In honor of GIS day, ASM research specialist Shannon Twilling wrote today’s blog. Shannon is the Assistant Manager of the AZSITE Database and ASM’s Archaeological Records Office. AZSITE is the official geographic information system for managing cultural resources in the state of Arizona.

November 14, 2012 is the annual celebration of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and its nearly limitless applications. While the concepts of cartography, topography, and geography go back centuries, when the first computerized GIS program was developed in the 1960s, it was like nothing the world had ever seen. No other software can be as applicable to such a wide variety of fields. You can apply GIS to anthropology, hydrology, crime analysis, fire prevention, real estate, education, zoning, census data…and pretty much everything in between!

So what is this GIS, and how does it work?

GIS graphic, by Shannon Twilling

At the root of a GIS are a series of layers which contain anything the user wishes to view and study. Examples of layers include streams, archaeological sites, topography, locations of potholes, amusement parks, schools…you name it. These layers are sandwiched on top of one another and placed upon a “base layer” (such as a map or aerial photograph) to provide context. The scale can be zoomed in and out and layers can be switched on and off, allowing the user to create limitless unique, individualized perspectives of a particular location.

Each layer has a set of coinciding attributes. For example, in addition to having the spatial locations of all of the schools in your town, if you click on a particular location you can be provided with attributes such as address, grade levels, principal, enrollment, and/or the year it was established.

ASM is home to one of the most innovative and awarded archaeological GIS databases in the nation – AZSITE. This is a collaborative project between the Arizona State Museum, Arizona State University, State Historic Preservation Office, and the Museum of Northern Arizona. Over the past 100 years, dozens of separate Arizona land-management agencies have maintained their own expansive sets of archaeological paper records (ASM’s Archaeological Records Office alone is nearly wall-to-wall with data).

Before AZSITE existed, it was necessary for archaeologists to travel across the state to all of these individual land management agencies

A wall of paper records in the Archaeological Records Office at Arizona State Museum. Photo by Shannon Twilling

to conduct preliminary research before going into the field. Further complicating matters, each of these agencies utilized their own unique numbering systems, so in many cases the same site has been recorded numerous times under different site numbers.

The purpose of AZSITE is to consolidate that information into a single online location, making archaeological research more efficient and accurate. It now holds the data for more than 80,000 archaeological sites and 24,000 archaeological survey projects. The database has myriad search tools in both the spatial and attribute portions of the site, allowing researchers the ability to search our data for everything from site location to artifact types to report reference and everything in between! As you might expect, this database is available only to authorized users as a means to protect sensitive archaeological resources. However, a public AZSITE program also exists, to allow anyone interested in archaeology get a better understanding of the vast cultural resources in our state. You need to establish a username and password to view the public site – but it’s free and available to all!

GIS has not only changed the face of archaeological research – it has changed the world. So raise a glass and give a toast to GIS today! It is definitely something worth celebrating!