Robert Gustas

University of Victoria, Anthropology, Graduate Student

University of Alberta, Anthropology, Graduate Student

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Robert Gustas is a geospatial archaeologist at the University of Victoria interested in questions surrounding the peopling of the new world and the application of geomatics to anthropology.
Supervisors: Iain McKechnie and Quentin Mackie

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Kisha Supernant

University of Alberta

Quentin Mackie

University of Victoria

Susan Marsden

Bryn Letham

University of British Columbia

Duncan McLaren

University of Victoria

Kenneth Ames

Portland State University

Andrew Martindale

University of British Columbia

Alan McMillan

Simon Fraser University

Iain McKechnie

University of Victoria

Thomas J Brown

University of British Columbia

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Papers by Robert Gustas

Least cost path analysis of early maritime movement on the Pacific Northwest Coast

by Robert Gustas and Kisha Supernant

In this paper, we present a new method for modeling past maritime movement events using least cos... more In this paper, we present a new method for modeling past maritime movement events using least cost path analysis. Nontraditional measures of movement cost, including cultural, environmental, and physiological variables, were calculated. Using multiple cost-weighting scenarios, spatial resolutions, and different considerations of overland travel, movement routes were predicted for five Pacific Northwest Coast study areas. This work uses a new application of least cost path analysis to seascapes and marine movement and the results have led to a better understanding of migration during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. The resulting routes were systematically analyzed and compared to determine which produced the results most likely to predict high-use coastal movement corridors. We found that modeling scenarios where culturally derived costs of movement were highly weighted and in which overland travel was very costly produced the best predictions of possible past movement events. These models show that predicted routes cluster in distinct patterns which are influenced by the geography of the seascape through which the movement event is taking place and that areas of high traffic are most likely to be located immediately offshore and to the south of islands as well as in the spaces between landmasses. This knowledge increases our ability to predict the location of drowned sites on the Northwest Coast and is important in contemporary archaeology because it can help locate new sites in a landscape that has radically changed over the last 20,000 years. GIS analysis can reveal new sites hidden by changing sea levels, which may not be easily located using traditional forms of site prospection. Accurate modeling of maritime movement opens many coastal areas to increased archaeological exploration and has the potential for the discovery of new sites in drowned locations.

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Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao: A Geospatial Habitation Suitability Analysis

An index of location habitation suitability between the Maya sites of Dos Hombres and Gran Cacao ... more

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Least Cost Analysis of Peopling Events on the Northwest Coast of North America

Some of the most interesting questions in archaeology have to do with the Peopling of the New Wor... more Some of the most interesting questions in archaeology have to do with the Peopling of the New World. Due to the very small number of discovered sites which predate 10,000 years before present the chronology and method of these migration events are not well understood. Previous research has been moderately successful in identifying sites from this time period which have not been inundated by sea level rise over the last 16,000 years but better models are needed to successfully identify sites in flooded areas. This project developed a new migration model making use of least cost analysis (LCA) applied to Late Pleistocene maritime travel to identify the area’s most likely to have been traveled through by Paleo-Indian groups. Using multi-criteria analysis, different cost weighting scenarios, and least cost corridors possible movement routes along the Northwest coast of North America were reconstructed. These areas were ranked by probability of use and analyzed using spatial auto correlation statistics. This project is one of the first to apply the LCA methodology to seascapes and marine movement and the results have the potential to lead to a better understanding of the Late Pleistocene through the discovery and research of new very early sites.

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Least Cost Analysis of Paleoamerican Migration Events on the Northwest Coast of North America

Top entry from and MA student in the ESRI Canada Young Scholar Competition.

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Maritime Least Cost Path Analysis of Paleoamerican Migration on the Northwest Coast of North America

In this thesis, I use the Geographic Information System (GIS) technique of least cost path analys... more In this thesis, I use the Geographic Information System (GIS) technique of least cost path analysis to recreate the maritime movement events of Paleoamerican peoples traveling through five different North American Northwest Coast landscapes during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. I make use of multiple modeling simulations, movement cost-weighting scenarios, and spatial data resolutions to predict the paths that early mariners may have used to travel through the physical world that existed between 10,000 and 16,000 cal. yr BP. This spatial analysis helps to identify areas that may have been inhabited by the first peoples to arrive in the New World by ranking locations within landscapes by ease of access as determined from physiological, environmental, and cultural variables. Using these values, the paths of least resistance between movement event origin and destination points are plotted and the patterns of predicted movement event routes are analyzed within the context of biogeographically oriented transient explorers undertaking long range leap-frog boat based journeys. By looking at least cost path clustering patterns, directional mean, coastline proximity, and amount of overland travel significant new insights are made into the application of least cost path analysis to prehistoric maritime migrations and the Paleoamerican history of the Northwest Coast. Lastly, I use this knowledge to suggest locations that have a high probability of containing Paleoamerican sites based on the results of my maritime least cost path modeling.

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Least cost path analysis of early maritime movement on the Pacific Northwest Coast

by Robert Gustas and Kisha Supernant

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Dos Hombres to Gran Cacao: A Geospatial Habitation Suitability Analysis

An index of location habitation suitability between the Maya sites of Dos Hombres and Gran Cacao ... more

Download

Least Cost Analysis of Peopling Events on the Northwest Coast of North America

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Least Cost Analysis of Paleoamerican Migration Events on the Northwest Coast of North America

Top entry from and MA student in the ESRI Canada Young Scholar Competition.

Download

Maritime Least Cost Path Analysis of Paleoamerican Migration on the Northwest Coast of North America

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