Comparative Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh
URL: http://www.cadb.pitt.edu
Email: cadb@pitt.edu

San Agustín-Isnos Settlement Dataset
Robert D. Drennan, Víctor González Fernández, and Carlos Augusto Sánchez

The San Agustín-Isnos Settlement Dataset complements the book Regional Settlement Patterns in the Alto Magdalena: The San Agustín-Isnos Zone by Robert D. Drennan, Víctor González Fernández, and Carlos Augusto Sánchez (available from the University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology). It consists of the detailed data from the regional survey carried out in the San Agustín-Isnos zone of the Alto Magdalena in the Andes of southern Colombia and discussed in full in the printed volume, whose contents are as follows:

The collection of the data included in this dataset was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Award No. SBR-9412141), the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Departamento de Antropología), the University of Pittsburgh (Center for Comparative Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University Center for International Studies, and Center for Latin American Studies), and the Universidad de los Andes.

Drennan, Robert D., Víctor González Fernández, and Carlos Augusto Sánchez (2018a) Regional Settlement Patterns in the Alto Magdalena: The San Agustín-Isnos Zone. University of Pittsburgh Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology, No. 24.
Drennan, Robert D., Víctor González Fernández, and Carlos Augusto Sánchez (2018b) San Agustín-Isnos Settlement Dataset. Comparative Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh. URL: <http://www.cadb.pitt.edu>.

Questions or comments about this dataset or the Comparative Archaeology Database can be directed to cadb@pitt.edu via email.



CONTENTS OF THE DATASET

This dataset contains four kinds of things: numeric data for individual collection lots in the survey; a GIS dataset of maps providing locations of individual collection lots, distributions of settlement in different periods, and environmental variables; color images of illustrations that appear in black-and-white in the printed volume; and a detailed report of soil study in the survey zone.

Numeric Data

Numeric data are provided in two file formats. Comma-delimited text files should be easy to import into spreadsheet, database, and statistical programs for manipulation and analysis. Excel spreadsheets are easier to browse, and can also be imported into many programs. The numeric data files are as follows:

A complete listing of survey lots with information about collection technique, vegetation, ceramics recovered, etc. A complete listing of monumental works (mounds, tombs, and carved stone statues and sarcophagi) with calculation of labor investment.


GIS Dataset

Maps are included as a detailed GIS dataset, in several formats, all of which can be imported into many GIS programs. Vector maps are provided as AutoCAD (Release 12) .DXF files. Raster data are provided as GIS layers in two formats: Idrisi (Version 17--Selva) raster image files and GEOTIFF raster files. The GIS datasets were created and analyzed with AutoCAD Map and Idrisi, and the GEOTIFF files were created with Idrisi. The formats of the maps provided in this section were not chosen for simple viewing, but rather for analysis. (The data values in many of the GEOTIFF files, for example, mean that, without contrast adjustments, they may look all black when viewed with a program such as Photoshop.) Color images of many of the maps that appear as black-and-white illustrations in the printed volume are available as .JPG files below under color images. The GIS raster files are at a resolution of 10 m. They cover an area of 28 km east-west and 20 km north-south (2800 columns by 2000 rows of cells). They are provided as .ZIP compressed files for faster download. Many operating systems have the ability to extract .ZIP files, and many free utilities for extracting .ZIP files are available on-line.

The fundamental coordinate system of the GIS dataset is derived from the Bogotá 1975 Colombia West zone (EPSG: 21896) that was used on the topographic maps of the Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi in Bogotá that were current at the time the survey was carried out (in the 1990s). The units are expressed in kilometers in a planar Cartesian system. For IGAC coordinates with values over 1,000 km, initial digits were dropped for convenience (leaving, for example, 736 km instead of 1,736 km). Locations of survey lots were recorded on unrectified air photos, then transcribed by hand to the Codazzi contour maps. There were no contours on the Codazzi maps for the western edge of the survey zone because of clouds in the air photos from which the contour maps had been produced. By the time the survey was carried out air photo coverage of this area was available and the contour map was completed through automated interpretation of stereo pairs of air photos, but without extensive ground checking. In terms of internal consistency, errors in the GIS dataset in its original coordinate system (as provided here) are probably no more than 100 m. Some of the vector-format GIS files are also provided in coordinates converted to MAGNA-SIRGAS Colombia West zone (EPSG: 3115). This conversion involved not only the mathematically "correct" conversion from the Bogotá 1975 datum but also further local shifts to correct for distortions in the contour maps on which survey lots were located in the first place. Units in these two vector-format files are meters. It is possible that in a few places errors in survey lot locations in the WGS84 UTM system could exceed 100 m.

The GIS dataset includes the following:

Complete details of individual survey lot locations, provided as AutoCAD .DXF files. Survey area boundary, provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files.
Distribution of occupation for each period, provided as Idrisi raster files, GEOTIFF raster files, and AutoCAD .DXF files. Subdivision of survey zone into supra-local communities (regional polities), provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files.
Elevations above sea level (DEM), provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files. Slopes, provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files.
Soilscapes and productivity ratings, provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files. Locations of ceremonial monuments, provided as AutoCAD .DXF files, Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files.
Rivers, provided as an AutoCAD .DXF file. Fast download of the entire GIS dataset (in its original Bogotá 1975 coordinate system), provided as Idrisi raster files and GEOTIFF raster files.


Color Images

Photographs, maps, and other figures in which color is useful that could only be presented in black-and-white in the printed volume are available here as color .JPG image files:

All photographs that appear as figures in black-and-white in the printed volume. All settlement distributions that are represented as  surfaces in figures in the printed volume.
Most GIS maps that appear as figures in black-and-white in the printed volume.

Soil Study Report

Soil study at a "semi-detailed" scale was carried out in the San Agustín-Isnos survey zone, resulting in the delineation of 54 soilscapes, each of which was rated in terms of agricultural potential under prehispanic technology. Click here to download the detailed report of this soil study in .PDF format.


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