Abstract

Keep on Movin': Exploring Prehistoric Movement with GIS Today
Track: Archaeology
Author(s): Meghan Howey

While archaeologists have successfully capitalized on the modern technology of GIS to illuminate the past, there are frontiers still unexplored. One area archaeologists have paid too little attention to is how GIS can facilitate the study of a major socio-spatial component of past life, movement. This paper examines the GIS application of multi-criteria cost surface analysis as a robust technique for modeling past movement and applies this approach to the Late Prehistoric (ca. AD 1200-1600) in Michigan as a case study. This analysis extends a model of earthwork enclosures as uniquely accessible ritual centers for intertribal interaction within Late Prehistoric regional organization. Comparing a frozen and unfrozen travel scenario provides a unique way to evaluate what season (s) people would have been most likely to undertake macro-regional movements to attend ritual events. This specific case illustrates the heuristic value of multi-criteria cost surface analysis for exploring regional landscapes in archaeology.

Meghan Howey
University of New Hampshire
313 Huddleston Hall
Department of Anthropology
Durham , New Hampshire 03824
United States
Phone: 603-862-2518
E-mail: meghan.howey@unh.edu