Archaeology and Geoinformatics: Case Studies from the Caribbean

Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Terms Aerial photography Photographic coverage of the land surface obtained from the air. Aerial photographs are useful in locating and recording site positions. Anthropomorphic Pertaining to the elements of human motivation,characteristics,or behavior in relation to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena. Arauquinoid Arauquinoid pottery is a prehistoric style that originated from the Barrancoid cultures in northeastern South America, the Orinoco Valley, and Trinidad. Arauquinoid ceramics replaced those of the preceding Barrancoid tradition around a.d. 500.There was apparently extensive trading in Arauquinoid times between Trinidad and the middle Orinoco (Saunders 2005). AutoCAD DXF A CAD data file format, developed by Autodesk as their solution for enabling data interoperability between AutoCAD and other programs. Barrancoid A ceramic tradition possibly originating on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and established in the Orinoco Delta by circa 1,000 b.c. It spread down the coast and (at the turn of the millennium) east and west to Guyana and Colombia .The pottery is skillfully modeled with biomorphic ornamentation and broad-lined incised patterns.The type site is Barrancas in Venezuela. 196 / Glossary Bayesian logic Named afterThomas Bayes,an English clergyman and mathematician,Bayesian logic is a branch of logic applied to decision making and inferential statistics that deals with probability inference. Buffer A polygon enclosing an area within a specified distance from a point, line, or polygon.In ArcView Weights-of-Evidence,buffering is performed using Spatial Analyst so that the output is always a grid (raster).The buffering function generates one or more buffers of equal distance from the input features. Input can be either vector or raster data. Cartography Cartography is the study and making of maps. Categorical weights calculation (analysis) Refers to weights calculated for each class in an evidential theme. In ArcView Weights-of-Evidence,categorical analysis describes one of the tables of weights that can be created using the Calculate Theme Weights function, distinguishing it from Cumulative Weights. Conditional independence Conditional independence of evidential themes with respect to the training points is assumed for the weights-of-evidence. The product of area and posterior probability summed over each unique condition is the number of points predicted by the model. A ratio is calculated by dividing the actual number of training points input to the model by this predicted number of points.The ratio will be between 1 and 0.A value of 1 (never occurs in practice) indicates conditional independence among the evidential themes used in the model. Values .05 may produce reasonable results. Continentality The quality or state of being a continent. Contrast The difference between weights, W+ and W−. Difference between the natural logs of conditional odds that A and B occur together and the natural log of the conditional odds that A and B do not occur together. C = In(Odds{B|A−}), where A = evidence layer and B = training set. Glossary / 197 The relationships with respect to probability, odds, and weight (natural logarithm of odds) are shown in the table below. Probability Odds Weight2 0.1 1/9 –2.2 0.5 1/1 (even) 0.0 0.75 3/1 1.1 0.88 88/12 2.0 0.99 99/1 4.6 Cultural resource management The management and preservation of cultural resources such as cultural landscapes , archaeological sites, historical records, historic buildings, industrial heritage, and artifacts. Cumulative weights (analysis) Refers to weights calculated for a cumulative number of points for classes for ordered data. Cumulative weights calculated from either the highest to lowest (descending) or lowest to highest (ascending) class can be calculated from a single evidential theme in the Calculate Theme Weights function of ArcView. Calculating cumulative weights can be useful in reducing noise from variation that occurs in categorical weights, making it easier to determine the optimum cutoff points for generalization of data. Digital elevation models Digital elevation models are data files that contain the elevation of the terrain over a specified area,usually at a fixed grid interval over the surface of the earth. The interval between each of the grid points will always be referenced to some geographical coordinate system.This is usually either latitude-longitude or the UniversalTransverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system.The closer together the grid points are located, the more detailed the information will be in the file. The details of the peaks and valleys in the terrain will be better modeled with a small grid...