Nucleated Settlements Research Articles

FIRST RESULTS OF SPATIAL PLANNING IN THE HABSBURG MILITARY FRONTIER: FRONTIER REGIMENTS, NUCLEATED SETTLEMENTS AND CADASTRAL SURVEY (C. 1745–1785)

There are numerous examples of spatial planning on the periphery of the Habsburg Monarchy, which was organised within the regiments of the Military Frontier in the second half of the 18th century. Our focus was on the territory of the Slavonian-Syrmian Military Frontier, the Šajkaš Battalion, and the Banat Military Frontier, where flat landscapes enabled various forms of state spatial intervention, approximately at the same time – around 1770. This paper presents some aspects important for understanding this complex topic, such as the influence of militarisation and centralisation, colonisation and spatial planning of settlements (following the nucleated settlement model), as well as the tight structuring of rural areas and parcelisation of arable land, and their final results in the form of land and tax reforms (cadastral surveying).

Global dynamics of a two-species clustering model with Lotka–Volterra competition

This paper is concerned with the global dynamics of a two-species Grindrod clustering model with Lotka–Volterra competition. The model takes the advective flux to depend directly upon local population densities without requiring intermediate signals like attractants or repellents to form the aggregation so as to increase the chances of survival of individuals like human populations forming small nucleated settlements. By imposing appropriate boundary conditions, we establish the global boundedness of solutions in two-dimensional bounded domains. Moreover, we prove the global stability of spatially homogeneous steady states under appropriate conditions on system parameters, and show that the rate of convergence to the coexistence steady state is exponential while the rate of convergence to the competitive exclusion steady state is algebraic.

Household sorting in an ancient setting

We use archaeological data from ancient settlements of three different historical eras on a Greek island to construct novel measures of consumption. Using these, we show that the shares of high-quality consumption goods were relatively more concentrated closer to the center of nucleated settlements as compared to low-quality consumption goods. There is no such pattern in a placebo settlement. In this unique setting, these quality gradients may reflect differences in household consumption baskets across these settlements. We argue that some alternative, trade or production based hypotheses for such gradients can be weakly ruled out based on our data and archaeological sources.

LITHIC AND FAUNAL EVIDENCE FOR CRAFT PRODUCTION AMONG THE MIDDLE PRECLASSIC MAYA AT CEIBAL, GUATEMALA

AbstractThis study examines artifact production using lithic, animal bone, and shell materials at the lowland Maya site of Ceibal, Guatemala, to explore the emergence and societal role of early crafting specialists. During the Middle Preclassic period (1000–350 b.c.), ancient Maya society went through a critical transition to sedentary settlements, including the development of large-scale monumental construction endeavors for ceremonial activities, increasingly nucleated settlement patterns, and the differential control of prestigious objects. Excavations across Ceibal recovered one of the largest Middle Preclassic assemblages of lithic and faunal material to date. We examine these materials in order to understand the nature of their manufacturing processes, the association between lithic production and bone/shell processing for meat and artifact production, and compare these activities with evidence from other Middle Preclassic sites and from the later Classic period. We find that Middle Preclassic middens are often disturbed or incorporated into later construction episodes over many generations, making the identification of such activities difficult, although not impossible, to identify archaeologically. Evidence for crafting is often found near ceremonial structures where Ceibal's early elite would have been present, suggesting that they were closely involved in the production process.

Aggregation, status competition and levelling mechanisms in prehistoric Chulmun, Korea

This article discusses the aggregation and dispersion of the Chulmun hunter-gatherers (c. 8000–1500 bce) in prehistoric Korea. The following observations are made from settlement datasets. First, large numbers of houses do not necessarily imply aggregation, as they can be palimpsests of dwelling structures from different phases. Second, aggregation settlements were segmented and contained multiple discrete subunits. Individual residential clusters typically had fewer than 60 inhabitants. Third, there are some indications of social hierarchy in nucleated settlements such as Unseo-dong. Fourth, despite some evidence of emergent elites and social differentiation, social complexity did not intensify over the long run. Levelling mechanisms (e.g. group fission) were in operation and they suppressed the institutionalization of social hierarchy.

Dhina: A Multi-purpose communal tree-and-shrub belts around the nucleated settlements of the Konso

This paper examines multi-purpose communal forests, called the dhina, which surrounds the Konso settlements. Qualitative research, primarily in-depth interviews and field observations, were employed to explore the multiple purposes and current status of dhina. Moreover, as a native to the study area, the investigator was able to utilize his personal experiences as another source of information. Results of the study show that dhina was purposefully conserved by the communities since the time the nucleated settlements in Konso were established. The forest has multiple purposes including: fire control, latrine, garbage dump, grazing land, fruit gathering, and hiding places during times of conflict. Moreover, the study shows that dhina harbors several indigenous plant and animal species. Finally, the result indicates that the process of modernization and development process threaten the survival of dhina.

Materiality and cultural formation

Materiality and cultural formation

Impacts of Population Density for Landuse Assessment in Cengkareng, West Jakarta

Economic development in Jakarta has been influencing physical and social characteristics of urban area significantly. For recent years, burgeoning population growth occurs as a result of urban development and contributes to the landuse dynamics in a certain area. Cengkareng, is one of the most developed urban areas in Jakarta and has been experiencing such population and landuse dynamics. Its strategic location has turned this area becomen densely-populated. Increasing population density increase land demand, shapes the settlement pattern, and changes the landuse of the area. A study conducted in Cengkareng District has been done to describe how the population density impacts the landuse features for landuse assessment. The method implemented in this study combines quantitative and qualitative to process statistics and satellite imagery to produce data of population density, landuse change, and settlement pattern of the studied area. The study resulted that Cengkareng has experienced such significant landuse change which is dominantly converted into settlement and offices due to rising of population density. Nucleated settlement pattern has taken more area regarding to increased land need over land supply. It becomes serious problem for Cengkareng such aa slum settlements, flood problems, and land subsidence.
 
 Keywords: Landuse change; Population density; Settlement pattern

The Village beyond the Village: Communities in Rural Landscapes in Ancient Greek Countrysides

Villages in the Classical Greek world consisted of more than a nucleated settlement: the human relationships of rural village communities linked together a variety of spaces and locations in the wider countryside. This means that no one site or location in the landscape makes sense without reference to others with which it was entwined. Moreover, these relationships, and hence the uses of particular sites and places, changed rapidly over time. These aspects of the Classical village are most evident in the occupation histories of excavated small, rural sites. Five such sites from across the Greek world are Pyrgouthi (Berbati Valley, near Mycenae), Sant'Angelo Vecchio and Fattoria Fabrizio (chora of Metaponto, Basilicata), the Vari House (Mt. Hymettus, Attica), and the Umbro Greek site (Bova Marina, southern Calabria).

Urbanism in Iron Age Iberia: Two Worlds in Contact

During the Late Iron Age two processes developed in Iberia: a process of growing demography and a trend towards nucleated settlements. Both processes ended in the appearance of large fortified sett...

The development of integrated regional economies in the Early Bronze Age Levant: new evidence from ‘Combed Ware’ jars

This paper uses new petrographic and geochemical data (ICP-AES and -MS analyses) taken from samples of ‘Combed Ware’ jars occurring at sites on the Lebanese coast, the Bekaa Valley, the Orontes Valley around Homs and the North Jordan Valley, to investigate the production and distribution of these vessels in the Levant during the Early Bronze Age. The evidence points to the existence of integrated regional interaction zones that can be identified through specific modes of craft production and the associated distribution networks. The new evidence sheds light on the development of a nucleated settlement landscape, and the economic, social and political changes that this implies, in central Levant and western Syria during the first-half of the 3rd millennium BC, Early Bronze Age.

De watervoorziening op de zandgronden

Water supply in the sandy dry lands (the Netherlands). Spatio-temporal developments Wells as water facilities were standard elements of the Dutch settlement landscape only since the Roman period. At the same time (drinking) water facilities became largely detached from the local topography. The position of a well within a settlement became determined by that of its associated house, and its position relative to the house became more or less fixed. This reflects the functional and social subdivision of the farmhouse into two distinct sections: ‘front’ and ‘back’. Communal water facilities (socially important as well) seem to have been associated with nucleated settlement, and they always existed alongside private facilities. Communal (public) wells first appeared in towns around the 13th or 14th century, but in rural areas probably not until the 16th century. In different periods there is evidence for the expression of social and functional differentiation.

Longa duração e territorialidade da ocupação sambaquieira na laguna de Santa Marta, Santa Catarina

Este trabalho versa sobre a ocupação da região da laguna de Santa Marta, litoral sul catarinense, por grupos construtores de sambaquis. O período considerado vai aproximadamente de 7.5 a 0.9 cal ka aP, ao longo do qual a região esteve continuamente ocupada pelos grupos sambaquieiros. O resultado mostra que a dinâmica do processo de construção de sambaquis na região pode ser dividida em fases, uma de expansão, entre 7.5 e 3.0 ka aP, e outra de retração, de 3.0 a 0.9 ka aP. Ao longo de todo o período percebe-se um padrão de agregação dos sítios, com a região sendo particionada e compartilhada por vários focos de ocupação. Este padrão de territorialidade se manteve ao longo do tempo.

Bounded Landscape

While massive defensive walls were characteristic of many central sites in antiquity, small rural settlements were typically unfortified. In the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah, however, all types of settlements were usually surrounded by walls, separating the nucleated settlements from their surroundings. These Iron Age villages differed from most Bronze Age villages in the region, and from contemporaneous villages in neighboring cultures. While the existence of boundary walls is indicative of community organization and social relations, this study asks why the Israelites created bounded landscapes, and so made such a clear dichotomy between inside and outside, between places of human habitation and the surrounding areas, between culture and nature? A sharp dichotomy between places of human habitation and the countryside is also reflected in the (biblical) Hebrew language and in various texts, as well as in a structural analysis of other material cultural traits, providing additional insights into ancient Israel’s perceptions of space. This study also exemplifies how patterns observed in the archaeological record of historical periods can be combined with an examination of that society’s spoken language, and along with indirect information obtained from the period’s documentary sources may provide a fuller understanding of the worldviews of the ancients.

Settlement Sizes and Agricultural Production Territories: A Remote Sensing Case Study for the Early Bronze Age in Upper Mesopotamia

Archaeological data from Upper Mesopotamia provide ample information on the extent of agricultural production territories around tell-based nucleated settlements as well as site sizes —as a proxy for ancient populations. In following, this study investigates the potential relationship between settlement sizes and food production levels during the Early Bronze Age. To start with, CORONA imagery is used to document landscape evidences of past production and settlement sizes. Second, a biological crop-growth model is built over AVHRR-NDVI data, coupled with precipitation values from the region. This model makes it possible to estimate annual production amount at sample locations. Finally, modern day production analogies are constructed in order to explore modelling data and to understand rain-fed agricultural strategies in the Early Bronze Age. CORONA-AVHRR remote sensing survey results reveal no significant relationship between archaeological sites and their production territories (r=0.40). Likewise, the relationship between site areas and estimated staples production is also a weak one (r=0.30). On the other hand, if one considers biennial fallowing as a production strategy, the relationship becomes significant (r=0.85). Furthermore, model data suggests only settlements smaller than 50 hectares were potentially practicing biennial fallowing —suggesting population pressure on production at larger settlements. Statements of significance The study challenges the normative assumption that there is a direct relationship between populations and local agricultural production. The analysis is possible only when the production landscapes are considered as dynamic environments, responding to changes in the environment, but also influenced by the choice of production strategies. Data availability Production statistics (tons/ha) are available for the years between 1982 and 2006 in shp format as a supplement to this paper.

Agricultural innovations at a Late Iron Age oppidum: Archaeobotanical evidence for flax, food and fodder from Calleva Atrebatum, UK

The development of oppida in the late first millennium BC across north-western Europe represents a major change in settlement form and social organisation. The construction of extensive earthwork systems, the presence of nucleated settlement areas, long-distance trade links and the development of hierarchical societies have been evidenced. These imply that changes in the style and organisation of agriculture would have been required to support these proto-urban population centres. Hypotheses of the subsistence bases of these settlements, ranging from a reliance on surplus arable production from local rural settlements, to an emphasis on pastoral activities, are here reviewed and grounded against a wider understanding of the expansion of agriculture in the Late Iron Age. These agricultural models have not been previously evaluated.This paper presents archaeobotanical data from six well fills from large-scale excavations at Late Iron Age and Early Roman Silchester, a Late Iron Age territorial oppidum and subsequent Roman civitas capital located in central-southern Britain. This is the first large-scale study of waterlogged plant macrofossils from within a settlement area of an oppidum. Waterlogged plant macrofossils were studied from a series of wells within the settlement. An assessment of taphonomy, considering stratigraphic and contextual information, is reported, followed by an analysis of the diverse assemblages of the plant remains through univariate analysis. Key results evidence animal stabling, flax cultivation, hay meadow management and the use of heathland resources. The staple crops cultivated and consumed at Late Iron Age and Early Roman Silchester are consistent with those cultivated in the wider region, whilst a range of imported fruits and flavourings were also present. The adoption of new oil crops and new grassland management shows that agricultural innovations were associated with foddering for animals rather than providing food for the proto-urban population. The evidence from Silchester is compared with other archaeobotanical datasets from oppida in Europe in order to identify key trends in agricultural change.

Bronze Age wetland/scapes: Complex political formations in the humid subtropics of southwest China, 900–100 BC

The reconstruction of complex political formations in tropical and subtropical environments has long been challenged by the ephemeral nature of archaeological deposits and the detectability of a settlement hierarchy. This paper presents findings from systematic archaeological surveys in the Lake Dian basin in southwest China to evaluate processes of political differentiation during the Bronze Age (ca. BC 900–100) and identified with the protohistoric kingdom of Dian. We discuss the problems of interpreting political consolidation based on mono-centers and ranked site size distributions. Our approach considers the contingent forms that ‘built’ landscapes can take in the humid subtropics in an effort to understand the variable relationship between politics and spatial scale. Combining traditional survey as well as subsurface methods suited for intensively worked paddy landscapes, we discuss the emergence and timing of multiple nucleated settlements as indicative of peer polity dynamics in the basin and examine the formation histories of large shell mound sites to highlight physical modifications that embedded central places during the Bronze Age period. We show that the boundary between on-site and off-site, living and non-living spaces is not solely determined by the availability of prime land but also by spatial conventions with discrete cultural and historical ramifications. By contextualizing macroscale views on complexity with an understanding of local scales of landscape transformation, we provide an alternative to models of pristine state formation based in temperate alluvial environments.

Networks of interaction and functional interdependence in societies across the Intermediate Area

This article explores the role that a community’s network of interaction—an intrinsic feature of the degree of nucleation or dispersal of communities—played in the differential development of societies across the Intermediate Area (Northern South America and Southern Central America). We propose that large nucleated communities, where domestic units have access to larger networks of household interaction, facilitate the development of more functional interdependent social institutions, while the small network of household interaction inherent to smaller villages and dispersed populations encourages functional redundancy in domestic units. To test these expectations, the compositions of communities in three prehistoric populations are compared through the use of multivariate icons (graphical depictions of the variation in artifact types for different household samples). The results indicate that more nucleated settlements have more pronounced indicators of functional interdependence within their constituent units.

Extensification in a Mediterranean semi-arid marginal zone: An archaeological case study from Early Iron Age Jordan's Eastern Karak Plateau

The extensification of agricultural systems into marginal lands is a common response to environmental, economic, and political pressures for more cultivable land. Yet the course that extensification takes in particular instances is unpredictable given the choices available to producers. This article investigates an instance of extensification during the late second millennium BCE on the semi-arid Eastern Karak Plateau in west-central Jordan. Architectural, faunal, and archaeobotanical evidence is presented from Khirbat al-Mudayna al-'Aliya, one of several communities that participated in an extensified settlement system on the edge of the Wadi al-Mujib and its tributaries. Producers practiced agriculture and pastoralism in a low-intensity subsistence economy that supported a nucleated settlement of households. Faunal analysis determined goats were kept, and wild animals supplemented diets. Archaeobotanical analysis of charred plant remains from storage bins in a building destroyed by fire indicated that barley was stored in a semi-processed state and that harvesting by uprooting was practiced, thus resulting in the maximization of the straw harvest. The riparian zone beneath the settlement was a key venue for subsistence activities. This Early Iron Age example contrasts with later episodes of extensification whose settlement systems were more dispersed and agro-pastoralist regime more integrated.

13 Comparative Landscape Analysis: Contrasting the Middle East and Maya Regions

ABSTRACTThe Maya Lowlands and the Middle East occupy two contrasting latitudinal zones of ancient settlement, the former comprising part of the semi‐tropical belt of low‐density urbanism whereas in the Middle East dense nucleated settlement has predominated. Building upon the foundation lain down by Robert McC. Adams and published in 1966, but primarily drawing upon new evidence from archaeological landscape surveys, this paper explores the commonalities and contrasts between these two landscapes. Emphasis is placed upon settlement and landscape dynamics, specifically those features that contribute to our understanding of settlement sustainability or fragility. In addition, the different responses of large and small sites to both internal and external stresses are examined with particular reference to models of collapse and resilience. This paper selectively draws upon evidence from case studies from each geographical zone. These include those previously presented from the Maya region together with case studies drawn from the large data base available from Durham University's Fragile Crescent Project. Key features of settlement landscape dynamics include: agricultural intensification, polity size, transport networks, and patterns of exchange. In addition, reference is made to settlement landscapes in the sub‐humid and semi‐arid Yemen highlands which occupy a latitudinal zone equivalent to the Yucatan Peninsula and which show some characteristics of low density urbanism.