Exploring Social Interaction at the Ancient Maya City of Copan, Honduras: A Multi-Scalar Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analysis of Access and Visibility

This dissertation investigates late eighth and early ninth century social interaction at the archaeological site of Copán, Honduras. Two main research questions are addressed: (1) Did people of different social classes experience different degrees of social connectivity? and (2) Did people living in different parts of the city experience different degrees of social connectivity? A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to quantify social connectivity, that is, degree of social integration or social segregation, using access and visibility as proxy measures for social interaction, and to examine whether Copáns inhabitants influenced social interaction by configuring their city to facilitate or impede communication and movement among people living at different site types and in different parts of the city. In semiotic terms, people configure architecture and space to create \u27signs\u27 that send different messages to different groups of people, and the way in which people respond to these \u27signs\u27 influences how different groups of people interact in the landscape. The access and visibility of such \u27signs\u27 provide information on how and to whom messages were sent; studies of the built environment indicate that people organize their surroundings (e.g., buildings, roads, walls) to restrict access, channel movement, and display visual messages\u2014the how\u2014in order to elicit distinct responses from different social groups\u2014the whom. While the majority of Maya studies on access and visibility focus on the internal spatial organization of a single architectural complex, usually civic, ceremonial, or elite in nature, this research investigated Copán\u27s site configuration as a whole, integrating components of the built environment from all facets of society\u2014civic-ceremonial buildings, royal compounds, elite and commoner residences, roads, and reservoirs\u2014as well as natural features such as rivers, quebradas, hills, and mountains. Moreover, a multi-scalar approach was used to account for different levels of social interaction, ranging from sub-communities to urban and rural areas to the city as a whole. The results indicate that Copán\u27s layout served as a guide to daily interactions, potentially channeling people of particular social classes to specific locations and sending visual messages of wealth, power, and surveillance from and to certain groups of people and particular locations in the city. The research suggests that varying degrees of sociopolitical control existed in the Copán Valley and that there may have been intermediate-level interaction spheres controlled or managed by local leaders who played an integral part in Copán\u27s sociopolitical landscape. The study also indicates that certain types of commoner and elite sites had more similar degrees of social connectivity than expected, suggesting that some sites in the Harvard Site Typology, based on economic status, are misclassified or represent temporal, functional, ethnic, or other differences.\u2

Social Interaction at the Maya Site of Copan, Honduras: A Least Cost Approach to Configurational Analysis

In this article, I employ least cost paths using GIS to measure the relationship between site configuration and social connectivity at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. I investigate two questions. First, did people of different social classes experience varying degrees of social connectivity? Second, did people living in different parts of the city experience difference degrees of social connectivity? Ultimately, the goal is modify traditional configurational analysis using least cost analysis (LCA) to identify how social hierarchy was embedded in landscapes and how ancient people may have strategically manipulated landscapes to structure social interaction and community organization

What can GIS + 3D mean for landscape archaeology?

Until recently Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have held center stage in the archaeologist\u27s geospatial toolkit, and there is no doubt that archaeologists have moved beyond the mapdbut into what? In the early years, criticisms voicing GIS as environmentally-deterministic were abundant. What methods and tool have archaeologists used to overcome these criticisms? New geospatial technologies such as airborne lidar and aerial photogrammetry are allowing us to acquire inordinate amounts of georeferenced 3D datad but do these 3D technologies help overcome criticisms of environmental determinism? TogetherdGIS þ 3Dd can link georeferenced 3D models to underlying data adding a ground-based humanistic perspective lacking in the bird\u27s eye view of traditional GIS. This paper situates GIS and 3D within a semiotic framework to offer some ideas on using 3DGIS to intertwine environmental and cultural factors to work toward new approaches for landscape archaeology

Web-based Archaeology and Collaborative Research

While digital technologies have been part of archaeology for more than fifty years, archaeologists still look for more efficient methodologies to integrate digital practices of fieldwork recording with data management, analysis, and ultimately interpretation.This Special Issue of the Journal of Field Archaeology gathers international scholars affiliated with universities, organizations, and commercial enterprises working in the field of Digital Archaeology. Our goal is to offer a discussion to the international academic community and practitioners. While the approach is interdisciplinary, our primary audience remains readers interested in web technology and collaborative platforms in archaeolog

Digitally-Mediated Practices of Geospatial Archaeological Data: Transformation, Integration, & Interpretation

Digitally-mediated practices of archaeological data require reflexive thinking about where archaeology stands as a discipline in regard to the ‘digital,’ and where we want to go. To move toward this goal, we advocate a historical approach that emphasizes contextual source-side criticism and data intimacy—scrutinizing maps and 3D data as we do artifacts by analyzing position, form, material and context of analog and digital sources. Applying this approach, we reflect on what we have learned from processes of digitally-mediated data. We ask: What can we learn as we convert analog data to digital data? And, how does digital data transformation impact the chain of archaeological practice? Primary, or raw data, are produced using various technologies ranging from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)/Global Positioning System (GPS), LiDAR, digital photography, and ground penetrating radar, to digitization, typically using a flat-bed scanner to transform analog data such as old field notes, photographs, or drawings into digital data. However, archaeologists not only collect primary data, we also make substantial time investments to create derived data such as maps, 3D models, or statistics via post-processing and analysis. While analog data is typically static, digital data is more dynamic, creating fundamental differences in digitally-mediated archaeological practice. To address some issues embedded in this process, we describe the lessons we have learned from translating analog to digital geospatial data—discussing what is lost and what is gained in translation, and then applying what we have learned to provide concrete insights to archaeological practice

Modelling Acoustics in Ancient Maya Cities: Moving Towards a Synesthetic Experience Using GIS & 3D Simulation

Archaeological analyses have successfully employed 2D and 3D tools to measure vision and movement within cityscapes; however, built environments are often designed to invoke synesthetic experiences. GIS and Virtual Reality (VR) now enable archaeologists to also measure the acoustics of ancient spaces. To move toward an understanding of synesthetic experience in ancient Maya cities, we employ GIS and 3D modelling to measure sound propagation and reverberation using the main civic-ceremonial complex in ancient Copán as a case study. For the ancient Maya, sight and sound worked in concert to create ritually-charged atmospheres and architecture served to shape these experiences. Together with archaeological, iconographic, and epigraphic data, acoustic measures help us to (1) examine potential locations of ritual performance and (2) determine spatial placement and capacity of participants in these events. We use an immersive VR headset (Oculus Rift) to integrate vision with spatial sound and sight to facilitate an embodied experience

Editorial Introduction: Web-based Archaeology and Collaborative Research

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Rural Sense: Value, Heritage, and Sensory Landscapes: Developing a Design-oriented Approach to Mapping for Healthier Landscapes

Landscape design needs a novel value system centred on human experience of the landscape rather than simply on economic value. Design-oriented research allows us to shift the focus from mechanistic paradigms towards new sense-making approaches that value both the sensual and the cognitive in human experience. To move in this direction, we investigate cultural and natural aspects of sensory experience in rural landscapes, arguing that: (1) rural (non-urban) regions offer diverse sensory experiences for optimising human health; and (2) spatial interconnectedness between rural and urban areas means that healthy rural regions are critical for urban development. Our key argument is that many rural landscapes contain intrinsically valuable traditional practices that create multisensory experiences with untapped benefits for human wellbeing, particularly in the auditory and olfactory realms, and thus a mapping system that accounts for sensory experience is required

Creating Digital Heritage content; bridging communities and mediating perspectives

In this paper we focus our attention on an often overlooked aspect of digital heritage content, namely by whom how, and with what purpose such content is created. We evaluate digital materials that are anthropological and archaeological in nature, both digitized archives and newly created materials. In our work and efforts to understand and represent different cultural perspectives, we have encountered differences in cultural knowledge systems that have shown the need for cross-cultural consultation and communication as an essential first step in the creation of digital content for new systems of representation and knowledge transfer. Our efforts focus on developing a new educational framework that allows for knowledge exchange at different levels and between different entities, challenging the perpetuating hierarchical relationships between community and experts

Rural Sense: Value, Heritage, and Sensory Landscapes: Developing a Design-oriented Approach to Mapping for Healthier Landscapes

Landscape design needs a novel value system centred on human experience of the landscape rather than simply on economic value. Design-oriented research allows us to shift the focus from mechanistic paradigms towards new sensemaking approaches that value both the sensual and the cognitive in human experience. To move in this direction, we investigate cultural and natural aspects of sensory experience in rural landscapes, arguing that: (1) rural (non-urban) regions offer diverse sensory experiences for optimising human health; and (2) spatial interconnectedness between rural and urban areas means that healthy rural regions are critical for urban development. Our key argument is that many rural landscapes contain intrinsically valuable traditional practices that create multisensory experiences with untapped benefits for human well-being, particularly in the auditory and olfactory realms, and thus a mapping system that accounts for sensory experience is required