FROM: Richard C. Cassin, Ph.D. Executive Director Ocean Sciences Research Institute San Diego, CA. USA GIS and Historical Research: Date: Thu, 27 Jan 1994 15:12:41 -0500 Sender: Geographic Information Systems Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> From: "Fred J. Calef III" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: GIS and Historical Research... Hello GIS-L, I use GIS for archaeological and historical research. Specifically I am using GIS to update the 1783 Dr. Ezra Stiles map of Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.A. The Stiles map is unique in that it contains building locations and heights for the town. Also, Dr. Stiles was a bit of an eccentric ( or genius ) because liked to record everything. He recorded the weather, peoples flokes, and (most importantly) surveyed the town. He literally paced out the whole town recording building heights, types of buildings (stores, libraries, religious meeting places, etc.), and recorded distances of various traverses he had made. The map itself was a onetime draft and has various ink marks and blotches and is generally hard to read. My goal is to fully restore the information of the map and have it in digital form to better query the information it has to offer. Eventually, I'm going to link it with some archaeological data gathered from different sites in Newport and bring it into Autocad to render it in 3D (which I've done for apart of it) for a 'walking tour' of the town as it was. As for archaeology, I have been involved in using GIS to record a Native America n site that is one of the few preserved horticultural fields in North America to be properly excavated. I've produced a variety of maps for conferences and analysis using Arc/INFO. GIS has allowed us to view the archaeological data more quickly and begin to discover some of the complex spatial relationships. GIS allowed us to interpret the location of two Native American wetu structures by shading in postholes according to their depth revealing the distinct wetu shape. In all, a powerful tool for archaeologists. And a powerful tool for historians. ...................................Fred Calef III [log in to unmask]