GIS for Archaeology: Module 3

This week's lab assignment utilized data from the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities (MEGA), an online database of archaeological sites in Jordan that includes site information such as location and condition (for monitoring purposes as well as research). It was developed as a way to help keep track of sites threatened by looting or other forms of destruction, and different users have varying levels of access to the data depending on their position and needs, although site locations are visible even to the general public, which is often not the case with databases like this. Below is a map created in ArcMap illustrating a selection of the sites for which data is available through MEGA.

The reason site locations are often not publicized, particularly in areas where looting and vandalism are common or in remote areas where it is difficult to monitor the condition of sites, is, of course, the need to protect those sites for the future. The safeguarding of archaeological resources, and the maintenance and preservation of records created and artifacts recovered through excavation, is a key principle of archaeological ethics. While there is sometimes a balancing act between the need to protect archaeological sites and the need to share data with fellow researchers and engage with the general public about the importance of archaeology, archaeologists must always keep in mind our responsibility to the archaeological record. Once a site damaged or destroyed, valuable information is lost forever. Thus ethical conduct by archaeologists is of the utmost importance--as is reaching out to educate the public (even if we sometimes have to withhold site locations in the process) so that people understand the significance of archaeological sites.