GIS-Based Throwshed Analysis for Conflict Archaeology

In conflict archaeology, KOCOA—an acronym for Key terrain, Observation and fields of fire, Concealment and cover, Obstacles and Avenues of approach—is a widely used methodology for battlefield terrain analysis. Its field of fire and cover aspects are usually identified by visibility analysis and the superimposition of shooting ranges is derived from firing tables to define a simple perimeter. In reality, shooting range varies, especially in terrain with high elevation differences. Additionally, projectiles may still impact areas rendered invisible by complex terrain or anthropogenic obstructions. Therefore, we here present a ‘throwshed’ analysis approach, which delineates the areas reachable by projectiles shot from any given place while respecting the complex terrain or surface in the form of a digital elevation model and applying the physical laws of external ballistics. The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the classical shooting range approach within KOCOA and to resolve it by throwshed analysis. Moreover, this work aims to present the functionalities of the developed tool in diverse use cases by modifying the settings to demonstrate the innovative potential of the analysis within the KOCOA methodology. The physical model is validated with current, historical, and archaeological data. The validation and demonstration of the throwshed tool indicate that it corrects significant issues in the classical handling of fields of fire and cover within the KOCOA analysis. The throwshed tool is an open-source Python package that is freely available on GitHub.