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Mapping the Tres Zapotes Polity

The Effectiveness of Lidar in Tropical Alluvial Settings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2017

Michael L. Loughlin ,
Christopher A. Pool ,
Juan C. Fernandez-Diaz  and
Ramesh L. Shrestha
Michael L. Loughlin*
Affiliation:
Program for Archaeological Research, University of Kentucky, 1020a Export Street, Lexington, KY 40506
Christopher A. Pool
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506christopher.pool@uky.edu
Juan C. Fernandez-Diaz
Affiliation:
National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, University of Houston, 5000 Gulf Freeway, Houston, TX 77204jfernandez11@uh.edu
Ramesh L. Shrestha
Affiliation:
National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping, University of Houston, 5000 Gulf Freeway, Houston, TX 77204rlshrestha@uh.edu
*
mlloug0@uky.edu
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Abstract

Seasonal wetlands and exuberant crop growth present challenges to systematic archaeological survey in alluvial settings, particularly in the tropical lowlands. Lidar can reduce the time and cost required to survey such areas by allowing targeting of elevated features not buried under recent alluvium, but demographic interpretation requires estimating post-abandonment alluvial depths. The broad alluvial plain between the Papaloapan delta and the Tuxtla Mountains in southern Veracruz, Mexico, offers a valuable case study, featuring seasonally inundated marshes, lakes, and vast fields of sugar cane, a crop infamously obstructive to lidar mapping. Undertaken to reconstruct demographic and organizational change in the Tres Zapotes polity, this study evaluates the benefits and limitations of lidar for archaeological survey in tropical alluvial settings based on overlap between lidar and systematic pedestrian survey and estimates of alluvial depth obtained by auger testing and underscores the importance of timing for lidar mapping in sugar cane.

Los humedales temporales y el crecimiento exuberante de cultivos presentan retos al mapeo arqueológico sistemático en terrenos aluviales, particularmente en las tierras bajas tropicales. El lidar puede reducir el tiempo y el costo requerido para realizar mapeos de dicha aéreas mediante la identificación de elementos elevados que no están cubiertos por aluvión depositado en tiempos recientes, sin embargo, para realizar una interpretación demográfica es necesario estimar la profundidad del aluvión depositado después del abandono de los asentamientos. El amplio valle aluvial entre la delta del Papaloapan y las montañas de Tuxla al sur del estado de Veracruz, México, constituye un muy valioso caso de estudio ya que presenta humedales inundados por temporadas, lagos y amplios campos de cultivo de caña de azúcar, una planta de notoriedad por ser extremadamente obstructiva para el mapeo con lidar. Ejecutado con el objetivo de reconstruir el cambio demográfico y organizacional en la unidad cultural de Tres Zapotes, este estudio evalúa los beneficios y las limitaciones del lidar aplicado a mapeos arqueológicos en ambientes aluviales basado en la superposición de lidar con mapeos basados en recorridos peatonales sistemáticos y estimados de profundidad de aluvión obtenidos con perforaciones de barrena; los resultados resaltan la importación de la calendarización del levantamiento lidar con respecto a ciclo de cosecha de la caña de azúcar.

Type
Research Article
Information
Advances in Archaeological Practice , Volume 4 , Issue 3: Special Issue: Progression and Issues in the Mesoamerican Geospatial Revolution , August 2016 , pp. 301 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2016

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