The map was made using the clip and query functions in ArcMap. It can be used to answer questions about the Chicago Fire of 1871 - where it started, the extent of the fire's destruction, the direction the fire travelled and where the wind was coming from, and how Chicago grew after the fire in terms of geographic expansion, the building of new landmarks, and the restructuring of some of the wards, especially in the fire zone.

Map of Jordanian Archaeological Sites created using ArcMap. Open-source site location data was gathered from the Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities (MEGA) database.

Historic records and documents can be incorporated into GIS maps, which is incredibly useful for examining and interpreting the past. The example above combines information from a variety of sources - a historic map from the 1890's-1920's, a user-created map of the Freedom Trail from ArcGIS Online, census data, an image, and informational text. Hyperlinks lead to additional data on the web.

This historic map of Macao was georeferenced and rectifyied by layering it over a recent image, making it much more accurate and useful.

Maps and site data from a published report of a survey done in Oaxaca, Mexico were available as scanned files in .pdg format. The maps were made into jpegs and then georeferenced to a topographic basemap. Then they were digitized: grid squares, soil maps, and site plan maps. By combining these map layers, archaeologists can make inferences about settlement patterns and how these relate to environmental conditions.

This map combines data from the site report with polygons representing the sites in each grid. It shows low population figures for the period IIIB sites in grid N9E8.

Survey data on artifact numbers can be visualized to see regional settlement patterns, as seen here in two different datasets.

Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) was used to highlight possible multiple levels of community settlement.

This 3D image was created from data on the layer depth of each test pit. A fly-through of the test pit "poles" used in surface interpolation can be created and shared on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUhG8E3kM0