Analysis Of Settlement Patterns Research Articles

Neanderthal settlement patterns in Crimea: A landscape approach

Traditional settlement pattern analysis involves classifying sites within a region using previously established functional categories. Faunal and lithic data are frequently combined as archaeological indicators of site function. The results are interpreted in terms of a settlement system from which inferences about mobility patterns and social organization are drawn. The previously published site of Karabi Tamchin is used here as a spring-point for a discussion of the problems inherent with established site typologies and some of the settlement models that have been proposed in the past. The rich Middle Paleolithic archaeological record of Crimea is used to demonstrate the usefulness of the landscape approach as a means of supplementing existing information about Middle Paleolithic settlement patterns.

REMOTE SENSING OF MALARIA IN URBAN AREAS: TWO SCALES, TWO PROBLEMS

Dear Sir: Two articles published in a supplement of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene make assertions about the use of remote sensing (RS) in urban areas that warrant further discussion. One evaluates qualitatively the impact of an eight-year investment of US$17 million by the Japanese International Corporation Agency (JICA) to control urban malaria in Dar es Salaam,1 and the other investigates the impact of urbanization on malaria in sub-Saharan Africa and the implications of this for control.2 The first article states, after a limited investigation of aerial photography, that only optical imagery of 1 × 1 meter or finer spatial resolution is of use in delineating water-bodies for mapping malaria risk in urban areas,1 a point further emphasized in an accompanying article.3 The investigators then discuss the feasibility of the existing optical sensors in providing this information against issues of cost and opportunities for cloud free observation at tropical latitudes. There is a significant history of discussing these issues4-9 that cite many examples of the cost-effectiveness of using aerial photography for mosquito larval habitat identification during control operations. Two further points should be made. The first is that exclusive use of optical sensors is not ideal for water-body discrimination, particularly in the cloudy tropics. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors are independent of solar radiation and thus can capture images at night and through complete cloud cover.7 They have the further advantages of significant interaction of microwaves with water10 and lower cost (e.g., complete coverage of Kenya at 25 × 25 meter spatial resolution with Radarsat US$5000 [Radarsat International http://www.rsi.ca/]). Furthermore, SAR imagery will soon be available at 1 × 1 meter spatial resolution from a variety of sources (e.g., http://www.terrasar.de/ and http://alos.nasda.go.jp). The second clarification is that not all remote sensing of urban areas11-13 is focused explicitly on improving the ability of operational staff to identify larval habitats for larvicidal applications. Many studies have found that coarser resolution sensor information is also useful for identifying mosquito habitats.12 The second article attempts to estimate malaria incidence in African urban areas using an approach of dubious accuracy.2 In the calculation of the land area that is urban in Africa, the investigators use night-time lights’ imagery14 developed by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The use of these data in demographic applications has a substantial pedigree in RS. In night-time lights imagery, however, considerable contamination of dark pixels can occur from adjacent bright pixels (a phenomenon known as blooming) and adjustments need to be made. The RS specialist must therefore balance the likely underestimate of urban centers because some of these lack bright lights (factors between two and three are applied to allow for this effect) and the certain overestimate of other urban areas through blooming effects.14-18 When only the first factor is considered, between 1.7% and 2.6% of Africa is estimated to be urban2; this is likely to be an overestimate because of the second effect. In a recent analysis of settlement patterns in Kenya,18 a number of estimates of urban areas were tested. Those incorporating night-time lights imagery predicted significantly larger urban areas than those using visual interpretation of satellite imagery (http://www/africover.org). The most recently available Global Urban Rural Mapping Project19,20 reported that only 0.8% of the surface of Africa is urban. Extrapolating these values to malaria incidence using only eight studies, and thereby claiming 6–28% of the global malaria incidence may occur in African urban areas,2,3 should therefore be treated with caution because it is almost certainly an overestimate of unknown magnitude.

Le Mésolithique du bassin de l’Ourthe (Belgique) : implantation dans le paysage et néolithisation

A non-site approach permits the analysis of settlement patterns of mesolithic groups in the Ourthe Basin (Belgium) in terms of “behavioural tendencies”. These tendencies allow a hypothesis of dynamic behaviour to be proposed, in relation to its ethnological significance. This approach, applied to the question of neolithisation, demonstrates the active role that played the mesolithic substrate in this process.

Le Mésolithique du bassin de l'Ourthe (Belgique) : implantation dans le paysage et néolithisationThe Mesolithic of the Ourthe Basin: Landscape settlement and Neolithisation

« […] les grandes agglomérations ne sont pas les seules intéressantes. Nous sommes persuadés, bien au contraire, que les petites stations sont parfois plus susceptibles de nous fournir de multiples et précieuses données sur l’origine, la dispersion et la vie de ces populations, que beaucoup de grandes stations […] » (Lequeux, 1924 : 43) Une approche théorique dégagée de la notion de site archéologique permet d’étudier le mode d’implantation dans le paysage des groupes mésolithiques du Bassin de l’Ourthe (Belgique) en termes de « tendances comportementales ». Á partir de ces tendances, des comportements dynamiques, de type palethnologique, sont prudemment suggérés. Ce champ d’étude, appliqué à la problématique de la néolithisation, met en évidence le rôle actif que joue le substrat mésolithique dans ce processus. A non-site approach permits the analysis of settlement patterns of mesolithic groups in the Ourthe Basin (Belgium) in terms of “behavioural tendencies”. These tendencies allow a hypothesis of dynamic behaviour to be proposed, in relation to its ethnological significance. This approach, applied to the question of neolithisation, demonstrates the active role that played the mesolithic substrate in this process.

Big Sites—Short Time: Accumulation Rates in Archaeological Sites

Large, complex archaeological sites are often characterized by only a handful of radiocarbon dates. This practice encourages indiscriminant dating of sites for the sole purpose of determining age. If a more rigorous dating scheme is employed and accumulation rates are calculated, otherwise invisible aspects of human behaviour become apparent. Issues central to settlement pattern analysis, such as abandonment and reoccupation events, population fluctuations, building activities, and activity areas are more easily identified when accumulation rates are calculated. In this study, accumulation rates are calculated for seven shell midden sites found in the San Juan Islands, Washington. The collections are stored at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Eighty-two charcoal pieces were selected according to a comprehensive horizontal and vertical sampling regime and radiometrically dated. Accumulation rate calculations suggest that large archaeological sites, like these shell middens, do not always represent continuous human occupation characterized by gradual accumulation of material. Rather, these large complex sites accumulated during short-duration occupations that were repeated infrequently in the same area. This research recommends that numerical accumulation rates be calculated using at least two calculations; the excavation unit accumulation rate and the entire site accumulation rate, and that the excavation unit accumulation rate is the more useful scale for interpreting settlement history. Calculations of these rates focus the multifaceted interaction between human behaviour and natural processes in a way that qualitative guesses cannot.

Rural population density: its impact on social and demographic aspects of rural communities

Using the settled areas of South Australia as a case study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the specific importance of rural population and settlement density as an important variable in understanding the social, population and settlement geography of sparsely settled rural regions, where sparse and falling density presents both practical and conceptual problems for rural planners. After a review of the literature on population density, the case is argued for the use of net rural rather than gross density in the analysis of settlement patterns. The paper then tests a series of hypotheses on the empirical relationship between rural density as independent variable and selected demographic and socio-economic indicators as dependent variables, at two specific points in time. For the same region, points in time and set of indicators, it goes on to compare the predictive power of rural density as an independent variable with that of three other important qualities of rural settlement patterns (remoteness, settlement size and urban concentration). Rural density is found to be a significant explanatory variable, both in its own right and in comparison with the three other variables tested. In conclusion, the findings are related to policy development measures for rural Australia.

GIS Mapping and Analysis of Tai Linguistic and Settlement Patterns in Southern China

By integrating linguistic information and physical geographic features in a GIS environment, this paper maps the spatial variation of terms connected with wet-rice farming of Tai minority groups in southern China and shows that the primary candidate of origin for proto-Tai is in the region of Guangxi-Guizhou, not Yunnan or the middle Yangtze River region as others have proposed. In addition, Tai speaking people (Zhuang and Bouyei) settle at low elevations along rivers where they can practice irrigated rice farming, in contrast to the Yi, members of the Sino-Tibetan language family, who are found at higher elevations. The patterns of different ethnolinguistic groups exploiting different ecological niches are likely true for all of Asia. GIS technology has great potential to help explain such patterns and understand population movements and distributions.

The Fezzan Project 1999: preliminary report on the third season of work

AbstractThis report summarises the work of the third season of the Fezzan project which took place in January 1999. The main environmental findings of the project team of specialist geographers are providing confirmation of dramatic climatic and environmental change over the last 100,000 years and give more precise dates for some of these changes. The excavations in Old Germa (ancient Garama) have continued through Islamic levels, with elements of five main phases of buildings now having been recorded. Additional standing structures, including one of Germa's main mosques, have been surveyed. Field survey around Germa has revealed further new settlement sites of prehistoric, Garamantian and Islamic date. Of particular importance is a series of lithic and pottery scatters relating to neolithic occupation along the edge of the Ubari Sand Sea, to the north of Germa. Further investigation of the irrigation channels (foggaras) has revealed significant new information about their size, construction and probable date. The report concludes with a brief preliminary analysis of changing settlement patterns over time.

SAR applications in human settlement detection, population estimation and urban land use pattern analysis: a status report

Over 70 percent of the population of the world's developed countries live in urbanized areas. In developing countries migration to urban areas is continuing at an increasing rate. Detection and analysis of settlement patterns, estimating population, and monitoring population migration in a timely manner are requisite to accurately assess the impact of human activities on the environment. Monitoring urban land use change patterns is among the most critical information needs for future economic development planning, natural resource allocation, and environmental and ecosystem management. Previous research has demonstrated the potential of imaging radar systems in analyzing urban, population, and settlement phenomena. However, the variability and complexity within and between urban land use morphologies present a convoluted environment for analysis. Studies of vegetation, soils, geology, hydrology, and ice and snow have all received more attention and been the subject of considerably more widespread and in-depth radar research. Nevertheless, imaging radars offer some distinct advantages and opportunities for urban-based research. With the arrival of operational space imaging SAR systems, a review of the current status of applications of radar remote sensing in urban studies should be useful for focusing the authors' attention on this important area of radar research and identification of specific problems for in-depth analysis. This paper traces the history of imaging radar research for urban, settlement, and population analysis. It presents a status report on the applications of SAR in settlement detection, population estimation, assessment of the impact of human activities on the physical environment, mapping and analyzing urban land use patterns, and interpretation of socioeconomic characteristics. The demonstrated capabilities and limitations of past and current imaging radar systems with reference to these applications are described. Potential avenues of future research are addressed.

Radiocarbon evidence for the Lateglacial Human Recolonisation of Northern Europe

This paper examines, through the use of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry dating, the database of Lateglacial cultures involved in the recolonisation of northern Europe. The aim is not only to determine the timing of that recolonisation, but also to propose a general model of hunter-gatherer colonisation at a sub-continental scale. The question is addressed of how long the period of abandonment of northern Europe during the Würm/Weichsel glaciation may have lasted, and when it both started and came to an end. A series of questions is asked concerning the processes and mechanics of recolonisation and the sequences for specific areas are examined. AMS radiocarbon dating shows that a two stage process was involved, which has important implications for our analysis of regional settlement patterns and the changing scale of Lateglacial hunting systems. Recolonisation was a dynamic process, integral to, and internally driven by, the social life of Lateglacial hunters. It may have been constrained by environmental and resource factors, which we have emphasised here, but ultimately it was an historical, social process and should be similarily regarded to that of the farmers. By measuring rates of expansion data are provided for use in other studies of hunter-gatherer colonisation.

Modelling Settlement Patterns for Metropolitan Regions: Inputs from Remote Sensing

Analysis of settlement pattern is useful in making decisions about the locations of new investments and about the potential for clustering services and facilities in new ways to increase the capacity of human settlements to stimulate development in their areas. Settlement patterns in and around metropolitan regions become all the more important when considering the pace with which the urban settlements are increasing, both in number and size. In addition, in developing countries, there is" a new category: increasingly large number of spontaneous human settlements are coming into existence on the urban fringes.

From laugerie basse to jolivet: The organization of final magdalenian settlement in the vézère valley

Abstract This paper presents results of recent analysis of settlement patterns in the Vezere valley (Dordogne, France). Concentrating on the Final Magdalenian, it shows that patterning observed is a function not only of the topographic setting of sites but also of their socioeconomic context. Adoption of the Rank Size Rule as an analytical tool highlights the potential relationship between sites which, on initial examination, appear to be unrelated. It allows us, on the basis of size, to divide sites into three main categories: large, medium and small, each of which was important to the Magdalenian hunter. When associated assemblage data (faunal, lithic, etc.) are considered some indication of the role of these sites is obtained.

Testing the models: Hunter‐gatherer use of space in the gulf of Maine, USA

Abstract Analysis of settlement patterns provides valuable insights into hunter‐gatherer activities. Two decades of intensive research in the Gulf of Maine, northeastern North America, has resulted in a number of observations not possible except in a multi‐site, regional approach to archaeology. Efforts concentrated on the littoral of the Gulf of Maine, a highly productive marine environment that supported both hunter‐gatherer‐fishers and horticulturalists in the centuries preceding the arrival of Europeans around ad 1600. Because of sea‐level rise and a subsiding coastline, details on regional exploitation are scant prior to 3000 BP, after which the quality and quantity of data improve significantly. The transgressive nature of the shoreline means that reconstruction of the aboriginal approach to space is an artifact of both human choice and erosion. Attempts to factor in the latter in order to derive the former have combined cultural ecology with marine geology. A general absence of specialized activity...

How has coastal erosion affected the prehistoric settlement pattern of the boothbay region of maine?

AbstractErosion of complex, rocky coasts has largely been neglected by geologists. Thus, a geo‐archaeological study of coastal erosion was required before analysis of the prehistoric settlement pattern could be undertaken. Along the outer, wave‐dominated coast of Maine, erosion is episodic, occurring when large storms raise water levels to new heights. Along the inner, tide‐dominated coast, erosion occurs more frequently because unconsolidated sediments are exposed at low elevations in bedrock features. The shell midden archaeological sites of the Boothbay, Maine region are situated in the most rapidly eroding areas; therefore, it can be reasoned that localities without cultural deposits were never occupied. On the other hand, coastal erosion is widespread enough to insure that sites have been exposed to discovery by archaeological survey. Settlement pattern analysis of the study area is, therefore, not biased by differential preservation or discovery of archaeological sites.

Cahuachi in the ancient Nasca world

Ever since its scientific discovery, the great Nasca site of Cahuachi on the south coast of the Central Andes has captured the attention of archaeologists, art historians, and the general public. Until Helaine Silverman's fieldwork, however, ancient Nasca culture was seen as an archaeological construct devoid of societal context. Silverman's long-term, multistage research as published in this volume reconstructs Nasca society and contextualizes the traces of this brilliant civilization (ca. 200 B.C.-A.D. 600). Silverman shows that Cahuachi was much larger and more complex than portrayed in the current literature but that, surprisingly, it was not a densely populated city. Rather, Cahuachi was a grand ceremonial center whose population, size, density, and composition changed to accommodate a ritual and political calendar. Silverman meticulously presents and interprets an abundance of current data on the physical complexities, burials, and artifacts of this prominent site; in addition, she synthesizes the history of previous fieldwork at Cahuachi and introduces a corrected map and a new chronological chart for the Rio Grande de Nazca drainage system.On the basis of empirical field data, ethnographic analogy, and settlement pattern analysis, Silverman constructs an Andean model of Nasca culture that is crucial to understanding the development of complex society in the Central Andes. Written in a clear and concise style and generously illustrated, this first synthesis of the published data about the ancient Nasca world will appeal to all archaeologists, art historians, urban anthropologists, and historians of ancient civilizations.aa

Practice and Political Centralisation: A New Approach to Political Evolution [and Comments and Reply

L'A. s'attache a demontrer la valeur d'une theorie de la pratique dans l'etude ethnologique de l'evolution politique et notamment de la centralisation politique, c'est-a-dire de la concentration du pouvoir. L'A. demontre qu'une approche basee sur la pratique des acteurs est plus plausible que les modeles materialiste, fonctionnel ou evolutioniste. Une etude de cas des populations des iles Niue et Tongatapu a permis de tester cette theorie.

The integration of socioeconomic and physical resource data for applied land management information systems

Geographic information systems (GIS) have been seen as an important enabling technology in the integration of satellite remote sensing and more conventional forms of land use information. The development of GIS has closely followed perceived application needs in physical geography and led to the implementation of numerous digital databases for land resources management. However, data relating to the human population and its socioeconomic characteristics have been poorly integrated with these advances for a number of reasons. Geographic information processing in the social sciences has tended to lag behind the development of systems for physical applications and, at a more fundamental level, there are important differences in the way in which socioeconomic phenomena have been conceptualized and modelled. Nevertheless, an understanding of the distribution and characteristics of human activity has an increasingly important role to play in many questions relating to the management of the physical environment. This paper seeks to demonstrate the application of some developments in socioeconomic analysis using GIS to integrate conventional physical resource data with socioeconomic information in the context of land use planning. These involve the modelling and analysis of population information in a raster GIS environment, incorporating contemporary geodemographic techniques and providing valuable information on the analysis of settlement and neighbourhood patterns and the distribution of residential, commercial and industrial activities.

The investigative role of Landsat‐TM in the examination of pre‐ and proto‐historic water management sites in Northeast Thailand

Abstract Recent archaeological research has demonstrated the presence of large numbers of ancient settlements mu ‘ang baran in northeastern Thailand with a time depth extending back more than two thousand years. The density of settlement is surprising in view of the severity of the climate with its long dry season, which makes the northeast one of the least productive agricultural regions in present‐day Thailand. It is clear that the existence of mu'ang boran necessitated careful management of the scarce water resources. In this study, the main types of earth‐work constructed for water control and storage are discussed and their air‐form characteristics, as seen on conventional air photography and Landsat imagery, are examined. The detectability of these earthworks on Landsat‐TM imagery is assessed using data from four separate field areas and the value of satellite imagery in prehistoric settlement pattern analysis is demonstrated.

Incorporating Variation in Occupation Span into Settlement-Pattern Analysis

Settlement patterns recovered by archaeologists differ fundamentally from synchronic settlement patterns analyzed by geographers since they are a static record of occupations that may often have had differing periods of use in the past. Many maps of the “settlement pattern” of prehistoric phases show more occupations than were ever simultaneously occupied. After discussing some of the problems this can cause, I describe a way of characterizing past settlement dynamics and a method for estimating (1) the mean number of likely simultaneous occupations for a region and (2) phase-to-phase differences in mean occupation span. The method is illustrated by the analysis of settlement data from the Ixtapalapa region in the Basin of Mexico.

An ethnoarchaeological perspective on soils

Abstract As archaeologists become increasingly sophisticated in their use of soils in understanding settlement patterns, it is necessary to consider what prehistoric food producers might have known about the soils of their landscape and how this could have influenced their land use strategies. A review of ethnopedological studies demonstrates that non‐Western soil classifications tend to be less developed than comparable folk botanical or zoological classifications and that they usually consist of no more than four or five soil categories. An analysis of historic settlement patterns of the Nigerian Kofyar shows that soil variability may not be the primary determinant in the location of early agricultural settlements. Archaeologists may wish to follow the lead of traditional agriculturalists and understand the full variety of locational constraints on agricultural settlements, before using subtle differences in the distribution of soils as the primary explanation of settlement variability.