Classics PhD candidate, Christine Davidson, has been awarded second place in the Esri Young Scholars Award. Davidson’s ‘Mapping Farmstead-Sanctuary Connectivity at Metaponto’ report helps highlight the usefulness and growing use of Geographic Information System (GIS) data in archeological work.

Davidson’s own reflections on the award offer some more insight into her work.

This past May I was honoured to have been awarded second place in the ESRI Young Scholar for Canada competition. The Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is the leading Geographic Information System (GIS) software company globally, and this award recognizes scholarship in the fields of geospatial sciences and geomatics. Encouraged by Patrick DeLuca, both a member of the Metaponto Archaeological Project and the GIS Specialist within the School of Earth, Environment & Society at McMaster, I applied knowing that an entrant from a department beyond geography and environmental sciences would be unusual. Nevertheless, the use of GIS in the field of archaeology is becoming ubiquitous and I currently use related methodologies in my study of network connectivity in the countryside of ancient Metaponto (a Greek settlement located in southern Italy). I am thrilled that my application was received favourably and look forward to continued use of GIS in the characterization of an ancient landscape.

The ‘storymaps’ of the three winners, including Davidson’s report can be found here. You can also view the poster for the project.