Today’s blog post will revolve around the use of GIS at the Hassanamesit Woods site. To tell you a bit about myself, my name is Scott; I am an undergraduate at UMass Boston. I am enrolled in the History/Archaeology program and will be entering my senior year in the upcoming fall semester. I have just completed my first field school and have worked the past two weeks with fellow field school undergrads in the Fiske Center laboratories. I have chosen GIS (Geographic Information Systems) as a blog topic because it is a unique item in the archaeologist’s tool belt. The GIS we use today is a technologically sophisticated mapping tool but mapping itself gets its start in the field in a very simplistic yet groundbreaking form. The creation of maps in the field has been ongoing since the late 18th century when British archaeologist General Pitt-Rivers used “a series of scaled plans and sections to display clearly the three-dimensional locations of all artifacts and features” (Wheatley, Gillings pp.2). Pitt-Rivers innovative technique of clear recording has been with archaeologists across the globe ever since.

Archaeologists use GIS to digitize maps that are hand drawn in the field. Hand drawing maps is a time consuming and meticulous effort in which archaeologists measure the location of each rock, root and existing feature found in a unit. By mapping these items in place it allows the archaeologist to preserve the spatial component of the archaeological record. With GIS the recording of spatiality allows for great flexibility for the archaeologist. GIS allows for the archaeologist to view the larger picture of an entire site on a year to year basis or that of a single unit from level to level. GIS has been used since the onset of the Hassanamesit Woods project in 2005. Every unit that has been excavated and subsequently backfilled has been digitized and is able to be displayed with just a click of a button. The site and each individual unit can be shown over time. For example, there are many units that produce several maps each. These maps are digitized and can be viewed in sequential order at any time. This is very helpful to an archaeologist because all of the maps are in one place and are easily accessible. GIS also holds information about each map in what are called geo-databases. The geo-databases provide such information as the area of each individual rock or root. They contain the depths of the unit when the map was drawn. The coordinates for each individual unit and topographic information for landscape features are also found here. The files for each layer in a unit are separate from each other but can be layered on top of each other for even greater flexibility and further understanding of a particular unit or the site as a whole.

Since the late 18th century archaeologists have taken great concern in the preservation of spatiality within an archaeological context. From General Pitt-Rivers to Edward Harris and the Harris Matrix, GIS has become the next step in spatial analyzation. It is a tool archaeologist’s use that has its roots in the very beginning of formal archaeology but is truly progressive in nature.

By Scott McGaughey