Modeling Uplands: Landscape and Prehistoric Native American Settlement Archaeology in the Virginia Blue Ridge Foothills
- ISBN-10
- 1109491018
- ISBN-13
- 9781109491012
- Pages
- 672
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2009
- Publisher
- Catholic University of America
- Author
- Carole L. Nash
Description
The major methodological contribution is the development of an approach that combines field survey, artifact analysis, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to produce a working model of cultural continuity and change at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The field work was undertaken by the author and a group of trained volunteers from the Madison Archaeology Project, a rural, citizen-science effort designed to document archaeological resources in the rural Rappahannock Piedmont. A relational database and Geographic Information System facilitates the analysis of provenienced artifact collections from 233 sites in three macro-physiographic provinces and six watersheds. The assemblage of 50,623 artifacts is analyzed for twenty-one variables associated with material culture, site characteristics, and ecological context. The resulting model allows the analysis of subtle landscape variables and site distribution across different spatial scales, releasing archaeologists from decontextualized explanations of hunter-gatherer settlement.
