IGUG Slide Template On Screen Presentation

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Geographic Information Systems and Remote
Sensing Building Predictive Models to Explain
Ancient Maya Locational DecisionsTerance L.
Winemiller, Farrell Jones, Virginia
Ochoa-Winemiller Louisiana State University
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Mesoamerica

• Early settlements first appear in Mesoamerica
  between 1700 B.C. and A.D. 200
• The ancient Maya inhabited Belize, Guatemala, El
  Salvador and parts of Mexico and Honduras
• Classic Maya civilization flourished from A.D.
  200 until A.D. 1200, then vanished

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Yucatán Environment

• Karstic landscape
• Seasonally arid environment

• Milpa slash burn subsistence
• Centripetal forces dispersed populations

Dry-season vegetation
Milpa
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Urban Core at Chichén Itzá

• Development of centralized authority
• Urban centers evolve
• Cities supported by rural populations

Temple of the Tables, Warriors, and the Grand
Colonnade
Temple of Kukulkan
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Core and Canal at Edzna, Campeche

• Rising group of ruling elites
• Construction of infrastructure, roads, canals,
  reservoirs, public space

Acropolis
Canal 3.5 kilometers south of site core
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Maya Sites in the Yucatán Peninsula
Anomalous area with no known settlements
GPS positions of known archaeological sites
plotted in GeoMedia Professional 4.0
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Geographic Information Systems
Project goal is to develop a GIS to help
archaeologists identify physical and social
factors that influenced locational decisions

• Plot new sites with GPS
• Register existing site maps
• Employ Landsat TM, SIR C Radar, air photos and
  cultural data collected by archaeologists

175000 Ortho-photo
Coba, Quintana Roo
Landsat TM Bands RGB 753
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Chichén Itzá

• Site of Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico, one of 28
  sites undergoing intensive survey during eight
  months of fieldwork in 2001

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Settlement Pattern Studies

• Integrate spatial and non-spatial data
• Investigate variability in site location
• Assume that location is influenced by physical
  and social factors
• Inform us about life in ancient society
• GIS enables archaeologists to study spatial
  relationships at various scales of settlement

Uxmal, Yucatán
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Data Sources
Site of Chichén Itzá including Landsat TM RGB
Bands 5-3-2 SIR C Radar, Ortho-photo, CAD Map,
GPS Positions
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The Carnegie Institution of Washington
The Carnegie Staff (Chichén Itzá 1920s)
Kilmartin 1924, Carnegie Institution Pub. 406,
Fig. 2 Photos and map by permission of the
Carnegie Institute
Sylvanus Morley, Project Director
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Mayapan 1949 - 1951
Carnegie at Mayapan 1949 - 1951
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Chichén Itzá

• Large body of data
• Nine maps
• Catherwood (1843)
• Maudslay (1892)
• Holmes (1895)
• Kilmartin (1924)
• Kilmartin ONeill (1932)
• Lincoln (1990)
• Chichén Itzá Project (1993)
• Cobos, Cobos Winemiller (1993-1997)
• Winemiller (2001)

South portion of Chichén Itzá, view from upper
platform on the Temple of Kukulkan
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Chichén Itzá Frederick Catherwood 1843
Georeferenced Catherwood 1843 map in the GIS with
CAD map and ortho-photo
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Alfred Maudslay 1892
Georeferenced Maudslay 1892 map in the GIS with
ortho-photo
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Kilmartin 1924 in Morris 1931
Georeferenced Kilmartin (1924) map in the GIS
with CAD map and ortho-photo
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Kilmartin 1924-1929ONeill 1932 in Ruppert
1935, 1952
Georeferenced Kilmartin - ONeill (1932) map in
the GIS with CAD map and ortho-photo
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Lincoln Project 1983-1986 (1990)
Georeferenced Lincoln Project map in the GIS with
registered Kilmartin ONeill 1932 Carnegie map
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Chichén Itzá Archaeological Project 1993
Georeferenced Chichén Itzá Archaeological Project
map in the GIS with CAD map and ortho-photo
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Cobos 1993-94Cobos Winemiller 1995-97
CAD map of area surveyed by Cobos and Winemiller
from 1993 to 1997
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Landsat Thematic Mapper

• ?Location of Chichén Itzá

Landsat TM Path 19 Row 46 RGB 7-4-1 provided by
NASA
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INEGI Thematic Maps
The resultant Access database was populated with
data provided by INEGI Thematic of vegetation
types in GeoMedia Professional 4.0

• Georeferenced 11,000,000 thematic map of
  vegetation coverage and soil types by INEGI
• Boundaries of vegetation coverage zones were
  digitized in GeoMedia Professional 4.0

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Chichén Itzá Kilmartin, ONeill 1935
Tiff files of existing Carnegie map Points in red
on map to right are identifiable architectural
elements or features In the field, we recorded
geographic coordinates with a Trimble GPS data
collector and used the post-processed positions
to register maps in GeoMedia Professional 4.0
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Collecting GPS Positions

• Collecting GPS positions of architectural
  elements and features in the field

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Post-Processing GPS Positions
An array of GPS positions in Trimbles Pathfinder
Office 2.80 prior to differential corrections and
calculation of mean centroids
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Digitizing in GeoMedia Professional
Digitizing a georeferenced map of Chichén Itzás
Extreme East Group in GeoMedia Professional
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AutoCAD Maps
Site core of Chichén Itzá with the Temple of
Kukulkan at center. One of many AutoCAD maps of
the settlement produced by Cobos and Winemiller
1993 1997
Temple of Kukulkan
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Cobos 1993-94Cobos Winemiller 1995-97
Merging AutoCAD maps from several field seasons
was accomplished in MGE
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Chichén Itzá Winemiller 2001
A single design file containing merged map
elements including new data collected by
Winemiller during the 2001 field season was
displayed in GeoMedia Professional 4.0 Map
features were then exported to a new Access
warehouse
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Ground Truth
Ortho-photo of Dzibilchaltún, digitized map
elements, and GPS positions for verification
Integrity of the GIS is tested by navigating to
features on the ground using a Garmin GPS III
with coordinates taken from georeferenced maps
displayed in GeoMedia Professional
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Mapping Architecture
Mapping a platform and structure at Dzibilchaltún
with a laser total station
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Attribute Assignment
Working map of Chichén Itzá in MGE
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Integrating Settlement Data and Thematic Maps
Site locations were plotted over various types of
climatic data in GeoMedia
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Regional Interaction
Location of major Maya sites over a MrSID image
of the Yucatán Peninsula in GeoMedia Professional
4.0
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Integrating Paper Maps and Remote Sensing Data
Uxmal, Yucatán, Mexico Spatial and non-spatial,
old and new data were integrated into a powerful
analytical tool
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The Human - Environment Interface
La Vieja, Uxmal