Abstract

Viewshed Analysis of Native American Sacred Landscapes
Track: Archaeology
Authors: David Diggs, Robert Brunswig, SaraJo Lambert

Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), USA, is rich in Native American sites, many believed to have served religious purposes. Field and consultation data have been incorporated into successive generations of a Geographic Information System (GIS) project designed to model and predict the spatial distribution of sacred sites and ritual features believed to have constituted long-lost landscapes. In recent iterations of the RMNP sacred landscape modeling research, a Weights-of-Evidence site location predictive model was developed. This model showed the strong influence of the relative visibility of five sacred landmarks. This paper uses multi-feature and multi-landmark viewshed analysis techniques to evaluate the relative and absolute visibility of the above mentioned five landmarks. Landmarks are assessed both individually, in total, and in strength of visibility. The research suggests that both strength of visibility and total number of landmarks visible are strongly associated with the location of sacred features.