Looking at the Big Picture: Using Spatial Statistical Analyses to Study Indigenous Settlement Patterns in the North-Western Dominican Republic

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, vol. 6, pp. 16–28

Abstract

After several field campaigns between 2007 and 2018 in the northwestern region of the Dominican Republic, more than 300 archaeological sites have been registered and revisited. While several of these sites were identified through the scatter of surface material culture, others show terrain modifications in the form of anthropogenic mounds and levelled areas. Researchers have gathered valuable information regarding these features’ functionality and construction processes through large-scale excavations in archaeological sites with anthropogenic mounds, paleoenvironmental studies and remote sensing analyses. These anthropogenic mounds represent a long-term process of formation and were used for a variety of purposes ranging from agricultural to ritual activities. While excavations and small-scale remote sensing can provide a myriad of data to improve our understanding of these archaeological sites, a regional perspective is needed to map the relationship among archaeological sites with and without terrain modifications, to better understand the Indigenous cultural patterns in their regional environment. In this regard, the primary objective of this paper is to explore to what extent these archaeological sites were related to the environment and each other. This was achieved by correlating archaeological data with a set of archaeologically recognized important environmental variables using advanced spatial statistics. The results provide important insights to understand the underlying pattern of archaeological sites in this region and its relationship with the environmental setting.

Authors 3

1. Eduardo Herrera Malatesta corresponding

   Aarhus University

   Affiliation as printed

   Centre for Human Network Evolution, Aarhus University

2. Jorge Ulloa Hung

   University of Miami · Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo

   Affiliation as printed

   Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo and Anthropology Deparment University of Miami

3. Corinne L. Hofman Aachen Faculty of Archaeology Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

   Leiden University · Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology; The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

   Leiden University, Faculty of Archaeology

   The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies