Correspondingly, GIS applications were also split broadly into two separate directions: processualistic regional modeling studies and postprocessualistic phenomenological reconstructions of past landscape. In the early 1980s when GIS were first introduced into archaeology, there were two contrasting conceptions: the processualistic spatiality (space as non-problematic abstract backdrop and landscape as a palimpsest of material traces) on one hand, and the postprocessualistic backlash against it, on the other. In accordance with the conceptual transitions of “space” and “landscape” and the expansion of study area over time, GIS have been successfully integrated into the archaeological methodology and even theoretical discussions. In Andean archaeology, GIS together with related peripheral techniques (e.g., remote sensing and GPS) have become increasingly popular, particularly among younger archaeologists who recognize their ability to cope with a wide range of spatial scales and integrate multiple types of data.

Following in the steps of precocious applications in disciplines such as forestry and hydrology, a handful of archaeologists began to employ this useful tool for their analyses of spatial phenomena in the early 1980s.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been intensively developed since their origin in the early 1960s and employed for a variety of purposes both in academic and commercial fields thereafter.

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