Central Place Theory Reloaded and Revised: Political Economy and Landscape Dynamics in the Longue Durée

Athanasios Vionis,Giorgos Papantoniou

doi:10.3390/land8020036

Abstract

Highlights

Received: 12 February 2019; Accepted: 18 February 2019; Published: 21 February 2019. The aim of this contribution is to introduce the topic of this volume and briefly measure the evolution and applicability of central place theory in previous and contemporary archaeological practice and thought
A few years later, the German economist and location theorist August Lösch [5] expanded the theory by inverting the system and by bringing lowest-order units to the fore, while illustrating how from small-scale economic activities there derived several central place systems
Having referred to settlement hierarchy, we should note that it is around these main settlements or central places that rural communities in un-central landscapes are organised and it is through central places that rural communities interact with economies on larger scales

Summary

Introduction

The aim of this contribution is to introduce the topic of this volume and briefly measure the evolution and applicability of central place theory in previous and contemporary archaeological practice and thought. In late antique and early medieval Boeotia in central Greece, ports-of-trade (or emporia), such as Delion and Anthedon on the Euboean Gulf, played a major role during the era of urban transformations in the 7th and 8th centuries AD Both of them comprised seafront sites with a considerable extent of fertile land and a good harbour (where goods were collected, loaded and shipped to various destinations), they were associated with a settlement (having a local market and a Christian basilica), and provided extended marginal/agricultural territories with access to a wide economic exchange network [16]. Gregory Utz [78] in this volume applies successfully the concept of gateways and centrality in a similar methodological framework, using the main port cities of Marseille and Arles as case studies to illustrate how the natural environment and political control made an effect on the economic development of both cities in Greco-Roman times

Settlement Ecosystems and Land-Use

Sacred Landscapes

Political Economy