PROJECT GOALS

In 1999 the Palaeoanthropology Unit for Research and Exploration at the University of the Witwatersrand in conjunction with the University of Arkansas’ department of Anthropology and it’s Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies assigned the first author to the task of developing a GIS for Swartkrans.  The project arose as an exercise in applying recent technological developments to a site that was excavated at a time when GIS was either in its infancy in regards to archaeological applications or not an option at all.  Swartkrans was used as the pilot site to demonstrate how this technology is capable of deriving new or enhanced information from existing data and facilitating current methods of analyses. It was chosen because of its relatively small size due and the existence of meticulously recorded fossil, artifact, and geological data collected during C.K. Brain's excavations.

The specific goals of the project were: 1) to create a system that can assist in further understanding the stratigraphy present at Swartkrans and other cave sites; 2) to create a system that can be used to further explore the relationships between the fossil and artifact distributions of these sites; 3) to realize the implications and constraints of the technology involved in creating such a system; 4) to construct a 3D model of Swartkrans in order to improve the grid-based provenience information of the finds recorded previously; and 5) to reconstruct C.K. Brain's excavation. 

The Swartkrans GIS was demonstrated to be very beneficial in addressing all of the goals listed above and has resulted in the creation of a digital archive encompassing all available site information.  This accomplishment will allow researchers to virtually re-excavate the site an infinite number of times, a task that would otherwise prove impossible. 

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