Examining past research with new technologies: The Ewing Site revisited with ARCGIS

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Issue Date
2013-05
Embargo End Date
Authors
Reed, David Ross
Advisor
Hughes, David T.
Citation
Abstract

During three summers in the late 1960s, the Ewing Site was excavated in the Four Corners area of Colorado and was archived at Wichita State University. Since that time, archaeological recovery methods and analysis technology has changed. Along with other technological changes, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technology has had a profound impact in the worldof Cultural Resource Management. With the advent and implementation of this new technology, archaeology has found a faster and easier way of examining data across vast geographical areas.This allows for better probability studies for the location and protection of sites across the UnitedStates. Landscapes can be examined to determine how people moved across their environments such as hunting routes, natural resource usage, and migration studies. Little has been done in applying this technology to older data and looking at site level spatial relationships. Using the Ewing site as a template, there are several questions that need to be addressed. The first is to determine if there is potential for the site to offer new information. Next we need to determine if there is enough information still available in order to make a proper assessment of the site. And finally we must ask, did we learn anything new? GIS must further our knowledge of the people who once lived there to make it worth the effort of applying to sites of this type. This information can be easily integrated at theinstitution level and incorporated into other larger GIS databases that include data from all over aspecific region. It could also be invaluable in sorting through vast collections that may have sat untouched since the Great Depression and the early days of the Works Project Administration.Salvage archaeology is an important aspect in the history of the profession within the United States, and gaining accurate and important information in minimal time would serve to advance archaeology as a whole.

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Description
Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology
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