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Watchful realms: integrating GIS analysis and political history in the southern Maya lowlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

James A. Doyle ,
Thomas G. Garrison  and
Stephen D. Houston
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Extract

Travellers naturally prefer to use the most passable routes and establish staging points on the way. Cost surface analysis predicts the easiest routes and viewshed analysis the territory visible from a staging point or destination. Applying these GIS techniques to the Buenavista Valley Corridor, our authors write a history of travel and exchange that vividly reflects the rivalry of two polities and the rise and fall of their nodal settlements.

Keywords

GuatemalaBuenavista Valleyfirst millennium ADPreclassicClassicMayaTikalGIScost surface analysisviewshed analysis
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 333 , September 2012 , pp. 792 - 807
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2012 

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