ANT - 4930
Anthropological GIS

General Course Plan/Outline:

This course is designed to introduce students to historical and current uses of geographical information systems (GIS) within anthropology and archaeology, centering on the development of practical GIS skills for the student. The anthropological uses of GIS have generated a number of theoretical approaches, represented in a growing body of literature. These theoretical approaches will form a general background as the student learns to apply GIS to common problems such as inventory, map-making, spatial analysis, and publication. The readings are designed to provide each student with a foundation in the literature, as well as pointing to numerous other resources that may be of interest to the students who want to make GIS a specialization. The student will develop a marketable skill-set highly sought after by many professional and academic units. This course is designed around a ‘hands-on’ approach through weekly tutorials and assignments.
Specifically, students will:
            - will develop (at least) an intermediate understanding of ESRI’s ArcGIS
            - engage current scholarship
            - conduct anthropologically-drive independent GIS projects

Required Texts:

Knowles, Anne Kelly. editor
2002    Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History. ESRI Press: Redlands, California.
Aldenderfer, Mark, & Herbert D. G. Maschner
1996    Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Wheatley, David & Mark Gillings
2002    Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS. London: Taylor & Francis.

Recommended Texts:

Ormsby et al. [this is an excellent reference guide for using ArcGIS]
2004    Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9. ESRI Inc.

Terms:

            Students’ grades are based largely on several smaller, skill-based assignments and an individual research project. The smaller assignments will take the form of skill-oriented projects to ensure that students are grasping the essentials of operating the program. The research project will be broken down into various assignments due at different points during the term and culminating with a final paper (7-10 pages) and presentation.

            Grades will be based on:

Disability Accommodations:

            Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the instructor when requesting accommodation.        I am very happy to work with students who have any kind of disability, but must insist that you make me aware of your disability as soon as possible if it will impact your work.

Course Schedule:

            Please note, the readings are subject to change. This will be determined after the first meeting of the class to determine a better set of readings dependent on student interest.

Weeks 01-04 – Introduction to ArcGIS (Desktop and 3D Analyst)

            The first three weeks are dedicated to allowing students time to complete approximately 45 hours of online instruction. The first day of class will be dedicated to getting students set-up with ESRI’s online course website and guaranteeing access to the software.
            In addition, over these first three weeks, foundational readings will be assigned to help ground students in historical and recent uses of GIS within anthropology.

Required Readings:

Kvamme, Kenneth L.
1999    Recent Direction and Development in Geographical Information Systems. Journal of Archaeological Research, 7(2): 153-202.

Fisher, Peter F.
1999    Geographical Information Systems: Today and Tomorrow? In Gillings, M., Mattingly, D., and van Dalen, J. (eds.), Geographical Information Systems and Landscape Archaeology, Oxbow Books, Park End Place, Oxford, pp. 5-12.

Week 05 – Data Acquisition

            This week is dedicating to exploring ways in which anthropological data is generated within a GIS. Readings will highlight various sources and editing strategies.

Required Readings:

Wheatley, David & Mark Gillings
2002    Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS. London: Taylor & Francis.
Chapter Three: Acquiring and Integrating Data

Recommended Readings:

Knowles, Anne Kelly. editor
2002    Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History. ESRI Press: Redlands, California.
Chapter Five: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Race in Metropolitan New York, 1900-2000
Chapter Eleven: Mapping the Ancient World

Internet Resources (introductory PowerPoint):
GIS.com – http://www.gis.com
ESRI – http://www.esri.com
Terraserver – http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
USGS Seamless – http://seamless.usgs.gov
Also, check out my links page.

First Skill-Based Assignment: Digitizing Features from Geo-referenced Images.

Week 06 – Inventory and Management of GIS Data

            This week examines the geodatabase structure as the main way to organize GIS data.

Project Topics should be decided by this point, student should let instructor know and be prepared to briefly discuss their intended project with the entire class by this point.

Required Readings:

Tennant, Edward W.
2007       A Sample Geodatabase Structure for Managing Archaeological Data and Resources with ArcGIS. Technical Briefs in Historical Archaeology 2:12-23.

Ethics Statements from both the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) and Society of Historical Archaeology (SHA)

Read Geodatabase information from tutorials section of http://gis.little-yeti.com

Aldenderfer, Mark, & Herbert D. G. Maschner
1996    Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Chapter Six: Empirical and Methodological Problems in Developing a GIS Database for Yanomamo Tribesman Located in Remote Areas
Chapter Eleven: The Role of GIS in the Management of Archaeological Data: An Example of Application for the Spanish Administration

Recommended Readings:

Wheatley, David & Mark Gillings
2002    Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS. London: Taylor & Francis.
Chapter 11: Cultural Resource Management

Second Skill-Based Assignment: Coding digitized information into a geodatabase.

Week 07 – Analytical Methods Part I (Viewsheds and Catchment Analysis)

Required Readings:

Wheatley, David & Mark Gillings
2002    Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS. London: Taylor & Francis.
Chapter 10: Visibility Analysis and Archaeology

Recommended Readings:

Aldenderfer, Mark, & Herbert D. G. Maschner
1996    Anthropology, Space, and Geographic Information Systems. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Chapter Eight: Moving from Catchments to Cognition: Tentative Steps Towards a Larger Archaeological Context for GIS
Chapter Ten: The Politics of Settlement Choice on the Northwest Coast: Cognition, GIS, and Coastal Landscapes
Chapter Thirteen: Danebury Revisited: An English Iron Age Hillfort in a Digital Landscape

Third Skill-Based Assignment: conduct a simple viewshed analysis [Data Files]

Week 08 – Analytical Methods Part II (Predictive Modeling)

Required Readings:

Wheatley, David & Mark Gillings
2002    Spatial Technology and Archaeology: The Archaeological Applications of GIS. London: Taylor & Francis.
Chapter Eight: Location Models and Prediction

Ebert, David
2004    Applications of Archaeological GIS. Canadian Journal of Archaeology, 28(2): 319-341.

Peterson, Christian E. and Robert D. Drennan
2005   Communities, Settlements, Sites, and Surveys: Regional-Scale Analysis of Prehistoric Human Interaction. American Antiquity, 70(1):5-30.
While this reading is not exactly predicitive modeling, a number of the approaches and uses dovetail nicely and provides useful concepts and methods that could be employed with an scatter-shot form of data.

Recommended Readings:

Westcott, K.L, & J. A. Kuiper’s chapter
2000    Using a GIS to Model Prehistoric Site Distributions in the Upper Chesapeake Bay. In Practical Applications of GIS for Archaeologists: A Predictive Modelling Kit, Westcott, K.L., and R.J. Brandon (eds.), Taylor & Francis.

Knowles, Anne Kelly. editor
2002    Past Time, Past Place: GIS for History. ESRI Press: Redlands, California.
Chapter 10: GIS in Archaeology

No weekly assignment: There is no assignment this week. However, I expect students to start looking back over the past week's readings online and begin familiarizing yourself with each week's general readings. I know that's a-lot to ask, but I'm giving you until the Wednesday after Spring Break to read and complete Week 09's assignment. Also, use this time to find some literature on your individual projects. Weekly readings (past and present) will be divided into required and reccommended to help you focus.

Week 09 – Analytical Methods Part III (Simulation)

Required Readings:

Lake, M.W.
1999    Magical Computer Simulation of Mesolithic Foraging. In Dynamics in Human and Primate Societies, Kohler, T. and G. Gumerman (eds.), Oxford University Press. [online]
(this edited volume is an excellent text on recent simulation studies)

Fourth Skill-Based Assignment: conduct a sample suitability analysis and work with Census data in ArcGIS. Here is the PowerPoint on downloading census data. (Assignment data is loaded on your local machines) Here is the PowerPoint from class.

Week 10-12 – Publication and Presentation of Anthropological Material

            This week’s lessons focus on the preparation and presentation of spatial knowledge for public consumption. Some forms of data lend themselves to this type of preparation better than others, but students are reminded to look to the previous week for ideas on presenting non-archaeological data in meaningful ways. However, regardless of what your are researching, on the most impressive and eye-catching ways to get noticed is through the use of 3D applications such as ArcScene, Google SketchUp, and Google Earth. These three weeks are set aside to let students gain more familiarity with the building blocks of a strong, useful, and publicly-oriented project. This includes completeing the Geodatabase online course.

Required Readings:

Building a Website (Quamut Chart) - outlines the basics and presents a 'how-to' for setting up a website.
Introduction to Dreamweaver - a paper from the University of Durham's Information Technology Service center.
Further Dreamweaver - a paper from the University of Durham's Information Technology Service center.

Evans, Thomas and Patrick Daly
2006    Digital Archaeology: Bridging Method and Theory. London: Routledge.
Chapter 10: Electronic Publication in Archaeology. Julian D. Richards

Gonzalez-Tennant, Edward and Diana Gonzalez-Tennant
2008    "Using GIS to Document and Manage Heritage Resources at Kingsley Plantation, Ft. George Island, Florida" Poster presented at the 2008 Society for Historic Archaeology meetings in Albuquerque, NM, USA.

Final Skill-Based Assignment: create a website for your student projects which contains preliminary data and/or results of your individual projects, you should be able to incorporate the above mentioned Google programs into this assignment readily. If you need some ideas, see either my research page or links page for more ideas.

Week 13 – No class, students will complete projects

            No class this week, students are encouraged to meet individually with the instructor to put finishing touches on their term projects in preparation for their class presentations. Since each student is required to conduct research, crate a public-viewable outlet for it, and then present it to the class, getting some advanced input is strongly recommended.

Weeks 14 & 15 – Student Presentations of Results

            Students will take class time to present short (10 minutes) synopses on their term projects. Then, approximately 15-20 minutes will be allowed for Q & A with fellow students and the instructor.