Digital methods in archaeological research. Huarmey Valley case study

Dissertation and dataset present an archaeological study of the Huarmey Valley region, located on the northern coast of Peru. My work uses modern and innovative digital methods. My research focuses on better understanding the location of one of the most important sites in the valley, Castillo de Huarmey, by learning about the context in which it functioned. The Imperial Mausoleum located at the site, along with the burial chamber beneath it, is considered one of the most important discoveries regarding the Wari culture in recent years.

In the dissertation, I address issues concerning both the location of the site on a macro scale - in the entire Huarmey Valley, on a micro scale - the context of the Huarmey Valley delta – and the spatial relationships within the burial chamber located beneath the Mausoleum. I ask the questions (i) How did Castillo de Huarmey communicate with other sites dated to the same period located in the valley and also in adjacent valleys? Did this influence its role in the region? (ii) Is the Mausoleum at Castillo de Huarmey located intentionally and what was the meaning of this location at the micro and macro scale? (iii) What spatial relations existed between Castillo de Huarmey and other sites from the same period? (iv) Does the position of the artifacts, found in situ in the burial chamber, show important relationships between buried individuals? (v) Does spatial analysis show interesting spatial patterns within the burial inside the chamber?

The questions can be answered by describing and testing the digital methods proposed in the doctoral dissertation related to both field data collection and their analysis and interpretation. These methods were selected and adapted to a specific area (the Northern Coast of Peru) and to the objective of answering the questions posed in the thesis. The wide range of digital methods used in archaeology is made possible by the use of Geographic Information Systems (abbreviated GIS) in research. To date, GIS in archaeology is used in three aspects (Wheatley and Gillings 2002): (i) statistical and spatial analysis to obtain new information, (ii) landscape archaeology, and (iii) Cultural Resource Management.

My dissertation is divided into three main components that discuss the types of digital methods used in archaeology. The division of these methods will be adapted to the level of detail of the research (from the location of the site in the region, to the delta of the Huarmey Valley, to the burial chamber of the Mausoleum) and to the way they are used in archaeology (from Cultural Resource Management, to archaeological landscape analysis, to statistical-spatial analysis). One of the aims of the dissertation is to show the methodological path of the use of digital methods, i.e. from the acquisition of data in the field, through analysis, to their interpretation in a cultural context. However, the main objective of my research is to interpret the spatial relationships from the macro to the micro level, in the case described, against the background of other sites located in the valley, the location of Castillo de Huarmey in the context of the valley delta, and finally to the burial chamber of the Mausoleum. The uniqueness of the described burial makes the research and its results pioneering in nature.

As a final result of my work I would like to determine whether relationships can be demonstrated between the women buried in the burial chamber and whether the location of particular categories of artifacts can illustrate specific spatial patterns of burial. Furthermore, my goal is to attempt to understand the relationship between the Imperial Mausoleum and other sites (archival as well as newly discovered) located in the Huarmey Valley and to understand the role of the site's location.

Published dataset represents, described in the dissertation, mobile GIS survey on the site PV35-5 created in Survey123, ESRI application; xml and xls used for creating the survey that was used during the research of the site, as well as the results of the survey published in ArcGIS Pro package. The package includes collected data as points, saved as .shp, as well as ortophotomaps (as geotiff) and Digital Elevation Model and hillshade of PV35-5. The published dataset represents part of the dissertation describing archaeological landscape analysis of Huarmey Valley’s delta.