Archaeological Research Facility

This poster describes a study that used ethnographic field data to derive an asymmetrical Cauchy (Gaussian) equation that describes the movement of a llama caravan along an ancient trail system as a function of topographic slope. This model is further refined by using ranked observations of changes in trail quality,the negotation of obstacles such as stream-crossings, and the type and duration of rest periods during the daily travel. The resulting cost-distance function was then applied to the actual caravan route in order to evaluate the realism of the model.

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Related publication: Tripcevich, N., 2016. The Ethnoarchaeology of a Cotahuasi Salt Caravan: Exploring Andean pastoralist movement. In The Archaeology of Andean Pastoralism, edited by J. M. Capriles and N. Tripcevich, pp. 211-229. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque  https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7vr6580k