Abstract
The conservation and protection of painted rock shelters is an important issue. Throughout the world, if unprotected, they are vulnerable to vandalism or to industrial activities such as quarrying. This research explores the integrated use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) with a multi-criteria decision support system and fuzzy logic to identify possible rock art sites over the Vindhyan Plateau in the district of Mirzapur, Central India. The methodology proposed compares results obtained by spatial modelling with validation data derived from recent exhaustive field surveys of more than forty newly discovered rock-shelters in the Vindhyan region. The zones obtained by predictive modelling are in agreement with validation datasets and show that the method can be used for new site prospection. This method represents a potential tool for landscape planners and policy makers to employ when seeking protection from anthropogenic activities of potential areas of painted rock-shelter sites and archaeological deposits.
Highlights
Rock-shelters and caves are fixed natural structures in the landscape with distinct topography and geomorphological characteristics, and have been used in a variety of human activities for much of prehistory [1]
Topography is an important physiographic factor related to human, wind, and flood behavior, and has the potential to affect the creation of rock art and the archaeology of an area
The South-Western part is located in the rocky outcrop of the region, a natural choice for the hunter-gatherers to look for rock-shelters made of Vindhyan Sandstone for painting purposes, offering a suitable region of interest, whereas the North-Eastern part is situated near to the Ganges flood plain, in the alluvium rich area
Summary
Rock-shelters and caves are fixed natural structures in the landscape with distinct topography and geomorphological characteristics, and have been used in a variety of human activities (e.g., shelter, rock art) for much of prehistory [1]. Prehistoric sites have been characterized using remote sensing and fuzzy logic GIS according to their palaeo-geographical, geo-morphological, and archaeological features in order to understand the geographic location and contextual parameters of the sites [6,23,24]. These parameters are used to identify unexplored areas with similar characteristics and arguably the highest probability of containing similar sites. The identification of areas in which new sites could be found is highly relevant to the protection of this archaeological heritage from rapid site destruction resulting from such activity as deforestation and illegal mining of the sandstone
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