Practical Methods of GIS for Archaeologists: Spatial Division in a Large Area

This paper deals with the mapping of shorelines through existing maps. Its main purpose is not to give an accurate change of sea level and shoreline in general, but to give guidelines to a more general mapping of shorelines. Geographic Information System (GIS) and paleoenvironmental analysis are powerful tools for archaeology and environmental researches and contributes in such a direction. Furthermore, this essay will present an analysis of the shoreline changes and the resultant geomorphologies during the prehistoric eras, especially the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and the Helladic eras of the area. The study area which was selected concerns the west part of Messenia Prefecture in Greece. More specifically it concerns the wider area of Pylos and the Navarino bay. The Navarino bay is located near the ancient city of Pylos and the kingdom and palace of Nestor during the Mycenaean period

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“…Using images from satellites, aircrafts, etc. and digitizing the data, it can be extracted into geographical [15,16].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping shoreline changes over the years: The case study of Navarino bay, Pylos, Messenia, Greece

Malaperdas

Παναγόπουλος

2021

OJC

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“…As slope approaches zero, walking speed increases rapidly with a maximum speed just under 6 km/h which is achieved when the feature walks on a light downhill incline as resolved by various analysis of mobility in archaeology (Van Leusen 2002), (Kondo and Seino 2011), (White 2015). This algorithm was applied to the methodology in order to calculate the time needed to cover a particular distance over uneven terrain, as in the study area, taking under consideration that the particular algorithm has been used successfully in other archaeological studies (Kanter 1996), (Malaperdas 2019).…”

Section: Methodology and Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental aspects of ancient city planning: a pilot study on Ancient Thouria in the Peloponnese, Greece

Panagiotidis

Malaperdas

Valantou

et al. 2019

STAR: Science & Technology of Archaeological Research

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In this paper environmental, topographic and geological data of the Classical till Roman Times thriving city of Ancient Thouria situated in Messenia, SW Peloponnese, Greece are presented in context to their archaeological interpretation of the study area's landscape and usage. Using environmental and geographic factors in collaboration with soil characterization, a preliminary spatial analysis was conducted, aiming at the archaeological interpretation of parameters such as water availability, weather conditions, topography, settlement accessibility and land fertility, taking under account analytical data of soil samples retrieved from a section of an ongoing excavation. The study was conducted using a digital elevation model of the area that enabled the examination of the criteria of watershed, slope, aspect and visibility and assisted X-ray Fluorescence analysis of soil samples from the Asklepieion excavated area thus highlighting the contribution of spatial and in situ analysis to archaeology.

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The habitation Model Trend Calculation (MTC): A new effective tool for predictive modeling in archaeology

Malaperdas

Zacharias

2019

Geo-spatial Information Science

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The aim of this paper is to create and present a new archaeological predictive model via GIS, incorporating what archaeologists consider the most important criterion absent of similar past models, that of critical thinking. The new model suggested in this paper is named habitation Model Trend Calculation (MTC) and is not only integrates the archaeological questions with a critical view, but it can be easily adjusted, according to the conditions or the questions concerning the archaeological community. Furthermore, it uses new topographical and geomorphological indexes such as Topographical Index (TPI), Hillslope and Landform Classification that give a new sense of the topographical and geomorphological characteristics of the examined area; therefore this model is a more powerful tool compared to older models that did not use new topographical and geomorphological indexes. The success of the created model is checked as a case study in the region of Messenia, Greece during the Mycenaean era. The region of Messenia is considered as one of the most important Mycenaean regions of Greece due to the great number and the importance of Mycenaean sites identified. For the present paper, 140 habitation sites were divided into four hierarchical categories (centers, large villages, villages, and farms) based on the extent and the plurality of the tholos tombs that exist in the broader region and according to the hierarchical categorization used by the archaeologists who have studied the area. The new predictive model presented in this work can assist in solving a series of criticisms that have been expressed in the previous studies regarding such models. Additionally, in the case of Mycenaean Messenia, the model shows excellent results in relation to the habitats of the time.

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Practical Methods of GIS for Archaeologists: Spatial Division in a Large Area

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

Mapping shoreline changes over the years: The case study of Navarino bay, Pylos, Messenia, Greece

Mapping shoreline changes over the years: The case study of Navarino bay, Pylos, Messenia, Greece

Environmental aspects of ancient city planning: a pilot study on Ancient Thouria in the Peloponnese, Greece

The habitation Model Trend Calculation (MTC): A new effective tool for predictive modeling in archaeology

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