Settlement Patterns

In the Near East and elsewhere, the Neolithic Demographic Transition (NDT) refers to the relatively rapid increase in population and population growth rate following a shift in subsistence economy from one based on foraging to one based on farming. In Mesoamerica, the NDT was a more gradual process that unfolded over the entire Formative period (1800 BC-A.D. 200). An analysis of published records of over 6700 prehispanic burials, focusing on changing proportions of juveniles 5 to 19 years of age, suggests that fertility rates rose steadily over the second and first millennia BC. The gradual pace of the demographic transition was likely related to the low initial productivity of maize. Comparison of our results with NDT patterns observed in other regions provides insight into the large-scale picture of the transition to agriculture in Mesoamerica, specifically models of early farming dispersals.

"ABSTRACT
The settlement plan comprising of a large court encircled by adjacent houses has been defined by M. Korfmann in the early 80’s as “Anatolian Settlement Plan” (Anatolisches Siedlungsschema). However, the new excavations and investigations carried out from that time up until now demonstrated that under this definition there are variations of settlement patterns diverging from each other in certain points. Thus, all of the Anatolian settlement plans can not be classified under “Anatolisches Siedlungsschema”.
The formation of cultural/political entities in Anatolia might be the most important underlying factor for the manifestation of different settlement patterns. During the entire 3rd Millennium BC the whole eastern Anatolian region remains in the distribution area of the Karaz culture. We know relatively little on the central Anatolian architecture due to the insufficient research. The architecture of western and central Anatolia is much better known in this context. The up-to date evaluations made in the light of new research
here demonstrated that different settlement models prevail in pre-Middle Bronze Age Anatolia."

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo principal realizar una síntesis de la arqueología del curso medio del río Quequén Grande. En primer lugar, se presenta en detalle la información novedosa obtenida de las últimas investigaciones en el área, considerándola en conjunción con aquella que ya ha sido publicada. En segundo lugar, a partir de este estado de síntesis y de la información producida en otros sitios de las áreas Interserrana y serranas Bonaerense se discuten y evalúan las hipótesis propuestas por Martínez (1999) respecto de aspectos relacionados a los sistemas de subsistencia, tecnológicos, de movilidad y asentamiento, tomados como parámetros básicos para entender la organización social de los grupos de cazadores-recolectores del área durante el Pleistoceno tardio-Holoceno.

This study presents four case studies that elaborate on the results of two field survey projects (the Astura and the Nettuno surveys) that were carried within the ambit of the Pontine Region Project. These comprise 1) revisits to previously mapped sites, 2) the study of a local museum collection, 3) intensive on-site surveys and 4) small-scale excavations at a reference site for the Late Roman and Early Medieval period. The results obtained provide detailed insight the settlement dynamics for the study area and increase the potential of the dataset to approach different aspects of the Roman economy (such as trade, town-countryside relations, demography). At the same time, the study contributes to our understanding of biasing factors associated with archaeological survey.     

"In this chapter, the rich dataset on Iron Age settlements
from the Dutch coversand landscapes is reviewed in order
to better understand Iron Age habitation patterns in
general and the process of settlement nucleation in particular.
In order to facilitate understanding, brief attention
is first paid to specifics of Dutch Iron Age periodization
and landscape genesis. A discussion of the different
palaeogeographical regions and their Iron Age occupation
history in general terms serves as the backdrop for
a more in-depth analysis of the settlement patterns in the
sections that follow. A brief digression into the settlement
dynamics of the preceding Bronze Age (essentially
a combination of single-phased house-sites indicative of
‘wandering farmsteads’ and multiple-phased house-sites
that show regional patterns such as remarkably frequent
extending of farmhouses in the northern coversand areas)
moreover allows to study Iron Age settlement patterns
from a long-term perspective.
With the transition to the Iron Age, the basic model of
‘wandering farmsteads’ is still thought to be applicable,
but the relocation is now tied-in with the (re)use of fields
within a ‘Celtic field’ system. Moreover, according to traditional
views, settlement nucleation and differentiation
are visible from the Late Iron Age onwards. We however
argue that the supposed interrelation of Celtic field use
and Iron Age habitation is far from evident.
In the Early Iron Age, single-phased house-sites dominate,
but some long-term continuity of house-sites is suggested
by the rebuilding of their granaries.By the Middle
Iron Age, prolonging the use-life of previously occupied
house-sites by renewing or extending the house becomes
more frequent.
In addition to increased locational stability (houses are
more frequently rebuilt or extended), the Middle Iron Age
also shows an increase in the number of houses placed in
closer proximity. It is however evident that in the Middle
Iron Age, in coversand areas in the northern and southern
Netherlands, settlements comprising multiple-phased
house-sites and settlements consisting of single-phased
house-sites were (contemporaneously) current.
In the Late Iron Age houses appear more frequently to
be (repeatedly) rebuilt on their house-sites, reflecting
intended long-term farmstead usage. In addition, the
distribution of houses clearly indicates a nucleation of
house-sites that evolves into (fenced-off) Roman period
settlements. The evidence from the southern coversand
area shows that the aggregation of houses peaks during
the Late Iron Age, effectively demonstrating that this is
an internal development and not a phenomenon influenced
by direct Roman rule or proximity. Besides the increased
number of houses, also the first differentiation of
settlements (such as enclosed or ‘fortified’ settlements)
is traceable during the Late Iron Age and the first settlement
demarcations appear. Here again regional distinctions
are evident, with settlement( area)s demarcated
with ditches being more common in the southern coversand
area and ‘fortified’ settlements being more common
in the north."

"Between 1978 and 1991 a regional field survey project, the Boeotia Project, directed by John Bintliff (of Bradford and subsequen dy Durham University) and Anthony Snodgrass
(Cambridge University) conducted archaeological surface survey in Central and Northern Boeotia, in the charas and at the ancient polis centres ofThespiae, Haliartos and Hyettos. Following a long series of preliminary reports and articles highlighting particular aspects of this Project's results, the first of a series of final publications is in press...
The detailed study and processing of the Medieval and Post-Medieval surface ceramics of the Leiden Tanagra Project was begun during the 2002 field season by A. Vionis after the Project director's invitation (Prof. John L. Bimliff). A preliminary dating of the Post-Roman material had been made by Joanita Vroom, during the 2000 and 2001 field seasons. Our study of the material in 2002 yielded further information on the surface pottery collected during the 2000 and 2001 seasons, while each Post- Roman potsherd was studied and directly entered into the Project's Main Pottery-Database by the present author. This report derives from the study carried out in 2002 on the Post- Roman pottery collected from within the Tanagra city-walls and on the extramural Byzantine village-site of Ayios Thomas (site-code TS5), 1 km east of the city (at the end of the easterly transect). Moreover, it discusses aspects concerning the history of the Medieval and Post-Medieval villages in the area ofTanagra and how -on the basis of ceramic data, historical sources and local memory- these villages moved about from the Middle Byzantine to the Early Modern Era."

The relative importance of deterministic and stochastic processes driving patterns of human settlement remains controversial. A main reason for this is that disentangling the drivers of distributions and geographic clustering at different spatial scales is not straightforward and powerful analytical toolboxes able to deal with this type of data are largely deficient. Here we use a multivariate statistical framework originally developed in community ecology, to infer the relative importance of spatial and environmental drivers of human settlement. Using Moran’s eigenvector maps and a dataset of spatial variation in a set of relevant environmental variables we applied a variation partitioning procedure based on redundancy analysis models to assess the relative importance of spatial and environmental processes explaining settlement patterns. We applied this method on an archaeological dataset covering a 15 km2 area in SW Turkey spanning a time period of 8000 years from the Late Neolithic/Early Chalcolithic up to the Byzantine period. Variation partitioning revealed both significant unique and commonly explained effects of environmental and spatial variables. Land cover and water availability were the dominant environmental determinants of human settlement throughout the study period, supporting the theory of the presence of farming communities. Spatial clustering was mainly restricted to small spatial scales. Significant spatial clustering independent of environmental gradients was also detected which can be indicative of expansion into unsuitable areas or an unexpected absence in suitable areas which could be caused by dispersal limitation. Integrating historic settlement patterns as additional predictor variables resulted in more explained variation reflecting temporal autocorrelation in settlement locations.

"Tell Hamoukar is one of the largest Bronze Age sites in northern Mesopotamia. The present volume presents the results of three seasons of field survey and remote-sensing analysis at the site and its region. These studies were undertaken to address questions of urban origins, land use, and demographic trends through time. Site descriptions and settlement histories are presented for Hamoukar and fifty-nine other sites in its immediate hinterland over the last 8,000 years. The project paid close attention to the "off-site" landscape between sites and considered aspects of agricultural practices, land tenure, and patterns of movement. For each phase of occupation, the patterns of settlement and land use are contextualized within larger patterns of Mesopotamian history, with particular attention to the proto-urban fifth millennium B.C., the Uruk Expansion of the fourth millennium BC, the height of urbanism in the late third millennium, the impact of the Assyrian empire in the early first millennium BC, and the Abbasid landscape of the late first millennium AD.

The volume also includes a description of the unparalleled landscape of tracks in the Upper Khabur basin of Hassake province, northeastern Syria. Through analysis of CORONA satellite photographs, over 6,000 kilometers of premodern trackways were identified and mapped, mostly dating to the late third millennium and early Islamic periods. This area of northern Mesopotamia is thus one of the best-preserved ancient landscapes of movement in the world.

The volume's appendices describe the sixty sites, their surface assemblages, and the survey's ceramic typology."

"Executive summary
The Aboriginal Sites Decision Support Tool (ASDST) is a tool developed by the Department
of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) to support the conservation of
Aboriginal site heritage in NSW. The tool consists of a set of spatial GIS layers combined with
analytical techniques that provide visual and quantitative information describing the
distribution, accumulated impacts and conservation value of Aboriginal site features across
the landscape. This report presents:
• a description of the ASDST products
• how they should be appropriately interpreted
• mapped examples of the products at the statewide and local scale
• examples of how the tool has been applied in a variety of projects across NSW
• illustrated examples of the analytical capability of the tool
• a technical description of how the products were derived using international best-practice
in archaeological site modelling
As a tool that assists the assessment of Aboriginal site heritage, the ASDST supports several
areas of DECCW’s business. The tool utilises data from the Aboriginal Heritage Information
System (AHIMS), and is a projection to the landscape scale of the locality-based site feature
information recorded in the database. The ASDST complements AHIMS by providing broadscale
datasets and analysis methods to place Aboriginal site heritage within the context of
regional conservation planning. The ASDST data products can be used alongside other
environmental data to undertake systematic assessment of conservation priorities in the
landscape. This way the ASDST supports DECCW to meet its responsibility to regulate
Aboriginal site issues at a regional level, and contributes to better incorporation of Aboriginal
site heritage in natural resource management.
Getting Aboriginal site conservation issues incorporated into regional planning strategies is
important to addressing them at the landscape scale. Such planning can have an important
bearing on the investment strategies of agencies like catchment management authorities
(CMAs). The flexibility of the ASDST system means that this can be achieved in a number of
ways depending on the nature of the application. This report describes a variety of examples
where the ASDST has been applied in this capacity.
Similarly, by generating estimates of total site distribution, a variety of regional planning
approaches are possible. In each case, applying the ASDST has achieved its best outcomes
when there has been a close collaboration with project partners through cross-DECCW
collaboration, partnerships with other agencies and partnerships directly with Aboriginal
communities. This way products can be best developed to meet the needs of each
application. Such experience means the potential for better decision making is greater, and
that future development of ASDST products can be improved to meet emerging regional
planning needs.
A number of projects that have utilised the ASDST products have done so to develop a
survey design for fieldwork. This has been an important application for the Parks and Wildlife
Group (PWG) of DECCW where the objective was to locate new sites, primarily for on-park
management. A survey design for these projects was developed interactively with maps and
live GIS analysis in partnership with rangers for each park, Cultural Heritage staff coordinating
the survey and representatives of the Aboriginal communities. This has produced better park
management planning and more efficient allocation of resources in such projects.
The ASDST has demonstrated that is a flexible system capable of supporting critical areas of
DECCW’s business. It also contributes to the department’s responsibility to apply best
available practice to the regulation and care of Aboriginal site heritage in NSW. This
publication provides the interpretive and technical background to deliver Aboriginal site
management in a comprehensive and transparent manner."

"Territory and settlement strategies in the Nuragic Gallura. A preliminary hypothesis - This paper present the preliminary results based on the analysis of the territory and the paleodemography in the Nuragic Gallura (Sardinia). The aim of this research is the reconstruction of the social landscape during the Bronze Age in Gallura, by analyzing the settlement strategies, the exploitation of natural resources and the relationship between people and landscape.
The application of a multidisciplinary approach on the historical region of Gallura allows to detect and outline some great territorial systems for the use, control and exploitation of natural resources. The creation of a GIS integrated system allowed to investigate in details two of these territorial systems with more specific analysis: cost surface analysis and site catchment analysis. This approach provide an interesting method for reconstructing the social, political and economic organization of some nuragic communities during the Bronze Age in Sardinia."

Early to mid-Holocene ponds are identified in the Ridge and Valley Province through the occurrence of marl deposits in stream floodplains.  Excavations into these deposits show alternating sequences of marl (produced during episodes of ponded and still water) and organic silts (representing active stream deposits and land surfaces).  These profiles represent the shrinking and swelling of ponds through time in response to changing stream dynamics and presumably climatic change.  The distribution of prehistoric archeological deposits in and around these pond features provides information on the timing and nature of paleoenvironmental changes.