ABSTRACT
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Archaeology and GIS: New Visions of the Ancient Maya of Caracol, Belize
Track:  Ecology, Conservation, and Archaeology
Author:   Timothy Michael Murtha Jr.

The role of GIS in archaeology has become increasingly important in recent times. ArcView GIS in particular provides researchers with the tools to analyze, display, and predict patterns of spatial organization of societies from their environment to complicated aspects of politics and economy. This paper discusses how ArcView GIS has been combined with over 15 years of field research at the classic Maya site of Caracol, Belize, especially focusing on ArcView GIS software's usefulness in visualizing archaeological data. From Caana, the 42-meter-tall "sky house" to the humblest Maya households, this "Ancient Garden City" has been brought to life, using ArcView Spatial Analyst, ArcView 3D Analyst, ArcView Network Analyst, and ArcView Image Analysis.

Timothy Michael Murtha Jr.
Pennsylvania State University
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The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA16802

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