Using LiDAR data to locate a Middle Woodland enclosure and associated mounds, Louisa County, Iowa

Riley, Melanie A.; Tiffany, Joseph A.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2014.07.018

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Unlike previously recorded council circles, the circular feature and extraction pits recorded in our survey have little in the way of topographic expression, and the center of the feature is elevated only a small amount above the surrounding fields, as revealed in a high-resolution DSM generated from visible light imagery (Figure 7d). However, other recent studies of known mounds and enclosures in the Midwest show that modern agriculture and pasture activities can obscure or remove all topographic expression of such features, even while traces of their existence are extant below ground and in geophysical data (Henry et al 2019; Riley and Tiffany 2014): a similar process could have affected the feature we observe in our data.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 54%

A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article presents results of a multi-sensor drone survey at an ancestral Wichita archaeological site in southeastern Kansas, originally recorded in the 1930s and believed by some scholars to be the location of historical “Etzanoa,” a major settlement reportedly encountered by Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in 1601. We used high-resolution, drone-acquired thermal and multispectral (color and near-infrared) imagery, alongside publicly available lidar data and satellite imagery, to prospect for archaeological features across a relatively undisturbed 18 ha area of the site. Results reveal a feature that is best interpreted as the remains of a large, circular earthwork, similar to so-called council circles documented at five other contemporary sites of the Great Bend aspect cultural assemblage. We also located several features that may be remains of house basins, the size and configuration of which conform with historical evidence. These findings point to major investment in the construction of large-scale ritual, elite, or defensive structures, lending support to the interpretation of the cluster of Great Bend aspect sites in the lower Walnut River as a single, sprawling population center, as well as demonstrating the potential for thermal and multispectral surveys to reveal archaeological landscape features in the Great Plains and beyond.

show abstract

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 54%

A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In contrast to the extensive literature on DEM interpolation, interpolation of archaeologyspecific DFM has until recently been briefly considered in only a handful of studies with conflicting results: TLI [58], Kriging [35,59], spline interpolator [60], and nearest neighbor [61] were all declared as the most suitable interpolator. A recent study was therefore dedicated to finding the most suitable interpolator for archaeology-specific processing of airborne LiDAR data.…”

Section: Dfm Interpolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airborne LiDAR Point Cloud Processing for Archaeology. Pipeline and QGIS Toolbox

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of topographic airborne LiDAR data has become an essential part of archaeological prospection. However, as a step towards theoretically aware, impactful, and reproducible research, a more rigorous and transparent method of data processing is required. To this end, we set out to create a processing pipeline for archaeology-specific point cloud processing and derivation of products that are optimized for general-purpose data. The proposed pipeline improves on ground and building point cloud classification. The main area of innovation in the proposed pipeline is raster grid interpolation. We have improved the state-of-the-art by introducing a hybrid interpolation technique that combines inverse distance weighting with a triangulated irregular network with linear interpolation. State-of-the-art solutions for enhanced visualizations are included and essential metadata and paradata are also generated. In addition, we have introduced a QGIS plug-in that implements the pipeline as a one-step process. It reduces the manual workload by 75 to 90 percent and requires no special skills other than a general familiarity with the QGIS environment. It is intended that the pipeline and tool will contribute to the white-boxing of archaeology-specific airborne LiDAR data processing. In discussion, the role of data processing in the knowledge production process is explored.

show abstract

“…Magnetometry survey located traces of a plowed-down octagonal enclosure at the McKinney site (13LA1), adjacent to the Havana Hopewell Toolesboro Mounds (13LA29) in southeast Iowa (De Vore 2015). The embankment walls had been more than 2 m high, but they were flattened by farming and are now invisible from the air and barely discernible using lidar (Newhall 1841; Riley and Tiffany 2014). The embankment apparently lacked the distinctive ditches that facilitate detection of other plowed earthworks.…”

Section: Detecting Leveled Moundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geophysical Detection and Assessment of Leveled Mounds: An Example from the Upper Mississippi Valley

Green

Wiewel²,

Vore³

2021

Am. Antiq.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most earthen burial mounds of eastern North America have been destroyed—or have they? We review geophysical methods for assessing whether leveled mounds retain intact deposits or features. Magnetic survey holds promise for locating and evaluating leveled mounds because it is rapid and sensitive to magnetic variations associated with anticipated features such as pits and deposits of mound fill. As a case study, we discuss our magnetic survey of the Gast Farm site (13LA12) in eastern Iowa. The survey covered 8.64 ha, encompassing loci of one previously reported mound and possible geometric earthworks as well as Middle and Late Woodland habitation areas. Interpretation of survey results incorporated quantitative differentiation of magnetic anomaly types using GIS techniques, along with standard visual inspection. We found no evidence of geometric earthworks but identified at least six leveled mounds. Displaced mound fill appears to account for the earthwork-like features. We conclude that leveled mounds are detectable and may retain subsurface integrity. Their associated features, including burials, may be identifiable even when above-ground evidence has disappeared.

show abstract

Using LiDAR data to locate a Middle Woodland enclosure and associated mounds, Louisa County, Iowa

Cited by 13 publications

References 4 publications

A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

A Council Circle at Etzanoa? Multi-sensor Drone Survey at an Ancestral Wichita Settlement in Southeastern Kansas

Airborne LiDAR Point Cloud Processing for Archaeology. Pipeline and QGIS Toolbox

Geophysical Detection and Assessment of Leveled Mounds: An Example from the Upper Mississippi Valley

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About