to a more in-depth analysis of the underlying principles of those spatial patterns. There are three broad categories into which all spatial modeling done using GIS fall: data mining, predictive modeling, and dynamic simulation. The first two are perhaps the more common forms applied in archaeology.

Data mining consists of the retrieval of specific data items or a combination of items in relation to their spatial/temporal location. The settlement pattern studies in western Arizona mentioned above, and the study of the potential impact on known archaeological sites owing to works of infrastructure, e.g., the construction of a dam or a road, constitute good examples of this type of model.

Predictive modeling in GIS differs from simple mathematical models in the sense that it interpolates the field data into mapped variables, thus providing us, in addition to a hard figure, with the spatial location of the relevant variables. Predictive modeling is frequently used in CRM when dealing with the potential effects to unknown archaeological sites from the aforementioned infrastructure works. There are also various examples in the American Southwest where site prediction has been used in the study of settlement patterns, and its potential in assisting in the design of the archaeological survey strategies has just been tapped.

Only recently has the third category begun to be explored in connection with archaeological problems. Its most promising feature is that it enables the user to interact with the spatial model by allowing for change in the variables in order to track alternative behavioral patterns. A fine example of this type of modeling is Kohler and Carr’s swarm-based modeling of prehistoric settlement systems in the American Southwest. Swarm is an object-oriented model designed to ease the process of simulating large numbers of interacting agents, and traditional GIS modeling was combined with this object-oriented model to explore and refine models of settlement behavior in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado. The initial GIS approach was limited to the data mining and prediction models mentioned above, which resulted in statistical measures of strength and significance of association of sites with the relevant environmental variables. In the case of Mesa Verde, the agents were represented by the prehistoric households, which were “released” onto the paleoproductivity landscapes generated with the GIS, and the Swarm model was run to observe their locational solutions to making a living on those landscapes.

It has become apparent that the application of GIS to archaeological issues has assisted archaeologists in addressing more complicated questions on the nature of the interaction between human societies and their landscapes and that it can ultimately help in obtaining a better understanding as to how the factors involved in the formation of the archaeological record interact. More and more, through the application of GIS, archaeologists are enable to address not only questions such as, Where is? or How many? but also questions such as, What if?

Armando Anaya Hernández

References

Allen, Kathleen M. S., Stanton W. Green, and Ezra B. W. Zubrow, eds. 1990. Interpreting Space: GIS and Archaeology. London, New York, and Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis.

Berry, J. K. 1995. Spatial Reasoning for Effective GIS. Fort Collins, CO: GIS World Books.

Kvamme, K. L. 1992. “Geographic Information Systems in Archaeology” In Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology 1991, 77–84. Ed. Gary Lock and Jonathan Moffett. BAR International Series S577. Great Britain.

German Archaeological Institute

See deutsches archäologisches institut