Vassar College Instructional Visualization - Archaeology

Fugawiland is an imaginary prehistoric landscape, located in northern Wisconsin south of Lake Superior. In it have been discovered 25 archaeological sites. Using a simple computer program, students choose a set of 10 sites to excavate and then analyze the materials revealed. In order to choose sites, the students must evaluate how sites appear on the landscape and what aspects of the landscape may be important to human existence. After a site has been excavated, the program shows the spacial distribution of structures and artifacts in the excavated sites. The program also provides a count of artifacts and food remains and allows students to analyze covariance. In looking at the data and comparing the sites, they discover what basic archaeological information looks like, how archaeologists think about their data, and what problems they face.

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