Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences—A study finds culturally relevant patterns in burial mound placement associated with lake climate characteristics in precontact Michigan. Increased availability of satellite-based remote sensing data enables the use of remotely sensed landscape data in archaeological applications, even without direct exploration of archaeological sites. Meghan C.L. Howey and Michael W. Palace automated the analysis of satellite thermal sensor data from the Landsat 8 Thermal Infrared Sensor between 2014 and 2024 across Michigan’s lower peninsula. The authors used the resulting data to analyze seasonal temperature patterns, extracting measures of temperature amplitude and phase shifts for thousands of inland lakes, as well as calculating perimeter-to-area ratios of each lake. Comparing the modern data with the locations of burial mounds built between 1200 and 1600 CE, the authors found that lakes with burial mounds warmed later in the spring, cooled later in the fall, and displayed more regular shapes, compared with lakes without mounds. The findings suggest that the placement of burial mounds may have been associated with resource advantages, possibly including an extended maize-growing season. According to the authors, the findings suggest a greater cultural role for maize than previously appreciated and show how remote sensing landscape data can provide archaeological insights.
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Seasonal temperature pattern measures amplitude (𝑎𝑎) and phase shift (∅) derived from a 10-year time series of satellite thermal data for all 10+ ha inland lakes in Michigan’s lower peninsula. Michael Palace
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A subset of conical burial mounds in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula that met the analytic parameters for this analysis. Michael Palace
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Article Source: PNAS news release.
*“Satellite thermal data applied to landscape archaeology: Mounds in Michigan (1200–1600 CE),” by Meghan C.L. Howey and Michael W. Palace. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 17-Feb-2026. https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2528379123
