Browsing by Author "Dawson, Peter C."
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Item Open Access The Application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning for the Documentation and Monitoring of a Threatened Buffalo Jump Heritage Site in South-central Alberta(2019-09-20) Pennanen, Kelsey A.; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald Anthony; Moorman, Brian J.The research presented outlines the use of terrestrial laser scanning as a method of digitally capturing an at-risk Buffalo Jump site in south-central Alberta. The bison faunal material and other archaeological remains present at the base of the sandstone cliff were exposed following the 2013 flooding and migration of the main channel of the Jumping Pound Creek, and the remnant portion of the site is classified as highly threatened due to natural erosional processes along the riverbank. Terrestrial LiDAR was implemented to digitally capture the site and surrounding landscape in the fall of 2016, and a second point cloud dataset was collected in the fall of 2017. Results of the cloud-to-cloud comparison of the two non-contemporaneously collected datasets determined that in certain areas along the cutbank of the site locality over 1.5 meters of erosion took place. Measurements of the sedimentary cutbank and geologic profiling were recovered from the 3-dimensional spatial data collected and comparisons were made for determinations of cutbank undercutting and instability at different locations based on the point-cloud datasets. This research will allow for more strategic mitigative archaeological initiatives to be implemented at this site of significant traditional provenance for the Blackfoot peoples to aid in its protection and preservation. TLS implementation creates accurate 3D visualization of archaeological sites it is argued that the analytical possibilities of point clouds and other forms of digital data require further exploration for potential applications in monitoring and use of these datasets for public outreach and sharing of cultural heritage resources. The resulting datasets provide a lasting digital record of the site, at multiple points in time, and the importance of properly archiving datasets for sharing and data compatibility for future use in monitoring is a necessity. As natural disasters such as flooding and wildfire increase in frequency, it is concluded that reality-capture technologies, such as TLS, are effective tools for sharing, documenting, and monitoring heritage resources.Item Open Access Arvia’juaq National Historic Site: A Case Study on Heritage and Virtual Tourism in the Canadian Arctic(2017) Porter, Mary Cecilia; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald Anthony; Draper, Dianne LouiseThis community-engaged archaeological research focuses on overcoming remoteness of important archaeological sites in terms of imparting their message of significance to the broader public. The focus of this project is Arvia’juaq National Historic Site located off the West coast of Hudson Bay in Nunavut, Canada. For this research, a proof of concept interactive virtual tour was constructed using panoramic images of Arvia’juaq. Issues examined include the importance of public outreach, engagement of local communities through virtual heritage, overcoming the digital divide in the Canadian Arctic, and the use of VR panoramas for connecting people to places that might otherwise be inaccessible. This has important implications for raising awareness of polar heritage and its significance to Indigenous people, as well as to national and international audiences.Item Open Access Concrete Damage Inspection by Classification of Terrestrial Laser Scanner Point Clouds(2020-05-05) Hadavandsiri, Zahra; Lichti, Derek D.; Shahbazi, Mozhdeh M.; Dawson, Peter C.Concrete structures endure damage and deterioration when subjected to human activities and natural hazards. Early detection of damage on concrete structures is vital to counter the side effects deriving from damage and to allow timely maintenance procedures. This thesis presents a novel approach for high-precision detection of damage on concrete surfaces using terrestrial laser scanner point clouds (PCs). At first, an unsupervised approach is developed that utilizes a robust version of principal component analysis (PCA) classification in order to distinguish between structural damage and outliers present in the data. Numerical simulations are conducted to develop a systematic point-wise defect classifier that automatically diagnoses the location of surface damage on the investigated region. The developed method examined on two real datasets, demonstrate the validity of the proposed systematic framework for reliable detection of damage of any type which makes roughness as small as 1 cm or larger on the surface of concrete structures captured with any laser-scanning PC with a minimum spatial resolution of 5 mm point spacing. At second, a supervised approach is developed that employs the outcome of the primary unsupervised classifier in order to accurately annotate the training data without the need for manual labeling. One flume of an aqueduct dataset was used for training the system. This machine learning-based model relies on a support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to train a point-wise defect classifier for locating the concrete damage. This yields an average classification precision and F1-score of 97.33% showing the potential of using machine learning for concrete damage detection. The performance of the prediction model was evaluated on three real datasets. The prediction model can successfully mirror the high performance of the unsupervised method used in the training process. In addition, by exploiting a more extensive variety of geometric features and skipping the intensive computation of the robust PCA, it outperforms the unsupervised classifier in terms of model performance and computational efficiency, respectively. Consequently, the properly trained machine learning system provides reliable diagnosis of the health conditions of large concrete structures that are not computationally feasible to be inspected by the primary unsupervised classifier.Item Open Access Conserving Common Ground: Exploring the Place of Cultural Heritage in Protected Area Management(2020-12-08) Weller, Jonathan; Monteyne, David; Dawson, Peter C.; Inaloo-Dailoo, Shabnam; Pollock-Ellwand, Nancy D.; Draper, Dianne L.That parks and protected areas are places where the conservation of cultural heritage can and should take place has not always been immediately apparent. However, today there is widespread acknowledgement that the management of cultural heritage resources needs to be brought into large-scale planning and management processes in an integrated and holistic manner. This is particularly true in protected areas, which not only contain significant cultural heritage resources, but are also often mandated to conserve these resources and can benefit significantly from the effort. This dissertation aims to address the challenge of integrating cultural heritage conservation into protected area management. Focusing specifically on Alberta, this research employs a qualitative methodology to undertake a broad document analysis and a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with protected area managers to identify the current state of cultural heritage conservation in the provincial protected area system, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities that exist. Using this information, a set of policy recommendations are developed. Ranging from high-level policy goals to site-specific tools and resources, these recommendations aim to support more effective cultural heritage conservation in Alberta.Item Embargo Debating Complexity(The University of Calgary, 1996) Meyer, Daniel A.; Dawson, Peter C.; Hanna, Donald T.Item Open Access Detecting and Monitoring Change to an Arctic Heritage Site Using UAV Photogrammetry: A Case Study From Qikiqtaruk / Herschel Island, YT(2022-04) O'Keefe, Katelyn; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Lichti, DerekArctic heritage sites are increasingly at risk due to modern climate change. Traditional documentation and monitoring of valuable heritage resources are time-consuming. In recent years, UAV (drone) photogrammetry has become a powerful tool for visualizing heritage sites. This research goes beyond visualization by evaluating the suitability of UAV data, acquired for documenting heritage resources, and for other reasons, to perform change detection analysis on Arctic cultural landscapes. The procedures developed throughout this research can also be used to create a heritage monitoring strategy. The case study used in this research is Simpson Point on Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island), the most western Canadian Arctic island and the only island on the Yukon coast. Within Herschel Island – Qikiqtaruk Territorial Park, the heritage resources represent 800 years of continuous occupation by Inuvialuit, their ancestors, the Thule, and Euro-North Americans. UAV imagery of Simpson Point from July 2017 and 2019 was processed using photogrammetric software. The outputs (orthomosaics and point clouds) were prepared prior to employing two highly compatible change detection methods. The results of the change detection analysis were used to explore short-term change to the heritage features and the landscape, some of which are the result of climate change-induced overland flooding and coastal erosion. Other changes required confirmation from heritage restoration personnel. The framework of a heritage monitoring strategy for the territorial park, improvements to the future UAV data collection strategy, and the advantages and disadvantages of the change detection methods used are discussed. In addition, an emphasis is placed on the importance of data sharing, the reuse of found data, and the long-term curation of digital data.Item Open Access Investigating the Antiquity of Inter-Regional Contact between Southern Yukon and the Northern Northwest Coast through an Ancient DNA Analysis of Cryogenic Wooden Biofacts Recovered from Alpine Archaeological Sites in the Northwestern Subarctic(2015-08-07) Murchie, Tyler James; Dawson, Peter C.The antiquity of contact between Eyak-Tlingit in Southeastern Alaska and Athabaskans in Southern Yukon is poorly understood. Archaeological evidence of inter-regional interaction is currently confined to the Late Period, although there is ethnographic evidence of more ancient networks. The discovery of a cryogenically preserved stick (willow [Salix sp.]), from the Kluane Icefields may represent the region’s earliest evidence (2430 ± 20 14C BP) of glacial travel. Ancient DNA was used in an attempt to assess the specimen’s origin based on a phylogeographic analysis of modern Salix distributed on either side of the Saint Elias Range. DNA could not be amplified from the target specimen, leading to an investigation of the viability of paleogenetics for wooden artifacts using biofacts from alpine ice patches in Southern Yukon. A considerable lack of plastid variability was observed in modern Salix ssp., although three loci were identified that may be amenable to phylogeographic applications.Item Open Access Mobility at the Center of the Viking World(2020-04-23) Peschel, Emily M.; Katzenberg, Mary Anne; Dawson, Peter C.; Hallgrímsson, Benedikt; Wieser, Michael E.; Schillaci, Michael A.This dissertation examines migration at Gotland, an important island in Viking Age Scandinavia (750-1050 CE) that is widely recognized for its role in trade. Located off the southeast coast of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, Gotland connected western European and Eastern trade routes. Despite its economic importance, there has been little investigation into the political affiliation of this island. It is argued that Gotland was both independently ruled, and that it was a part of the Svear kingdom, a Swedish polity that ruled over the Baltic Sea. One step toward addressing the political identity of Gotland is to investigate mobility on the island. Although artifacts indicate trade occurred with much of the known world, the degree of migration to the island is not known. This project examines the degree of mobility of two skeletal populations from Gotland, Fröjel and Kopparsvik. Biological distance (biodistance) from cranial and dental nonmetric traits were used to assess gene flow between Gotlandic populations and among Scandinavian populations. Strontium isotope analysis was used to determine the geological origins of individuals from the Gotlandic populations. The dental biodistance results showed that Fröjel and Kopparsvik were biologically isolated from mainland Scandinavian populations. The cranial biodistance results, however, indicated a small biodistance between Kopparsvik and the Svear kingdom, while Fröjel remained isolated from biologcial interactions with the mainland populations. While dental nonmetric traits reflected the ancestral relationships among Scandinavian populations, cranial nonmetric traits indicated more recent changes to the population structure. These interpretations of migration on the island are corroborated by the increase in non-local individuals at the Kopparsvik cemetery throughout its use, as determined by strontium isotope analysis. While there were only local individuals interred at the cemetery during the earliest phase of use, there was an increase in nonlocal individuals throughout the latter half of the Viking Age. Gotland, therefore, saw increased Swedish presence throughout the Viking Age, which suggests an effort by the Svear kingdom to take advantage of trade on the island. Fröjel, however, remained isolated from gene flow and immigration, indicating that the Svear kingdom had limited authority on Gotland.Item Open Access A Part of a Whole(2019-09-10) Straathof, Gerry; Leblanc, Jean-Rene; Gadbois, Denis; Dawson, Peter C.; Sandalack, Beverly A.A Part of a Whole is a distillation of insights gained through creative research that examines my relationship to abandoned locations in Western Canada. I have discovered an empathy for the past inhabitants, a curiosity for the sites themselves, and a desire to imagine these locations as they once were. This artwork is produced to instill that empathy and curiosity within others. I have been interested the leftover built environment from the homestead era in Western Canada since childhood, watching farm buildings and industrial sites slowly disappear over the years while on family trips and school outings. A Part of a Whole examines my relationship with the exploration of a landscape that was once inhabited, a busy place of industry, small homestead or bustling town. For this thesis project I have considered Bankhead, Alberta, a mining site within Banff National Park as a case study. My creative research has involved allowing myself to follow a path of curiosity while recording the progress for later introspection and analysis, the synthesis of an insight into elements of artworks and the reflection upon the results. Each work completed in the context of my MFA has brought me a step closer to understanding my relationship to the past inhabitants of these abandoned locations, and what compels me to imagine the way their environments once looked and felt. Each individual living in these absent buildings were a once part of the whole community. A Part of a Whole shares my empathy for these people through the use of suitcases which contain briefly imagined buildings I can only see while exploring the landscape that contained an industry, town or homestead. The connected line of progressing light is my progress through the site, while displaying my imagined recreation of the buildings that were once part of the whole foundations that are all that remain of this community.Item Open Access Taltheilei houses, lithics, and mobility(2012-09-06) Pickering, Sean Joseph; Dawson, Peter C.The precontact subsistence-settlement strategy of Taltheilei tradition groups has been interpreted by past researchers as representing a high residential mobility forager system characterized by ephemeral warm season use of the Barrenlands environment, while hunting barrenground caribou. However, the excavation of four semi-subterranean house pits at the Ikirahak site (JjKs-7), in the Southern Kivalliq District of Nunavut, has challenged these assumptions. An analysis of the domestic architecture, as well as the morphological and spatial attributes of the excavated lithic artifacts, has shown that some Taltheilei groups inhabited the Barrenlands environment during the cold season for extended periods of time likely subsisting on stored resources.Item Open Access Terrestrial laser scanning for the documentation of an at-risk buffalo jump (EgPp-26) in south-central Alberta(2017-01) Pennanen, Kelsey; Dawson, Peter C.; Leyden, Jeremy J.This paper reports on the use of ground-based LiDAR (terrestrial laser scanning—TLS) to digitally capture a buffalo jump site located in south-central Alberta (EgPp-26). We discuss how the resulting digital data can be used to create accurate 3D reconstructions and how the application of these high-resolution geospatial datasets can be used for quantifying analyses. Accurate measurements can be taken directly from TLS datasets for use in mapping, as well as 3D visualization of geoarchaeological data. Furthermore, the acquisition of multiple TLS datasets over time can be used to quantify morphometric change and erosional processes impacting archaeological sites. Analytical data from TLS scans can help document often understudied aspects of geoarchaeological processes and facilitate new interpretations at archaeological sites. This technology was rapidly deployed at the Wearmouth Buffalo Jump for the purposes of documentation, monitoring, and digital preservation. The resulting datasets provide a lasting digital record of the site, as it appeared in September of 2016 and 2017. As natural disasters such as flooding and wildfire increase in frequency, we conclude that reality-capture technologies, such as terrestrial laser scanning, are effective tools for monitoring, managing, and preserving heritage resources.Item Open Access The Role of Avifauna in Paleodiet Reconstruction : An Arctic Case Study(2018-09-19) Edwards, Tu-Kim; Katzenberg, Mary Anne; Dawson, Peter C.; Wilson, Warren M.; Walls, Matthew D.; Darwent, Christyann MarieThis thesis explores the importance of birds in paleodietary reconstruction based on stable isotope analysis, using faunal remains from Arctic contexts as a case study. In the Arctic, migratory birds and their eggs have been important seasonal resources for hunter-gatherer populations, and while evidence of their utilization in the faunal record is apparent, their use is less clear from the isotopic record. Zooarchaeological analysis was carried out on a large sample of bird remains from Pre-Dorset and Dorset sites located on the Knud Peninsula of Ellesmere Island to assess bird hunting and processing amongst Paleo-Inuit groups. A subset of these archaeological bird remains were analyzed to determine the variation in avian isotopic signatures which was expected to differ from terrestrial and sea mammal isotopic signatures. An experimental study was carried out to test the assumption that the spacing between avian tissues (bone collagen, muscle, fat, and feathers) differs from tissue spacings in mammals. Linear mixing models were then used to estimate diet based on new tissue spacing data and isotope data from archaeological bird bone collagen. These results were compared to previous studies of Arctic paleodiet. Zooarchaeological analysis of the avifaunal remains suggests that Pre-Dorset and Dorset groups on the Knud Peninsula preferentially hunted eider ducks, and birds were heavily processed for human consumption. Bird bones were also used in tool production. Stable isotope analysis of various tissues from ducks fed a controlled diet indicates that avian tissue spacings differ from those of mammals by up to 2‰, especially for stable carbon isotopes. Results from the stable isotope analysis of archaeological avifaunal samples demonstrate that birds have variable isotopic signatures that reflect dietary preferences, migratory routes, and reproductive strategies. Finally, the inclusion of avian-specific tissue spacing values and isotopic signatures for birds and their eggs in linear mixing models for Arctic hunter-gatherers demonstrates that birds and their eggs can be detected isotopically and that these additions can alter our interpretations of the role of birds and eggs in human paleodiet.Item Open Access The Use of Reality Capture Technologies to Mediate Relocation Impacts: A Case Study at the Perrenoud Homestead Provincial Historic Resource, Alberta(2020-05-11) Hvidberg, Madisen; Dawson, Peter C.; Oetelaar, Gerald A.; Lichti, Derek D.Relocation of buildings has been a common practice for centuries and is now frequently used as a means to preserve heritage structures in the face of various economic, social, and environmental risks. In relocating a heritage structure, documentation is of the utmost importance because of the adverse effects that relocation can have. Reality capture technologies provide a powerful tool for rapidly recording real-world phenomena in three-dimensions but have yet to be utilized for the documentation needs of relocation projects. This thesis provides a novel example of these technologies used for not only documentation of, but in an assessment of the impacts of relocation at the Perrenoud Homestead Provincial Historic Resource (PHR). During its disassembly, the Perrenoud Homestead was digitally documented using terrestrial LiDAR (laser scanning) and drone-based photogrammetry. The resulting datasets were then used to explore the impacts of relocation to the structural integrity of the site, through a three-part analysis of visual inspection, angular measurements, and change detection. A discussion was then posed about the consequences of the project on the commemorative integrity of the site, looking at dynamics of reality capture and the physical components of the PHR, as well as changes to the visitor experience and accessibility of this site. Overall, this thesis presents an example of the benefits of reality capture technologies to heritage relocation projects, and advocates for more incorporation of these methods for similar initiatives in the future.Item Open Access Visualizing Afghanistan: Cartography and the Imperial Imaginary, from the Anglo-Afghan Wars to the present(2020-05-14) Boak, Emily Ellis; Peric, Sabrina; Dawson, Peter C.; Blue, Gwendolyn; Yessenova, SauleshAfghanistan is currently one of the most imaged places in the world. Satellites, drones, and laser scanners ceaselessly upload data to an ever-expanding mosaic of images and maps in the cloud, on university servers, and in government offices. Knowledge of Afghanistan – whether for scientific or military purposes – is increasingly founded upon an ever-growing archive of foreign image images rather than grounded experience. Countless scientific projects today situate their investigations of Afghanistan in remote-sensed data. Outside of the most recent war and occupation however, Afghanistan has long been a place that foreign eyes attempted to capture and visualize from a distance. In this thesis, I argue that the reading of contemporary satellite imagery is dependent on the larger historical archive of maps of Afghanistan. To understand the implications, I turn to close analysis of the production, circulation, and consumption of maps and images to illustrate the types of understandings, meanings and imaginings of Afghanistan that endure and are transmitted across time through contemporary visualization practices. I do so through archival research at the British Library’s India Office Records and Map Collections, which I bring in conversation with materials from the Soviet-Afghan War (1979-1989), and the ongoing U.S. led War in Afghanistan (2001-present). I argue that while presenting objective and scientific images, historical maps contain and transmit interpretations about Afghanistan, chronicling the character of territories and peoples. Further, maps played an active role in the re-imaging of Afghanistan, as they worked as a tool of governance, reshaping places and the way they were perceived on the ground all while projecting foreign systems of understanding the world which relied upon order, rationality, and measurability. As foreign powers mobilized science and technology to map Afghanistan, they made it possible to imagine Afghanistan as a unitary entity. Understanding the roots of contemporary visual practices in Afghanistan underscores the power behind the reuse and recirculation of images today, and demonstrates the power that foreign militaries have exerted through successive choices in visualizing Afghanistan over the past two centuries.