Historic sites of lawful execution are now largely consigned to archival records, including hand-drawn maps. Using these records to identify potential locations, this project deploys non-invasive geophysical surveys and targeted excavation to uncover execution sites and historic gallows in Silesia.

Intermediate levels of social organization—above the household but below the entire settlement, city, or polity—are notoriously difficult to pinpoint in archaeological contexts, but they nevertheless represent a crucial frontier for building new archaeological theory to understand daily social life in the past. Ethnographic research demonstrates that informants recognize units such as the “neighborhood” and consider them important. In Mesoamerica, organizational units such as the Mixtec siqui, Aztec calpulli, and Maya cuchcabal were often formally recognized in social, military, and economic systems. Here, a neighborhood case study is presented from San Pedro Teozacoalco in Oaxaca, Mexico. The site known as Iglesia Gentil, which is located atop a mountain today called Cerro Amole, was the cabecera, or administrative center, of Chiyo Cahnu, an important Postclassic Mixtec polity. Using distributions of architecture and artifacts across the site based on data collected with GPS units from 2013 to 2017, three complementary GIS-based models are evaluated for their ability to define neighborhoods at Iglesia Gentil. The best is based on least cost paths modified by Tobler's hiking function.

Typically, weed density is used to predict weed-induced yield loss, as it is easy and quick to quantify, even though it does not account for weed size and time of emergence relative to the crop. Weed–crop leaf area relations, while more difficult to measure, inherently account for differences in plant size, representing weed–crop interference more accurately than weed density alone. Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) may allow for efficient quantification of weed and crop leaf cover over a large scale. It was hypothesized that UAS imagery could be used to predict maize (Zea mays L.) yield loss based on weed–crop leaf cover ratios. A yield loss model for maize was evaluated for accuracy using 15- and 30-m-altitude aerial red–green–blue and four-band multispectral imagery collected at four North Carolina locations. The model consistently over- and underpredicted yield loss when observed yield loss was less than and greater than 3,000 kg ha−1, respectively. Altitude and sensor type did not influence the accuracy of the prediction. A correction for the differences between predicted and observed yield loss was incorporated into the linear model to improve overall precision. The correction resulted in r2 increasing from 0.17 to 0.97 and a reduction in root mean-square error from 705 kg ha−1 to 219 kg ha−1. The results indicated that UAS images can be used to develop predictive models for weed-induced yield loss before canopy closure, making it possible for growers to plan production and financial decisions before the end of the growing season.

Peatlands, covering approximately one-third of global wetlands, provide various ecological functions but are highly vulnerable to climate change, with their changes in space and time requiring monitoring. The sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands (PEIs) are a key conservation area for South Africa, as well as for the preservation of terrestrial ecosystems in the region. Peatlands (mires) found here are threatened by climate change, yet their distribution factors are poorly understood. This study attempted to predict mire distribution on the PEIs using species distribution models (SDMs) employing multiple regression-based and machine-learning models. The random forest model performed best. Key influencing factors were the Normalized Difference Water Index and slope, with low annual mean temperature, with low annual mean temperature, precipitation seasonality and distance from the coast being less influential. Despite moderate predictive ability, the model could only identify general areas of mires, not specific ones. Therefore, this study showed limited support for the use of SDMs in predicting mire distributions on the sub-Antarctic PEIs. It is recommended to refine the criteria used to select environmental factors and enhance the geospatial resolution of the data to improve the predictive accuracy of the models.

This article explores the Maroon landscape of the Caribbean island of Dominica (Wai'tukubuli) by creating a geographic information system (GIS) model to determine the reasons behind settlement location choices. For more than 50 years, hundreds of self-emancipated Africans inhabited the mountainous interior of Dominica, where they formed various communities that actively resisted European colonialism and slavery not only to maintain their freedom but to assist in liberating enslaved Africans throughout the island. Contemporary Dominican communities maintain connections to these revolutionary ancestors through the landscape and continuing cultural practices. None of the Maroon encampments, however, have been studied archaeologically. This study uses geospatial methods to understand the visibility, defensibility, and spatial accessibility of nine Maroon camps. The results of the viewshed and least cost path analysis allows us to map Dominican Maroon social networks and reimagine the possible routes that the Maroons took to maintain their freedom.

In the summer of 2022, Tulane University, in collaboration with archaeologists from other institutions, began excavations at the site of Pompeii. The archaeological work was focused on Insula 14 of Region 1, located in the southeastern sector of the site. To overcome the challenges of recording a complex urban excavation, and of working with a collaborative team, we designed and implemented a unique workflow that combines paperless and 3D data-capture methods through the use of GIS technologies. The final product of our documentation workflow was a robust and easy-to-use online geodatabase where archaeologists can revisit, explore, visualize, and analyze each excavated context using virtual tools. We present our workflow for digitally documenting observational and spatial data in the field, and how we made these data available to project archaeologists during and after the field season. First, we describe the development of digital forms in ESRI's Survey123. Then, we explain our procedures for 3D documentation through SfM photogrammetric methods and discuss how we integrated the data and transformed it into an accessible format by using interactive dashboards and online 3D web scenes. Finally, we discuss the components of our workflow that are broadly applicable and that can easily be adapted to other projects.

Humans inhabit rich social and physical worlds and archaeology is increasingly engaging with the multi-sensory experience of life in the past. In this article, the authors model the soundscapes of five Chacoan communities on the Colorado Plateau, where habitation sites cluster around monumental great houses. The work demonstrates that the audible range of a conch-shell trumpet blown from atop these great houses consistently maps the distribution of associated habitation sites. Staying within the audible reach of great houses may have helped maintain the social cohesion of communities in the past which, the authors argue, also has implications for the management of archaeological landscapes in the modern world.

Though infrequently used and largely superfluous, amphitheaters were often the most physically imposing and ideologically charged structures in a Roman city. The preponderance of extramural amphitheaters in Italy and their appearance in visual culture confirm they were potent markers of urban life and civic status. This paper contextualizes Tibur's imperial amphitheater within the Roman suburbium's persistent urban sprawl and villas, especially Hadrian's Villa, using a novel GIS visibility analysis. Its apparent size from various points in the surrounding landscape is quantified within empirical and qualitative scales developed for modern visual impact assessments. The results demonstrate the amphitheater's suburban location did more than integrate Tibur's extramural growth into the older urban center. It emphasized the city's urban appearance, even from long distances, and monumentalized alternate routes to the city used by the villa-owning elite, countering the ambiguous status of a liminal city that was both Rome's annex and an autonomous municipium.

This report presents new documentation of the external canal in the Late Postclassic site of Tetzcotzinco in the municipality of Texcoco, Mexico. This structure was previously considered a waterwork separate from the monumental water-management system discovered in the central part of the site. However, reanalysis of the course of this canal allowed us to reassess its function and revise the existing Tetzcotzinco maps. We propose that this structure formed part of the main water-management system of the site.

Cet article est une étude expérimentale menée sur le site archéologique de Gasr Chouline à Tataouine en utilisant la prospection archéologique et les systèmes d'informations géographiques (SIG) pour améliorer la gestion du site. Bien que cette étude n'ait pas prétendu à l'exhaustivité, elle a fourni de nouvelles données archéologiques par suite d'une prospection systématique.

A long-term project to map and catalog all precontact Native American burial mounds in Iowa provides information about the number, location, form, survivorship, and rate of loss of mounds. This analysis reveals previously undocumented mound manifestations, including a large cluster of 200 linear mounds along the central Des Moines River valley. Historical records reveal that at least 7,762 mounds were identified at 1,551 sites in Iowa between 1840 and the present. About 47% of the mounds from these sites can be possibly seen in lidar, with 33% of the total clearly seen in lidar. Data show that mound loss over time is linear. Extrapolation of data suggests that at least 15,000–17,000 mounds stood in Iowa in the nineteenth century, but the actual number was likely higher.

We present a photogrammetric model and new line drawing of Sacul Stela 3 at the ancient Maya site of Sacul 1, Guatemala. Although virtually illegible in person and from photographs, the inscription on the eroded stela can largely be read or reconstructed in the 3D model. Our reading confirms a previous argument that the kingdom based at Sacul 1 was attacked in A.D. 779 by forces from the site of Ucanal. Traveling by night, warriors from Sacul retaliated with a raid at dawn next day on an unidentified site and, months later, followed up with an attack on Ucanal itself. The same narrative appears substantially on a well-known monument, Ixkun Stela 2, but there are differences between the two texts which suggest that Sacul and Ixkun had their own sculptors and record-keepers and which offer insights into the implications of verbs (pul, “to burn” and ch'ak, “to chop”) commonly attested in Classic Maya accounts of war. We then present the results of GIS analysis which suggests that the site area of El Rosario (between Sacul 1 and Ucanal) is an appealing candidate for the unidentified site mentioned in the stela text.

Theoretical units of interest often do not align with the spatial units at which data are available. This problem is pervasive in political science, particularly in subnational empirical research that requires integrating data across incompatible geographic units (e.g., administrative areas, electoral constituencies, and grid cells). Overcoming this challenge requires researchers not only to align the scale of empirical and theoretical units, but also to understand the consequences of this change of support for measurement error and statistical inference. We show how the accuracy of transformed values and the estimation of regression coefficients depend on the degree of nesting (i.e., whether units fall completely and neatly inside each other) and on the relative scale of source and destination units (i.e., aggregation, disaggregation, and hybrid). We introduce simple, nonparametric measures of relative nesting and scale, as ex ante indicators of spatial transformation complexity and error susceptibility. Using election data and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that these measures are strongly predictive of transformation quality across multiple change-of-support methods. We propose several validation procedures and provide open-source software to make transformation options more accessible, customizable, and intuitive.

Geospatial research in archaeology often relies on datasets previously collected by other archaeologists or third-party groups, such as state or federal government entities. This article discusses our work with geospatial datasets for identifying, documenting, and evaluating prehistoric and historic water features in the western United States. As part of a project on water heritage and long-term views on water management, our research has involved aggregating spatial data from an array of open access and semi-open access sources. Here, we consider the challenges of working with such datasets, including outdated or disorganized information, and fragmentary data. Based on our experiences, we recommend best practices: (1) locating relevant data and creating a data organization method for working with spatial data, (2) addressing data integrity, (3) integrating datasets in systematic ways across research cohorts, and (4) improving data accessibility.

This article reports the material evidence of roads in the northwestern Maya Lowlands that were in use from the Middle Preclassic (800–300 BC) through the Late Classic (AD 700–900) period in Chiapas and Tabasco, Mexico. The study includes archaeological evidence recovered from field research in an area covering approximately 670 km2 and 618 recorded archaeological sites. It presents the physical characteristics of a series of piedmont paths that connected the region from the Usumacinta River to the Tulijá River, including large population centers such as Palenque and Chinikihá. The study uses a geographic information system (GIS) least cost path (LCP) analysis to identify the location of roads and how they relate to regional settlement patterns. It also tests the use of modern computational models to advance regional studies in the Maya area. Study results show how the Classic Maya adapted and appropriated the region's topography to facilitate movement, long-term settlement, and the building of landesque capital.

In the last decade, archaeologists have been using human-occupied interactive digital built environments to investigate human agency, settlement, and behavior. To document this evidence, we provide here one method of conducting drone-based photogrammetry and GIS mapping from within these digital spaces based on well-established methods conducted in physical landscapes. Mapping is an integral part of archaeology in the natural world, but it has largely eluded researchers in these new, populated digital landscapes. We hope that our proposed method helps to resolve this issue. We argue that employing archaeological methods in digital environments provides a successful methodological framework to investigate human agency in digital spaces for anthropological purposes and has the potential for extrapolating data from human-digital landscape interactions and applying them to their natural analogues.