Award Date

12-1-2014

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Anthropology

First Committee Member

Alan H. Simmons

Second Committee Member

Barbara Roth

Third Committee Member

Karen Harry

Fourth Committee Member

Scott Nowicki

Fifth Committee Member

Andrew Bell

Number of Pages

247

Abstract

Krittou Marottou Ais Giorkis (`Ais Giorkis) is an Aceramic Neolithic site, occupied approximately 9,500 cal B.P., and located in the western foothills of the Troodos Mountains on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This thesis is an intra-site spatial analysis of the chipped stone assemblage recovered between 1997 and 2013 from the site using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Previous work on the assemblage from 1997 through 2004 had attempted spatial analysis using traditional statistical methods and found no patterning (O'Horo 2008). Using the expanded database and GIS this thesis identifies multiple spatial patterns in the assemblage with implications on the lifeways practiced at `Ais Giorkis. Locating meaningful patterns in the site's chipped stone assemblage is especially valuable because, unlike in many intra-site spatial analysis projects, the spatial resolution of the data is less than ideal.

Given the success of this analysis using low resolution data, the methods used in this thesis have applications to a broad range of archaeological projects. Chief among these are the application of GIS to older excavations and rescue excavations where data resolution is limited to the excavation unit and level due to time or technology constraints. For this reason, the methods used from excavation through geospatial analysis are thoroughly documented within this thesis, including the errors where they can serve as cautionary tales.

Keywords

Ais Yiorkis; Areal Units; Cyprus; Debitage; Geographic information systems; Intrasite Spatial Analysis; Method; Neolithic period

Disciplines

Archaeological Anthropology | Geographic Information Sciences

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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