Utilizing Aerial Photographs to Evaluate Indigenous Archaeological Sites in Northwest Washington, DC
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Aerial archaeology, the analysis of aerial photographs of archaeological sites, is a popular geospatial method that archaeologists have utilized extensively throughout the Mediterranean, the Near East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. This study utilizes historical aerial photographs to evaluate the impact of urbanization on Indigenous archaeological sites in Northwest Washington, DC. Indigenous occupation of the District produced a vast archaeological landscape, including ancient sites in present-day DC neighborhoods such as the Palisades, Van Ness, and Anacostia. This thesis evaluates the integrity of Northwest DC’s Indigenous archaeological landscape via a decade-by-decade study of historical aerial photographs covering three 1 km^2 research units positioned on areas that contain or once contained significant Indigenous archaeological sites. Scans of aerial photographs were acquired from various federal archives, state archives, and commercial providers, imported into GIS software, georeferenced and clipped, and subjected to quantitative and qualitative geospatial analyses. I demonstrate the impact of urbanization on the units over time, draw conclusions pertaining to the present-day integrity of their archaeological sites, and highlight areas that have a high probability of containing previously undiscovered sites. In doing so, I produce geospatial and archaeological data of use to the city’s Indigenous descendant communities, archaeologists, and preservationists, and strengthen the argument for aerial archaeology as a prerequisite to ground-disturbing archaeological methods.