My group mapped the Pot with Large Swirl’s journey to Carleton using ArcGIS. The Pot originated in China sometime between 206 BCE to 220 CE. It was then sold to a buyer in San Francisco in 1996 and finally ended up at Carleton in 2020.
I think ArcGIS provides an innovative platform for both conveying information and learning. While exploring the site, I was impressed with the number of layers already available. I was particularly intrigued by the environmental maps as I could visualize how aspects of the Earth have changed over time. I was able to compare global land cover in 1992, 2020, and 2050. Additionally, layering wildfire and hurricane maps allowed me to see the direct effects on land cover. The “basemap” feature optimized my experience, allowing me to choose from various maps to best fit what I was exploring. For example, a street view map worked best for layering a post-route map of the state of Nebraska. In contrast, the topographic or terrain map was best for exploring land cover. I think the features and visualization aspect GIS provides can be instrumental in conveying information: whether it is climate change’s effects or mapping an artifact’s journey.
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I totally agree that the amount of data already available on the platform is grand and seeing how we can layer each of them is really interesting. There are a lot of comparisons that can be done with what is already on there like the ones you mentioned with the environmental maps. With the addition of our own data or potential research data by others, I see there to be a lot of possibilities in DH to use this tool.