ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF LIDAR IN SOUTHEASTERN NEW ENGLAND

LiDAR has become a well-established resource used to enhance spatial knowledge of the archaeological landscape in Europe, Central America, Canada and limited locations in North America including the United States. Despite this, no published studies have been undertaken in southeastern New England. Recently, LiDAR data has been made publicly available for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. In this geographic region, LiDAR is an invaluable tool for archaeological landscape studies because it provides a view of the terrain beneath the dense New England forest canopy with higher resolution than has been previously available. Furthermore, the extensive coverage of the New England landscape available in these datasets provides unprecedented access to study areas not currently accessible for fieldwork. The aim of this presentation is to discuss approaches for identifying and interpreting archaeological features within Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island using this downloaded data. Preliminary results indicate that it is possible to identify building foundations, stone wall networks, abandoned roads, and other archaeological landscape features using this data, all of which can then be compared with historic maps and other known environmental information to assess and document landscape change.