Use of GIS in analyzing archaeological sites: the case study of Mycenaean Cephalonia, Greece

Abstract

This thesis aims to present a method to investigate the relationship between the funerary archaeological sites of Mycenaean Period (1.700/1.680 – 1.060/1.040 B.C.) in the island of Cephalonia and their geomorphological and environmental characteristics. Cephalonia, located in the Southwest part of Greece, yields a significant number of Mycenaean archaeological remains, providing the opportunity to spatially analyse the funerary archaeological sites from this area using Geographic Information System (GIS), a program that is becoming more widely employed and accepted in archaeological studies. In this thesis, GIS and spatial analysis were applied in order to investigate possible relations between the sites and a number of geological, morphological and environmental criteria. Some of the geomorphological characteristics of the study area are analysed and explained, such as Aspect, Elevation, Geology, Hydrographic Network and Slope. The combination of all available geological and environmental data with archaeological information can provide a better understanding of the past and innovating ways to reveal the unknown to us Mycenaean’s world. The results of this investigation, which are presented below, include some important factors, for instance orientation, low terrain area, geological resources, hillshade, water and incline that could be associated with the preferred location of burial archaeological sites.