Addressing the problem of disappearing cultural landscapes in archaeological research using multi-scalar survey

Abstract

Climate change and anthropogenic activities are actively destroying the archaeological record.The dramatic disappearance of archaeological landscapes becomes particularly problematic when they are also unrecorded. Hidden from view and eroding, these disappearing landscapes likely hold answers to important anthropological questions. As such, disappearing landscapes present a major challenge for 21 st century archaeology. Left unchecked, this phenomenon will increase the severity of bias in our knowledge of the past. In this paper we use a case study from Pinckney Island in the American Southeast to illustrate how the problem of hidden and disappearing landscapes can be addressed through multi-scalar surveys. Specifically, by combining aerial LiDAR, pedestrian survey, and micro-artifact approaches, the identification of hidden and disappearing cultural materials (including permanent settlements and ephemeral artifact scatters) can be alleviated.

Theoretical Repositioning of Automated Remote Sensing Archaeology: Shifting from Features to Ephemeral Landscapes

“…The achievements of locating large architectural features can make further advances in archaeological research by helping to locate more ephemeral traces of human activity. In many cases, the detection of monumental structures (or other topographically distinct cultural heritage) can actually lead researchers to discover ephemeral cultural remains (e.g., Davis, Seeber and Sanger 2020;Klehm et al 2019). The use of larger-scale cultural heritage as a proxy for detecting smaller scale heritage is certainly worthy of further emphasis in future studies.…”

“…Uncovering more ephemeral traces of human activities is challenging because the nature of habitat modifications and material remains -often consisting of temporary or semi-permanent living structures that decay shortly after abandonment -are far more subtle when compared with cultural features like monuments. The long-term effects of depositional processes will ultimately reduce such materials into microscale traces that require a multitude of different analytical methods to perceive (Davis, Seeber and Sanger 2020). However, recent successes of automated remote sensing bring a suite of advantages to documenting land-use practices in a systematic and replicable manner, and recently this has included the identification of ephemeral land-use activities (Davis et al 2020a;Orengo and Garcia-Molsosa 2019;Adam 2019, 2020).…”

Machine Learning Arrives in Archaeology

“…The increasing availability of large-scale lidar, satellite, and aerial imagery on local, regional, and national scales, however, is transforming archaeology around the globe-particularly the searching and mapping of archaeological sites (Figure 2). ML algorithms can be used to process the geospatial data in the search for sites in diverse environments (Bonhage et al 2021;Caspari and Crespo 2019;Davis 2019;Davis, DiNapoli, et al 2020;Davis, Seeber, et al 2020;Evans and Hofer 2019;Guyot et al 2018Guyot et al , 2021Orengo et al 2020;Soroush et al 2020;Thabeng et al 2019;Trier et al 2018Trier et al , 2019 Verschoof-van der Vaart and Lambers 2019; Verschoof-van der Vaart et al 2020).…”

“…The construction of the ML models can help to identify the contribution of different variables that are useful predictors of where sites are found across landscapes (Sharafi et al 2016;Zheng et al 2020). The different scales in which these models can operate empower archaeologists when cataloguing heritage by thematic choices, morphology, and environmental context, which in turn makes for both better heritage management (e.g., Castiello and Tonini 2019;Davis, Seeber, et al 2020;Jones and Bickler 2017) and more detailed research around the world (e.g., Caspari and Crespo 2019;Freeland et al 2016).…”

Resistance and Care in the Time of COVID‐19: Archaeology in 2020

“…In the context of climate change, the voices of Indigenous, Black, and other marginalized communities are reconsidering the meaning of resilience and vulnerability in the context of deep‐time, inherited, ecological racism that is being recovered from archaeological practices through coproduction of knowledge (Armstrong and Brown 2019 ; Armstrong et al. 2021 ; Boger, Perdikaris, and Rivera‐Collazo 2019 ; Caron‐Beaudoin and Armstrong 2019 ; Davis, Seeber, and Sanger 2020 ; Douglass 2020 ; Pearson, Jackson, and McNamara 2021 ; Rivera‐Collazo et al. 2020 ).…”