GIS in Archaeology
Homework Assignment 2
Data Description Information
The basic data for this homework assignment are two simple layer files. The first layer (Countries) contains the polygon boundaries of the countries which form part of the archaeological area of Mesoamerica (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua). The attribute table for this layer contains the following fields:
FIPS_CNTRY – a two letter abbreviation for the country
CNTRY_NAME – the name of the country
POP_CNTRY – the population of each country
The second layer (Meso_Sites) is a point data file containing the coordinates of various archaeological sites in Mesoamerica. Associated with this data file are the following attributes:
Name – the name of the site
Source – the source from which the location of the site was obtained
Occ_For – indicates if the site was occupied in the Formative period
Occ_Cl – indicates if the site was occupied in the Classic period
Occ_Epi – indicates if the site was occupied in the Epiclassic period
Occ_PC – indicates if the site was occupied in the Postclassic period
Culture – Presumed cultural affiliation of the site
Pop_Est – the estimated maximum population of the site (where known)
FIPS_CNTRY – a two letter abbreviation for the country where the site is located
Turn over for assignment questions
Homework Assignment and Questions
Start up a session in ArcCatalog and create a data connection to the folder where the data are stored (should be E:\GIS_In_Archaeology\Data). Start up ArcMap and create a new map document. Now add the Countries and Meso_Sites layers to the map and answer the following questions or perform the following exercises
What is the population of Mexico?
How many total sites are in the Meso_Sites layer?
Sort the Meso_Sites attribute table by the Name field. What is the last site in alphabetical order?
How many of the sites are listed as Maya sites in the Culture field?
According to the Meso_Sites attribute table how many of the sites are located within Mexico?
What is the name of the northernmost site in the Meso_Sites layer?
Have ArcMap label the countries with their names. How many of the archaeological sites are located within El Salvador?
Use the Select By Location technique like we used in our last lab to have the GIS select all the sites located within Mexico. How many sites does the GIS select? How does this compare with your answer from question 3? What do you think happened?
Modify the symbology types, sizes and/or colors of the Meso_Sites layers so that Aztec, Maya, Olmec and Zapotec sites are clearly distinguishable from one another. Hint: you can remove sites which do not belong to any of these groups by highlighting the value on the symbology panel and then clicking the remove button.
You can either print the map out and hand it in with this assignment (if you are printing on a black and white printer make sure the symbols are still distinguishable) or you can go to File -> Export Map from the menu and save the image as a JPG image file and e-mail it to me.