1,720,996 research outputs found
Airborne LiDAR acquisition, post-processing and accuracy-checking for a 3D WebGIS of Copan, Honduras
Full text linkArchaeological projects increasingly collect airborne LiDAR data to use as a remote sensing tool for survey and analysis. Publication possibilities for LiDAR datasets, however, are limited due to the large size and often proprietary nature of the data. Fortunately, web-based, geographic information systems (WebGIS) that can securely manage temporal and spatial data hold great promise as virtual research environments for working with and publishing LiDAR data. To test this and to obtain new data for archaeological research, in 2013, the MayaArch3D Project (www.mayaarch3d.org) collected LiDAR data for the archaeological site of Copan, Honduras. Results include: 1) more accurate archaeological maps, 2) identification of unrecorded archaeological features, 3) an assessment of combining LiDAR and ground-checking to increase data accuracy in ecologically and topographically diverse landscapes, and 4) newLiDAR datasets that are hosted in a 3DWebGIS and integrated with other archaeological data to enhance data accessibility and collaborative research
Exploring Social Interaction at the Ancient Maya City of Copan, Honduras: A Multi-Scalar Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analysis of Access and Visibility
No full textThis 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 Copán’s 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 “signs” that send different messages to different groups of people, and the way in which people respond to these “signs” influences how different groups of people interact in the landscape. The access and visibility of such “signs” 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—the how—in order to elicit distinct responses from different social groups—the 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’s site configuration as a whole, integrating components of the built environment from all facets of society—civic-ceremonial buildings, royal compounds, elite and commoner residences, roads, and reservoirs—as 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’s 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’s 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.Latin American Iberian Institute (UNM); Office of Graduate Studies (UNM); Graduate and Professional Student Association (UNM); American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS); Rio Grande Chapter of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing; New Mexico Geographic Information Council (NMGIC); Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS); Department of Anthropology (UNM).AnthropologyDoctoralUniversity of New Mexico. Dept. of AnthropologyJames, BooneJane, BuikstraJennifer, von SchwerinDavid, DinwoodieRichard, Watso
Exploring Inequality at Copan, Honduras: A 2D and 3D Geospatial Comparison of Household Wealth
Full text linkThe archaeological site of Copan was a cultural and commercial crossroads at the southeastern Maya frontier. Research indicates that the demographics and sociopolitical circumstances of the city of Copan and its location within a circumscribed pocket (24 km2) of the larger Copan Valley varied through time. These circumstances not only influenced its social, political, and economic interactions, but likely the size, construction, and organization of households, specifically plazuelas. Copan’s plazuelas differ from those located in other Maya regions because they often have smaller house platforms, comprise more than a single patio, and exhibit a larger than normal proportion of informal groups. Gini coefficients, to investigate wealth inequality based on household size using area, volume, and a modified volume, were calculated for Late Classic Copan to allow for comparisons to Gini coefficients from other Maya regions. While the Gini coefficients suggest that wealth inequality at Copan is much higher than in other Maya regions, deeper interpretations of inequality based solely on the Gini coefficients are limited, requiring not only additional geospatial analysis employing a multi-proxy Gini coefficient, but, importantly, a comparison to and a deeper reflection on previous research at Copan
Social Interaction at the Maya Site of Copan, Honduras: A Least Cost Approach to Configurational Analysis
Full text linkIn 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
Exploring social interaction at the ancient Maya city of Copán, Honduras: A multi-scalar Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis of access and visibilty
No full textThis 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 Copán's 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 "signs" that send different messages to different groups of people, and the way in which people respond to these "signs" influences how different groups of people interact in the landscape. The access and visibility of such "signs" 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—the how—in order to elicit distinct responses from different social groups—the 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‘s site configuration as a whole, integrating components of the built environment from all facets of society—civic-ceremonial buildings, royal compounds, elite and commoner residences, roads, and reservoirs—as 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's 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's 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
3DGIS for Analysis of Ancient Maya Architecture & Landscapes
No full textDigital Humanities Seminar, University of Kansas, Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities & Hall Center for the Humanities, October 19th, 2015.
Heather Richards-Rissetto is at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.3DGIS for Discourse, Analysis, and Interpretations of Ancient Maya Architecture and Landscapes.
Archaeological projects increasingly acquire and create 3D data of objects, buildings, and even landscapes; however, it is still a challenge to make these data accessible for researchers and cultural heritage managers and link these models to geo-referenced data sets for visualization and analysis. To address this issue, the MayaArch3D Project (www.mayaarch3d.org) is working to develop a 3D WebGIS-called QueryArch3D-to allow 3D models and GIS- to “talk to each other” for studies of architecture and landscapes-in this case, the eighth-century Maya kingdom of Copan, Honduras. In this talk, I will discuss how we are using 3D WebGIS to develop new visibility methods to explore the visibility or inter-visibility of monuments and buildings to or from common pathways that inhabitants of different social quarters may have taken while moving through the city of Copan. I will also present on an affiliated project-MayaCityBuilder-recently begun at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that is using procedural modeling, rapid proto-typing of 3D models from a set of rules, to allow for the efficient and low-cost creation of alternative ancient Maya landscapes in order to foster discourse, analysis, and interpretations
Social interaction at the maya site of Copán, Honduras : a least cost approach to configurational analysis
No full textExploring Social Interaction at the Ancient Maya City of Copan, Honduras: A Multi-Scalar Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analysis of Access and Visibility
Full text linkThis 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
Procedural Modeling for Ancient Maya Cityscapes - Initial Methodological Challenges and Solutions
No full textDigital reconstruction of 3D cityscapes is expensive, time-consuming, and requires significant expertise. We need a 3D modeling approach that streamlines the integration of multiple data types in a time-efficient and low-cost manner. Procedural modeling-rapid proto-typing of 3D models from a set of rules- offers a potential solution to this problem because it allows scholars to create digital reconstructions that can be quickly updated and used to test and formulate alternative hypotheses that are derived from and linked to underlying archaeological data. While procedural modeling is being used to visualize ancient Roman, Etruscan, and Greek cities, in the Maya region the approach has only been applied to reconstructions of individual buildings and not an entire city. In this paper, we present initial methodological challenges and solutions to procedural modeling of ancient Maya cityscapes using the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan, Honduras as a case study.International Congress on Digital Heritage - Theme 3 - Analysis And InterpretationShort Papers - Understanding, Representing and Visualizing Architecture
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