Using Viewshed Analysis to Explore Settlement Choice
A Case Study of the Onondaga Iroquois
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2591637 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eric E Jones (0000-0003-1625-1042) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 71 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 523-538 |
| Publication date | 2006-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-7316 • E-ISSN: 2325-5064 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/40035363 |
| OpenAlex | W4248977621 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 26 |
| References cited | 15 |
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
Archaeology · Cartography · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geographic information system · Geography · Human settlement · Landscape archaeology · Landscape design · Landscape history · Settlement (finance · Viewshed analysis · Woodland · American Environmental and Regional History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Natural History · Ecology · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
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| Unique citing works | 26 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,37 |
| Citation span | 2007 - 2026 (20) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 26 |