Throughout the process of capturing an artifact for a Weitz Art History collection, I learned lots of useful information about the process of interactive mapping and applications of GIS systems with artifacts and other physical objects.
The artifact my group focused on was a ceramic pot from the Neolithic period. It originated in China between 1600 to 700 BCE, and later, Carleton College acquired this artifact in 2020. Through the use of ArcGIS software, we were able to map the numerous locations which our artifact had visited. Points on our map represent the areas the pot was recorded to have been, providing some data surrounding the pot’s presence in that area.
ArcGIS software serves many promising capabilities from the start of learning how to use it. Our map depicts the specific locations each pot was found in, displaying specificity potential which is useful to historians focused on tracking exact locations. Each data that estimates the pot’s arrival is also included, further showing how specific and useful this mapping software is. Because any data of this kind may be formatted to be displayed properly through ArcGIS, the web tool can be utilized in any manner which requires spacial and historical data to be visualized in an interactive way.
3 thoughts on “Mapping: Neolithic Pot Timeline”
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I also found that I learned useful information through ArcGIS, but felt that it perhaps didn’t shed any light on this object that couldn’t otherwise be gained. I think this is partly because our objects didn’t have convoluted journeys to their destination, and that more information that shows this is unnecessary. However, a way to better understand their age would boost my understanding of the object.
I agree with Zack here. The location of the objects is a nice visual; however, having four dots spread throughout an entire map is not bringing anything new as all of the location information could be easily seen and comprehended using the data table. However, this will change once we map all the other museum objects, and using a map will make visualization efficient for us.
Both objects I have commented on have all had very similar maps, Asia to California to Carleton. I wonder why? I also love the visualization this map provides, it is crazy to think that this object has been so many places. I can’t wait until we add more things to our maps.