4:30 PM - 4:45 PM
[HTT14-11] Locations of historical and archaeological sites in Japan and China in relation to geography
Keywords:GIS, Topographic factors, Ancient sites
The remains of historical/archaeological sites exist all over the world. Their existence provides the basis of researches for many disciplines such as Archaeology, History, and Geography, as they can reflect activities and thinking of ancient people who built them as well as related environmental factors. In previous studies about the relationship between ancient sites and their surroundings, local topography is considered to be one of the most important factors that determine what kind of features to build, and several topographic factors such as elevation, slope and aspect have been analyzed. However, such research is still uncomprehensive, and the quantitative expression of relationships between the ancient sites and related topographic factors needs to be explored further. Therefore, this research utilizes GIS and DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) to investigate topographic factors more comprehensively as well as surface hydrological conditions in relation to historical and archaeological sites in Japan and China. It employs machine learning methods for quantitative analyses and compare the results from the two countries. The results were interpreted based on geographical, historical, and archaeological knowledge. It was found that the ancient sites in different study areas are sensitive to different topographic factors, and the distance between the ancient sites and major rivers also influence their distribution. Finally predictive maps of historical/archaeological sites were produced according to the obtained quantitative results.