Anthropology Resources: GIS, Maps & Modelling

An online publication that introduces the technology of digital imaging and creating an image library.

The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) service in the Vanderbilt Library connects students, faculty, and staff with GIS data, services, and information. Additionally, we are a Census Information Center and help connect our community to U.S. Census Data.

The GAIA Lab, affiliated with the Center for Cyberarchaeology & Sustainability at the University of California, San Diego, specializes in developing and deploying integrated GIS standalone and web-based databases for managing cultural resources and other large-scale spatial datasets. We use the latest web mapping methods, including Google Maps and Google Earth, powered by AJAX, PHP, KML, JavaScript and MySQL.

Much of human history can be traced through the impacts of human actions upon the environment. The use of remote sensing technology offers the archeologist the opportunity to detect these impacts which are often invisible to the naked eye. This information can be used to address issues in human settlement, environmental interaction, and climate change.

Digital versions of all Central Intelligence Agency reference and thematic maps, Army Map Service (AMS) topographic map series, and a wide variety of historic maps.

NOAA Paleoclimatology is a branch of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. Paleo data come from natural sources such as tree rings, ice cores, corals, and ocean and lake sediments-- and extend the archive of weather and climate back hundreds to millions of years. NOAA Paleo provides data and information scientists need to understand natural climate variability and future climate change. We also operate the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology which distributes data contributed by scientists around the world.

Links to maps, aerial photographs, satellite images, publications and data from the US Geological Survey.

ESRI’s archaeology page includes relevant books, back issues of their Archaeology Newsletter, and a list of resources

ECAI is a global consortium of scholars interested in visualizing human culture through time using GIS technology. The Web site includes links to dozens of projects, a dynamic map catalog, useful technology such as TimeMap, and information about joining the group.

The Ancient World Mapping Center is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Center promotes cartography, historical geography, and geographic information science as essential disciplines within the field of ancient studies through innovative and collaborative research, teaching, and community outreach activities.

FastiOnline is a database of archaeological excavations since the year 2000. The focus is on Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Malta, Morocco, Croatia, Albania, and Slovenia.

Pleiades is a historical gazetteer and more. It associates names and locations in time and provides structured information about the quality and provenance of these entities. There is also a graph in Pleiades: names and locations are collected within places and these collections are associated with other geographically connected places. Pleiades also serves as a vocabulary for talking about the geography of the ancient world within Linked Data sets and is referenced by research projects such as Google Ancient Places and PELAGIOS.

Since its inception in 1978, the Theban Mapping Project (TMP, now based at the American University in Cairo) has been working to prepare a comprehensive archaeological database of Thebes. With its thousands of tombs and temples, Thebes is one of the world's most important archaeological zones.