Nucleated Villages Research Articles

Medieval Activity at Beech Tree Close, Oakley, Hampshire

An archaeological excavation in advance of a housing development revealed a range of deposits dating from the 11th to 13th centuries. The features do not conform to what would be expected either for the nucleus of an isolated farmstead or as part of a medieval village, but they perhaps indicate an area of activity adjacent to a more densely settled area. The deposits were relatively rich in charred plant remains indicating arable production. The parish church, usually considered to be located close to a village centre, lies several hundred metres to the west and if the deposits here do not relate to an independent farmstead, perhaps they pre-date the formation of the nucleated village. One feature is potentially a Saxon SFB (sunken-featured building). Some early Saxon and Roman pottery sherds were also recovered.

The development of historic field systems in northern England: a case study at Wallington, Northumberland

ABSTRACT Wallington in central Northumberland is a late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century country house with associated pleasure grounds. Much of the surrounding estate is agricultural land, though there are also expanses of moorland and conifer plantation. The character of Wallington’s landscape, now divided into fifteen separate farm holdings, was to a large extent shaped by estate management practices and improvements in the eighteenth– nineteenth centuries. Today’s settlement pattern is made up largely of dispersed farmsteads, with field systems which reflect the orderly rectilinear layout of planned enclosure, being separated mainly by long and fairly straight stonefaced banks. In medieval and early modern times, by contrast, the landscape is thought to have been quite different, with nucleated villages set amidst irregular open fields which were farmed collectively. The process of long-term landscape change from open to enclosed field systems has been inferred across the whole of Northumberland but it can be difficult to understand in detail. Absolute dating evidence for field systems before the eighteenth century is generally lacking and the origins and development of historic earthworks including boundary banks and the remains of arable farming are poorly understood. This paper presents results of research which used retrogressive landscape analysis (based on documentary evidence, archaeological data, aerial photographs, and historic cartography) to identify five areas for detailed geoarchaeological investigation and sampling with optically stimulated luminescence profiling and dating (OSL-PD). The results provide new perspectives on the development of landscape character at Wallington which have wider relevance for north-east England and beyond.

A novel pixel-based supervised hybrid approach for prediction of land cover from satellite imagery

Background/Objectives: To determine the land use/cover from satellite imagery using image enhancement, image processing, and supervised machine learning techniques. This land usage will help in land use policy development, disaster assessment, planning of urban infrastructure, forest and agriculture monitoring and conservation. Methods/Statistical analysis: A pixel-based supervised hybrid machine learning approach is used that combines parametric density estimation followed by a k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) classifier to predict whether a particular pixel belongs to a nucleated village or to a field, forest, river, or some other terrain from satellite images. Spatial and texture features derived from the images are used as features for the models. Free satellite images crawled from Google EarthTM are hand labeled to serve as the ground truth for training and testing Models. Models are evaluated using four-fold cross validation. Comparison with other related techniques is also presented. Findings: Our experiments suggest that instead of using pixel intensity values as features, the intensity values after edge detection give better prediction accuracy. The parametric density estimation for the two classes is better modeled as Rayleigh distribution than as a normal distribution. Smoothing further helps improve the accuracy of the models. Passing the prediction of the parametric density estimator classifier through k-NN further reduces the error by removing the salt-and-pepper effects. Effects of using different size and number of smoothing filters is also discussed. Additionally, different parameters for k-NN were also evaluated to find the best models. The model was successful in achieving a very high accuracy of more than 97% with a very small false positive rate. The results demonstrate the successful discrimination of land cover of towns and nucleated villages from the surrounding terrain. Novelty/Applications: A pixel-based hybrid approach is proposed to improve accuracy of land cover classification. The proposed features and image enhancement techniques also help improve the prediction significantly. Using the proposed technique, the covered area of nucleated villages/towns can be determined for assessing the growth of towns/villages, for better of planning of urban infrastructure and land use policy, for disaster assessment, and forest and agriculture monitoring and conservation. Keywords: Land cover classification; land usage classification; satellite image classification; nucleated village segmentation

Long-term construction of vineyard landscapes in the Ebro Valley: The deserted village of Torrentejo (Basque Country, Spain)

Cultural landscapes are the result of human societies interacting with their environment, which is reflected in the onset and evolution of social practices such as settlement and agricultural production. This paper discusses the results of a transdisciplinary research program carried out on the vineyard landscape of the Rioja Alavesa district, one of the main wine-producing regions of Spain, focusing on the deserted village of Torrentejo (Basque Country, Spain). The study of archival records, combined with extensive archaeological survey and excavation, as well as the intensive analysis of geoarchaeological core samples, permitted the reconstruction of a long sequence of human settlement and agricultural practices extending over ~4000 years. The oldest documented records refer to a Chalcolithic occupation, developed on a buried gypsisol and possibly related to the climatic event at 4.2 ka BP. After a long hiatus, four phases of landscape transformation were documented above this Chalcolithic occupation: (1) the formation of a nucleated village in the Early Middle Ages, represented by the construction of a terraced agricultural landscape, and its passage under the control of different seigneurial powers over the High Middle Ages; (2) the abandonment of the village during the Late Middle Ages and the subsequent concentration of settlement in the charted town of Bastida; (3) a complete reorganisation and expansion of the local terraced systems in the 18th–19th centuries, in a context of specialisation and commercialisation of agricultural production; and (4) present-day mechanisation and capitalisation. These results therefore offer an interesting overview on the complexity and diversity of the historical trends that lie beneath the vineyard landscape of Torrentejo, proving the value of interdisciplinary research approaches for the investigation of the role of human settlement and agriculture in the formation and evolution of agricultural landscapes.

The tethering landscape: Dispersion and nucleation in early agricultural communities in southwestern Korea

Published data on 137 settlements were reviewed to explore temporal changes in population aggregation in southwestern Korea. Examination revealed a major shift in the first millennium AD. People in the region opted to stay in small groups for more than 1500 years after the beginning of plant cultivation. They began to aggregate and form nucleated villages only after ca. AD 200. Evidence for investments in non-portable landscape capital, such as barrages, canals, and paddy fields, suggests that the intention of producing more crops led people to bond together. People decided to stay in large groups as agricultural products were increasingly seen as economic assets rather than simply a food matter. Historical and archaeological data suggest that people had to increase agricultural production beyond the level of their basic needs in order to pay taxes and tributes, and to import iron ingots and exotic ornaments.

The earliest villages in Iron Age Iberia (800–400 BC): a view from Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca, Spain)

The onset of the Iron Age underwent manifold disruptions. The emergence of long-lasting nucleated villages in Iberia c. 900/800 BC best encapsulates such profound changes. This paper draws on the results of excavations over the last few decades at a fortified tell-like settlement in central Iberia: Cerro de San Vicente (Spain). The article focuses on formation dynamics in earth architecture to understand the role of cultural choices in the genesis of these sites. The occurrence of sophisticated lifestyles and novel cultural expressions in this village (avant-garde devices such as a drain pipe, unprecedented building techniques, exotic imports and alien practices) suggests the plausible role of inter-regional migration in their adoption. The appraisal of intra-site spatial ar­rangements sheds fresh light upon the diachronic social trajectories of these agrarian communities, from a seemingly egalitarian organisation to an increasingly ranked one.

The Earliest villages in Iron Age Iberia (800–400 BC): a view from Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca, Spain)

The onset of the Iron Age underwent manifold disruptions. The emergence of long-lasting nucleated villages in Iberia c. 900/800 BC best encapsulates such profound changes. This paper draws on the results of excavations over the last few decades at a fortified tell-like settlement in central Iberia: Cerro de San Vicente (Spain). The article focuses on formation dynamics in earth architecture to understand the role of cultural choices in the genesis of these sites. The occurrence of sophisticated lifestyles and novel cultural expressions in this village (avant-garde devices such as a drain pipe, unprecedented building techniques, exotic imports and alien practices) suggests the plausible role of inter-regional migration in their adoption. The appraisal of intra-site spatial ar­rangements sheds fresh light upon the diachronic social trajectories of these agrarian communities, from a seemingly egalitarian organisation to an increasingly ranked one.

Sourcing Interaction Networks of the American Southeast: Neutron Activation Analysis of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped Pottery

In the lower American Southeast, regional scale social interactions burgeoned alongside the growth of nucleated villages, widespread mound-building projects, and conspicuous mortuary ceremonialism during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. A.D. 100–800). A premier material for understanding the scale and significance of social interactions across the southern landscape comes from Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery, a ubiquitous class of material culture that provides direct evidence of connections between specific sites at a multitude of scales and in myriad contexts. By combining design data and determinations of vessel provenance through Neutron Activation Analysis of a total of 825 sherds and 130 clay samples, this research ascertains types of social interaction and their predominant directions and levels of intensity across multiple ecological, social, and cultural contexts. The results indicate two main patterns: first, that vessels were frequently transported from habitation sites and civic-ceremonial centers to distant burial mounds; and second, that people traveled to ceremonial centers from outlying villages for events that included the exchange of wooden paddles. These patterns reveal a high level of social coordination within integrated networks that were inextricable from the region-wide trends toward population aggregation and heightened monumentality and rituality.

Sourcing Interaction Networks of the American Southeast: Neutron Activation Analysis of Swift Creek Complicated Stamped Pottery

In the lower American Southeast, regional scale social interactions burgeoned alongside the growth of nucleated villages, widespread mound-building projects, and conspicuous mortuary ceremonialism during the Middle and Late Woodland periods (ca. A.D. 100–800). A premier material for understanding the scale and significance of social interactions across the southern landscape comes from Swift Creek Complicated Stamped pottery, a ubiquitous class of material culture that provides direct evidence of connections between specific sites at a multitude of scales and in myriad contexts. By combining design data and determinations of vessel provenance through Neutron Activation Analysis of a total of 825 sherds and 130 clay samples, this research ascertains types of social interaction and their predominant directions and levels of intensity across multiple ecological, social, and cultural contexts. The results indicate two main patterns: first, that vessels were frequently transported from habitation sites and civic-ceremonial centers to distant burial mounds; and second, that people traveled to ceremonial centers from outlying villages for events that included the exchange of wooden paddles. These patterns reveal a high level of social coordination within integrated networks that were inextricable from the region-wide trends toward population aggregation and heightened monumentality and rituality.

Towards Low-Carbon Urban Forms: A Comparative Study on Energy Efficiencies of Residential Neighborhoods in Chongming Eco-Island

The hyper-fast urbanization process in China has led to the mixes of traditional and contemporary neighborhoods, especially in the aspects of residential districts. The aim of this paper is to explore the interrelationship between urban form and energy efficiency of the residential neighborhoods on Chongming Eco-Island, which is a leading example in China's urbanization towards low-carbon and sustainability. By the empirical study and simulation on six most dominant neighborhood typologies, it is found that the annual building energy consumption of them vary significantly largely due to the various occupant behaviors. Moreover, the calculation of solar potential and energy trade-offs between production and consumption indicates that the nucleated villages and slab buildings have the greatest retrofitting potentials, which lead to the policy implications for Chongming’ s low energy and low carbon urban management.

Mississippian Habitation Components at Dickson Mounds in the Central Illinois River Valley

Abstract The Myer-Dickson area is a habitation component of the well-known Spoon River Mississippian mortuary site Dickson Mounds. About 20 domestic and public buildings were excavated at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, including the second-largest Mississippian building known in Illinois. Though sometimes characterized as a nucleated village, detailed analysis of material remains and their spatial distribution suggests two and possibly three periods of use during the Larson phase between A.D. 1200 and 1300. The large public building is one of several structures bordering a plaza, all of which are almost totally devoid of Mississippian artifacts. Domestic use of other sections of the site during the late Larson phase is part of a broader pattern of dispersed settlement on valley-edge ridges, a pattern that indicates at least some periods when fears of raiding were lessened despite the presence of contemporaneous palisaded towns.

Victims and Warriors: Violence, History, and Memory in Amazonia by Casey High

Casey High, Victims and Warriors: Violence, History, and Memory in Amazonia. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015. 230 pp.I distinctly remember when, early in my fieldwork with the Waorani of Amazonian Ecuador, I sat in the communal house in the oppressive afternoon heat talking with a middle aged male. We are civilized now, he said. We accept the word of God.Near your territory, along the oil roads, there are many colonist families coming and settling, I remarked. What will you do if these people come into Waorani lands and start extracting resources without permission?There was no hesitation in the reply: We will spear kill them.His comment speaks to the intersections of missionary influence and contemporary relations with (called kowodi, or non-Waorani), and how these come to via expressions and understandings of violence. In Victims and Warriors: Violence, History, and Memory in Amazonia, Casey High examines these dynamics linking past and present. While a population of a few thousand Native Amazonians in a geographically small South American country may appear to be an esoteric case study, Ecuador is a microcosm for critical contemporary struggles over resource extraction, conservation, human rights, indigenous self-determination, and Latin American geopolitics. High contributes to a growing body of scholarship that situates Native Amazonians within this dynamic milieu.For the Waorani, these struggles have often been characterized by bloodshed, including revenge killings between Waorani, raids between Waorani and kowodi, and high profile spearings of missionaries. Long protected by their belligerence, Waorani homelands correspond to some of the most biodiverse forests not only in Amazonia, but on the planet (Finer et al. 2009). Oil companies seek to drill in the significant remaining reserves in Waorani territory, and loggers aggressively plunder valuable hardwoods. Complicating such extractivism are the subgroups of Waorani who remain in voluntary isolation (i.e., the Tagaeri and Taromenani) and whose existence hangs in the balance, evidenced by a 2013 massacre conducted by a group of heavily armed, contacted Waorani resulting in the deaths of over two dozen Taromenani men, women, and children (Cabodevilla and Aguirre 2013).Clearly, conflict and contestation permeate Ecuador's Amazon region and are formative of Waorani subjectivity. Victims and Warriors examines how the Waorani experience and remember past violence, how violence is a symbolic practice through which Waorani people today understand themselves, their ancestors, and kowodi (3), and how these memories are part of a social and moral practice incorporated into Waorani efforts to negotiate a rapidly changing socio-economic, political, and ecological context (see also Lu et al. 2012). The book includes an Introduction and Afterword plus seven chapters.Chapter 1, Civilized Victims, explores the links between representations of the past-most notably the process of establishing sustained and peaceful contact with via efforts of Protestant missionaries- and Waorani social memory. In keeping with the work of other scholars of Amazonia, High's construction of the past is centrally focused on warfare, where killing functions the prime mechanism for inserting memory into social life (Rival 2002:65), and history is envisioned in the Waorani context as an endless series of predatory attacks perpetuated by cannibal outsiders (Rival 2002:64). High explains how the Waorani of the older generation see themselves victims of violence, prey rather than predators. These understandings help to explain how the Waorani received the message of the missionaries and how they related to the martyrdom of evangelical North Americans similar to the loss of their own kin in intraethnic warfare. Becoming civilized, then, refers to transcending the cycle of revenge killings, acquiring formal schooling, and transitioning to in larger, more permanent, nucleated villages. …

Mississippian Habitation Components at Dickson Mounds in the Central Illinois River Valley

The Myer-Dickson area is a habitation component of the well-known Spoon River Mississippian mortuary site Dickson Mounds. About 20 domestic and public buildings were excavated at the site in the 1960s and 1970s, including the second-largest Mississippian building known in Illinois. Though sometimes characterized as a nucleated village, detailed analysis of material remains and their spatial distribution suggests two and possibly three periods of use during the Larson phase between A.D. 1200 and 1300. The large public building is one of several structures bordering a plaza, all of which are almost totally devoid of Mississippian artifacts. Domestic use of other sections of the site during the late Larson phase is part of a broader pattern of dispersed settlement on valley-edge ridges, a pattern that indicates at least some periods when fears of raiding were lessened despite the presence of contemporaneous palisaded towns.

Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval England, by Tom Williamson

Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval England, by Tom Williamson. Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2013. viii, 270 pp. $80.00 US (cloth). Tom Williamson tackles a tried-and-true landscape history question in his latest book on early medieval England: why do regional settlement differences appear the way they do? Because of the paucity of written evidence from the period, Williamson blends historical documents, archaeological investigations, and modern landscape configurations to propose some answers to the question. His thesis is that the landscape patterns of the early Saxon settlement, particularly the fifth to eighth centuries, are largely due to environmental factors, rather than cultural or social ones. The first two chapters set up the background material. In chapter one, Williamson gives readers an overview of the historiography of early medieval settlement in England, including how ethnicity, demographics, and social structures have been treated. He is particularly keen to discredit the model, which deals with the breaking up of large estates into smaller and smaller units over time. In the second chapter, Williamson outlines the physical geography of England, including soil, rainfall, bedrock, and drainage basin information. In each of the following chapters Williamson argues against a prevailing settlement theory using environmental variables. Watershed boundaries are more important than military conquest in establishing settlement areas of immigrants (chapter three). Co-axial are the result of resource linkage in topographic contexts rather than evidence of planning (chapter four). The different landholding patterns in east and west, which are usually explained by Viking invasions, are more attributable to climatic factors that created more risk for agricultural production in the west (chapter five). The big issue Williamson wants to address is the supposed differences between champion landscapes of nucleated villages with communal agriculture and areas of individually worked property. This takes up the remainder of the book (chapters six through nine). Williamson takes issue with scholars who portray these types as homogenous landscapes dictated by tenurial or social factors. He believes that the typologies are far too simple since landscapes are variable and depend on local environmental factors. He attacks the dichotomy of champion/woodland landscape on multiple fronts. First, he forcefully argues that woodland landscapes do not indicate late or dispersed settlement. Second, he writes that the prominent theory of nucleation of settlement in the Saxon period is a myth, positing instead that seemingly planned settlements were much more irregular and gradually developed in place. …

Patterns of residential heat demand in rural Switzerland

Heat demand reduction mitigates the negative consequences of energy use. Recent reduction potential analyses have focused on city or country levels, yet European rural areas also show considerable heat consumption, although they have rarely been investigated. This paper locates the major residential heat consumers in rural areas and identifies the related building types. The case of the rural, pre-alpine Swiss canton (state) of Appenzell Ausserrhoden with 20 municipalities is used for analysis. Its current demand patterns are examined with respect to buildings' construction periods, heating system types and energy carriers. Spatial differences, especially between nucleated (densely settled) villages and dispersed settlements, are observed. Specific final heat demand per heated area and occupant is similar in both settlement types, equalling 0.5 GJ/m2/year and 32 GJ/cap/year. In terms of specific useful heat demand, buildings in nucleated villages consume one-tenth more than in dispersed settlements, and in nucleated villages up to 86% of that heat stems from fossil fuels. Thus, to increase import independence and demand equality, and mitigate climate change, these buildings should be primary targets. The results provide a foundation for creating efficient, evidence-based policy for heat demand reduction in rural municipalities but should be coupled with investigating socio-economic, epistemic and cultural aspects of heat demand. La réduction de la demande de chauffage atténue les conséquences négatives de l'utilisation de l'énergie. Les analyses récentes sur le potentiel de réduction ont surtout porté sur la consommation de chauffage au niveau des villes ou au niveau des pays. Les zones rurales européennes représentent pourtant également une consommation de chauffage considérable, bien qu'elles aient rarement été étudiées. Cet article localise les principaux consommateurs résidentiels de chauffage des zones rurales et identifie les types de bâtiments concernés. Le cas du canton suisse rural préalpin d'Appenzell Rhodes-Extérieures [Appenzell Ausserrhoden], qui comprend 20 municipalités, est utilisé pour l'analyse. Ses schémas actuels en matière de demande sont examinés sous l'angle des périodes de construction, des types de systèmes de chauffage et des vecteurs énergétiques des bâtiments. Des différences spatiales sont observées, en particulier entre les villages à habitat groupé (densément peuplés) et les habitats dispersés. La demande de chauffage spécifique finale par superficie chauffée et par occupant est similaire dans les deux types d'habitat, équivalant à 0,5 GJ/m2/an et à 32 GJ/habitant/an. En termes de demande de chauffage utile spécifique, les bâtiments des villages à habitat groupé consomment un dixième de plus que ceux des habitats dispersés, et dans les villages à habitat groupé jusqu'à 86 % de ce chauffage provient de combustibles fossiles. Par conséquent, pour accroître l'indépendance à l'égard des importations et l'égalité de la demande, et pour atténuer le changement climatique, ces bâtiments devraient être les cibles principales. Les résultats obtenus posent les bases d'une politique efficace, fondée sur des données probantes, de réduction de la demande de chauffage dans les municipalités rurales, mais devraient êtres combinés avec une analyse des aspects socio-économiques, épistémologiques et culturels de la demande de chauffage. parcs bâtis habitats dispersés réduction de la consommation d'énergie des ménages réduction de la demande de chauffage parc de logements zone rurale villages à habitat groupé

Distribution and spatial arrangement of rural population in Shaqlawa district, Kurdistan region-Iraq

Rural population distribution has a very significant influence over socio-economic characteristics of world rural communities. It gives a reflection of the burden to the land resources of public services available in an area and also reflects the environmental implications of population to specific area. Regional distribution of rural population in Shaqlawa district reveals considerable inequality in an area of varied types of geographical environment. A relationship of the various indices of physical and agricultural densities in the different sub regions of the area under study reveals that physical condition shows mature adjustments to landforms, and rural population distribution follows suitable area. Between two extreme types of grouping for rural settlements, the isolated farmstead and the nucleated village, there are numerous degrees which depend upon the interplay of physical and non-physical factors. An analysis of the trends of population distribution and density in Shaqlawa district indicates that the already densely populated areas have a greater potential for population increase than the sparsely settled areas, because it inevitably increase the spacing between settlements, the ratio of clustered to dispersed popula tion, the distance inputs per capita required providing the remaining settlements with services, social functions and human companionship. Key words: Population distribution, population density, rural settlement, spatial arrangement, rural development, Mountain area.

Upland Rockshelters and Late Woodland Communities in the Hocking Valley, Southeastern Ohio

More than 50 years of studies in the southeastern region of Ohio confirm an intensification of the use of rockshelters as specialized task localities during the Late Woodland period. This article addresses rockshelters within the broader community organization of the Late Woodland landscape involving hunting and lithic resource procurement activities. In the Hocking Valley, settlement studies have shown a transition from dispersed Early to Middle Woodland household hamlets situated along the upper tributaries of Monday and Sunday creeks to Late Woodland nucleated household villages along the main stem of the Hocking River proper. Facing Monday Creek Rockshelter is offered as an example of the Late Woodland community's use of the region's many upland rockshelters. I propose that the Late Woodland exploitation of upper tributary rockshelter settings for the hunting and gathering of target resources was fundamental to the larger residential farming settlements situated in the alluvial valley.

Changes in farming system and population as drivers of land cover and landscape dynamics: The case of enclosed and semi-openfield systems in Northern Galicia (Spain)

In this study, we aimed to document the changes in the bocage and semi-openfield landscapes of Northern Galicia from the second half of the 20th century and analyse the factors driving landscape changes. In particular, we examined (1) the dynamics of the field systems characteristics in these landscapes and (2) the interrelations with changes in dominant land cover, population and farming systems (in terms of productive structure, land use system and farming practices) dynamics. The picture of the1950s showed mainly semi-openfield field systems and nucleated villages that extended through valleys in the lowland, with banks in rough coastline sectors. In the highlands we found enclosed fields and scattered hamlets interspersed within large extensions of scrubland. In between both systems, a transitional area with mixed characteristics appeared. In 2000, the transitional area expanded from the former semi-openfields and banks areas, while the highlands still retain the enclosed character. The dominant land cover has experienced significant changes throughout the area, following an increase in woodland. A reorientation of the farming system was observed, a shift in which cropland lost importance with regard to grassland, the use of scrubland became marginal and forestry increased. The decrease in the number of farms and livestock shows decline in agricultural activity. This can be closely related to changes in dominant land cover and cropping patterns. Despite recent changes, this area still retains characteristic features of traditional landscapes such as the spatial pattern of field systems and ancestral cultural practices (e.g. extensive grazing of the scrubland).

Early Urban Development in the Near East

It has been thought that the first cities in the Near East were spatially extensive and grew outward from a core nucleated village while maintaining a more or less constant density in terms of persons or households per unit of area. The general applicability outside of the Near East of this southern Mesopotamian.derived model has been questioned recently, and variations from it are increasingly recognized. We can now demonstrate that such variation was present at the beginnings of urbanism in the Near East as well.

Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers

Choice, Persuasion, and Coercion: Social Control on Spain’s North American Frontiers