Abstract

SILAS: Using GIS to Reveal the Early Christian Narrative Landscape
Track: Archaeology
Author(s): Stephen Benzek

College-level students of Christian scripture face the challenge of understanding the historical relevance of the text while separating it from the familiar theological context. Mapping the pertinent historical events and places may help students develop a richer appreciation for these readings, but this raises other challenges in cartography, temporal representation and analysis. Despite advances in the application of a GIS to the analysis and visualization of historical data, these projects remain complex and beyond the technical abilities of most students and faculty in the humanities. The Spatially Interactive Literature Analysis System (SILAS) will be a GIS-based study tool to allow students to integrate ancient and contemporary maps, develop relevant historical spatial and temporal data, perform geospatial analyses, and create and print maps. SILAS will initially focus on a portion of the New Testament and will serve as a template for incorporating other texts, both Christian and otherwise.

Stephen Benzek
University of Redlands
1111 E. Central Ave., Apt. 5
Redlands , California 92374
United States
Phone: 703-598-3869
E-mail: stephen_benzek@redlands.edu