Brett Stewart
Pronouns: He/Him
Research Mentor(s): Erina Baci
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Anthropology / LSA
Program:
Authors: Brett Stewart, Erina Baci, Erina Baci
Session: Session 2: 10:00 am – 10:50 am
Poster: 48
Abstract
This poster presents the results of geospatial analysis of excavation data from two prehistoric hillforts located in Western Kosovo; Lubozhde and Syrigane. The goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of the settlement and mobility of past peoples in Western Kosovo between 1400 and 800 BCE. In this poster, I focus specifically on the site-level (small-scale) analysis of excavation data to compare and contrast the sites of Lubozhde and Syrigane, to determine their use and role in the past. The expectation is that the study of small-scale human interactions that occurred at these sites will expand on the bigger picture of mobility and connectivity in the Balkans region. The methods used for this research include data entry in Excel spreadsheets, shapefile creation in ArcGIS Pro, and geospatial analyses such as Kernel Density, also conducted in ArcGIS Pro. It is expected that the analyses of the resulting shapefiles will show that the two sites differed from each other, however, no conclusions have yet been made. Additionally, these analyses are just one line of evidence of many which will be used to try to get a better understanding of these two sites in the past. Once this research is complete, the hope is that it will explain how Lubozhde and Syrigane relate to other sites in the region, allow researchers to include Kosovo in broader contexts considering settlement, mobility, and connectivity, and to fill in gaps of knowledge regarding Balkan pre-history. This research stands to benefit local Kosovar researchers, as well as Kosovar society as a whole, expanding knowledge on a long and complex cultural history.
