Computers help map INEEL

BOISE – Computer scientists have developed new software that will allow archaeologists at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory to simply turn to their PCs to dig through data about the history, anthropology and archaeology underneath the lab’s 890-square-mile site.

Scientists in the INEEL’s Ecological and Cultural Resources Department created a geographic computer and software program that merges the terrain’s data into one integrated system.

Three research groups of the INEEL site – historical, archaeological and anthropological – support the system, which is tied together with Geographic Information System technology to create layered maps that can highlight different geological structures and archaeological sites in the area.

Computer scientist Sera White said the system will save archaeologists time handling maps and geographical data.

“Before they had to hand-draw maps, then copy them and scan them,” she said. “Now all they have to do is hit ‘print’ “

Federal law requires that archeologists work with state, local and Sho-shone-Bannock tribal governments to preserve the INEEL area.

Combined with legislation to preserve resources on Department of Energy sites across the nation and high-security rules that have kept people off the land, artifacts on DOE land are relatively untouched, which allows governmental agencies and researchers to study and protect the area, said Brenda Ringe Pace, lead INEEL archaeologist on the development team.

The computer program will help archeologists keep tabs on artifacts ranging from 12,000-year-old mammoth bones to 150-year-old pioneer homesteads and help them find other artifacts, Pace said.

Only about 10 percent of the site has been explored, and already 1,200 archaeological sites have been found.

An experimental tool developed by INEEL and Idaho State University researchers uses a mathematical model to predict where new archaeological sites could be in the unexplored desert.

The model incorporates data such as water resources and old travel routes to map potential places where primitive people could have traveled and rested.

“Wherever the hunter-gatherer families were likely to be, that’s where we have the best chance of finding the artifacts that tell their stories,” Pace said.

Pace said the software could also create a virtual world where developers could see the lasting effects of a proposed building on the surrounding landscape before constructing anything.