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Using Viewshed Analysis to Explore Settlement Choice: A Case Study of the Onondaga Iroquois

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Eric E. Jones
Eric E. Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802
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Abstract

A multitude of factors, ranging from environmental to ideological, determine where human settlements are placed on the landscape. In archaeological contexts, finding the reasons behind settlement choice can be very difficult and often requires the use of ethnographic analogies and/or modeling in a geographic information system (GIS). Archaeologists have used one particular GIS-based method, viewshed analysis, to examine site features such as defensibility and control over economic hinterlands. I use viewshed analysis in this case study to determine how the natural and political landscapes affected the settlement location choices of the Late Woodland and early Historic Onondaga Iroquois. Proximity to critical resources and defensibility both factored into the decision of where communities would place villages. Although this study shows that resources, such as productive soils, had a more significant effect on settlement choice, Iroquois communities were also taking measures to maintain the defensibility of their villages. This examination displays how GIS analyses in archaeology can go beyond the statistical results and help us understand past behavior.

Résumé

Résumé

Una multitúd de factores, desde ambientales hasta ideológicos, determinan el establecimiento de los asentamientos humanos. En contextos arqueológicos, puede resultar extremadamente difícil determinar las razones detrás de la elección de lugar para asentamiento y frecuentemente se requiere el uso de analogías etnográficas y/o modelos analíticos producidos mediante sistemas de información geográfica (GIS). Arqueólogos han usado un método en particular, el llamado análisis de visibilidad (viewshed análisis), para examinar características de sus sitios, por ejemplo defensabilidad y control sobre las periferias económicas. En el presente estudio, uso el análisis de visibilidad para determinar la manera en que los paisajes naturales y políticos afectaron la localizacion de asentamientos Onondaga Iroquois durante los periodos Woodland Tardio e Histórico Temprano. Tanto proximidad a recursos cruciales como defensabilidad eran factores importantes en la decisión de las comunidades sobre el establecimiento de sus aldeas. Aunque este estudio muestra que recursos como la productividad de los suelos tuvieron un efecto más significativo sobre la elegibilidad de un área para asentamiento, también afirma que las comunidades Iroquois tomaban ciertas medidas para mantener la defensibilidad de sus aldeas. Este ejemplo demuestra que los análisis de GIS en arqueología puedan ir más allá de los resultados estadísticos y ayudarnos a entender comprender comportamientos humanos del pasado.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , July 2006 , pp. 523 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2006 

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