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Gillings & Wheatley (2020)
Researchers studied tower kiva structures (multi-storey circular buildings) in the Puebloan Southwest to study whether they were:
a. Signalling stations
b. Defensive lookouts
c. Status symbols
Signalling hypothesis
Viewsheds showed no direct inter-visibility or overlapping zones between the two Kivas studied,
Defensive lookouts
A sensitivity analysis showed that beyond 7–9km, additional height gave negligible extra visibility,
Status symbol
The towers increased the number of nearby sites able to see the great house complex
Supported an interpretation of the towers as monuments designed to enhance the social and political prominence of the complex
Central argument
GIS visibility analyses are best understood as generating probabilistic models and hypotheses, not definitive reconstructions of what past people saw
Results should be combined with field verification