GIS Data Base and Spatial Analysis of the Basin of Mexico

墨西哥盆地 GIS 数据库和空间分析

• 批准号: 0609926
• 负责人: Kenneth Hirth
• 金额: $ 15.68万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0609926&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GIS; Data; Base; Spatial; Analysis

Funding by the National Science Foundation will support a 2-year project under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Hirth to create an visual computer (GIS) database on prehistoric population development in the Basin surrounding modern Mexico City. The Basin of Mexico was the cradle of Mexican civilization. It was the home of Mexico's first great city at Teotihuacan as well as the center of the great Aztec civilization encountered at the time of the Spanish conquest. Between 1960-1975 NSF funded a series archaeological settlement surveys in this area that covered approximately 800 sq. miles and located over 2,052 sites spanning 3,000 years of cultural development. These surveys represent one of the largest surveyed areas of the ancient world and have shaped understanding of complex society in Central Mexico. These surveys contain important information that continue to guide interpretations of cultural development not only in Mexico but also in the comparative analysis of the rise of ancient civilizations around the world.Unfortunately, the rapid urban expansion of Mexico City has destroyed or covered most of these valuable archaeological sites making these surveys the only archaeological record for the region. While the results of these surveys were published in the 1960's and 1970s following academic conventions of the day, none of these archaeological site data are now available for studying the evolution of cultural complexity using contemporary computer methods. Furthermore, none of this information is currently available to the Mexican government in a form useful for the conservation and preservation of its national patrimony. Recent attempts to relocate sites in endangered areas has been unsuccessful because of a significant error in the original map grid used to record site locations.This project will ensure that the information from one of world's major centers of cultural development will be preserved and available for analysis by future generations of archaeologists and prehistorians. It will relocate, correctly position, and digitally encode site information on modern geo-rectified maps and air photos and will code important data on prehistoric architecture and associated artifacts in linked databases. This will enable researchers to conduct a series of new quantitative studies on prehistoric population growth, land use, environmental change, and subsistence risk that were not possible during the original analysis. These analyses will provide new insights into the range of factors that influenced settlement decisions and the development of complex society in this important area of the ancient world.The broader impact of this project is that it will create an durable site archive that can be used immediately by Mexican archaeologists of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH) to investigate and preserve endangered archaeological sites in the Mexico City area. The rapid destruction of sites in the Basin of Mexico means that in the 21st century most new information on prehispanic culture will have to be derived from urban salvage projects. The data from this project will help guide that research. INAH plans to merge the data from this project into its site monitoring program to develop a more comprehensive archaeological salvage and conservation program for the greater Mexico City metropolitan area.

由国家科学基金会资助的一个为期两年的项目将在Kenneth Hirth博士的指导下，创建一个关于现代墨西哥城周围盆地史前人口发展的可视化计算机(GIS)数据库。墨西哥盆地是墨西哥文明的摇篮。它是墨西哥第一座伟大城市特奥蒂瓦坎的所在地，也是西班牙征服时遇到的伟大阿兹特克文明的中心。在1960-1975年间，国家科学基金会资助了这一地区的一系列考古聚落调查，调查面积约为800平方英尺。位于2,052个遗址，跨越3000年的文化发展。这些调查代表了古代世界最大的调查地区之一，并形成了对墨西哥中部复杂社会的理解。这些调查包含的重要信息不仅继续指导着对墨西哥文化发展的解读，也指导着对世界各地古代文明崛起的比较分析。不幸的是，墨西哥城的快速城市扩张摧毁了或覆盖了这些宝贵的考古遗址，使这些调查成为该地区唯一的考古记录。虽然这些调查的结果是按照当时的学术惯例在20世纪60年代和70年代的S和70年代公布的，但这些考古遗址数据现在都无法用当代计算机方法研究文化复杂性的演变。此外，墨西哥政府目前还不能以有助于保护其国家遗产的形式获得这些信息。最近在濒危地区重新安置遗址的尝试没有成功，因为用于记录遗址位置的原始地图网格存在严重错误。该项目将确保来自世界主要文化发展中心之一的信息将得到保存，并可供后代考古学家和史前学者分析。它将对现代地理校正地图和航空照片上的遗址信息进行重新定位、正确定位和数字编码，并将在链接的数据库中对有关史前建筑和相关文物的重要数据进行编码。这将使研究人员能够对史前人口增长、土地利用、环境变化和生存风险进行一系列新的量化研究，这些研究在最初的分析中是不可能的。这些分析将为影响这一古代世界重要地区的定居点决定和复杂社会发展的一系列因素提供新的见解。该项目的更广泛影响是，它将创建一个持久的遗址档案，可供墨西哥国家历史研究所(INAH)的墨西哥考古学家立即使用，以调查和保护墨西哥城地区濒危的考古遗址。墨西哥盆地遗址的迅速破坏意味着，在21世纪，关于领悟文化的大多数新信息将不得不从城市抢救项目中获得。该项目的数据将有助于指导这项研究。INAH计划将该项目的数据合并到其遗址监测计划中，以制定更全面的大墨西哥城大都市区的考古抢救和保护计划。