A discussion on GIS and archaeology between Dr. Andrea Vianello and Prof. Pedar W. Foss is available as a podcast from Intute. Prof. Foss is one of the principal investigators of the Mediterranean Archaeology Geographic Information System (MAGIS) project and is also the founder and moderator of the ROMARCH/rome-arch mailing list.
Podcast: http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/podcasts/gis.mp3
GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is becoming a familiar word among archaeologists, but the usefulness of the many analyses that GIS makes possible depend on the data available. In the most popular implementations of GIS, Google Earth and NASA WorldWind, it is the sheer beauty of our planet as shown by comprehensive satellite footage and a complete set of maps that are key to their success. Sophisticated tools such as Mapinfo, ESRI ArcGIS, and GRASS provide a large range of powerful analyses, but these can be accessed primarily by using prepared datasets, which are of scarce use to archaeologists. Sure, it is possible to insert data during an archaeological excavation as it progresses and manage the data in a more efficient way, but such data are rarely shared outside the excavation team.
There is no doubt that GIS is here to stay and is an important addition to the tools available to the modern archaeologist, and there are also specialist applications for GIS in archaeology that are of great value, such in the cases of surveys and large datasets of spatial data. However, most GIS applications in archaeology produce maps or use maps as interface to underlying databases. Are archaeologists ready to use GIS? Is there any ‘killer application’ for GIS in archaeology? Will the virtual worlds become GIS worlds? It was time to ask some difficult questions and go beyond presenting enthusiastic case-studies of what might be done with GIS if good data are available.
Please send us your comments or reactions to this podcast using the feedback form on this website. And if you have any ideas or suggestions for future podcasts, we are listening!
