Settlement Patterns Research Articles

Manifest Destiny in Southeast Asia: Archaeology of American Colonial Industry in the Philippines, 1898–1987

Abstract At the turn of the twentieth century, American logging companies backed by the US colonial regime initiated extensive extraction in Bikol, Philippines. Industrial infrastructure and the involvement of a newly assembled Bikolano workforce left a profound imprint on the region's landscape. This article discusses a collaborative archaeological project that used archival materials, place-name analysis, ethnographic interviews, discussions with local scholars, satellite mapping, and drone-mounted lidar scans of former industrial sites. Findings shed light on the enduring ramifications of American logging in the early 1900s on settlement patterns, the infrastructure of routes and mobility, the state of industries from Philippine independence in 1946 through the 1980s, and ongoing environmental hazards. These findings emphasize the legacy of American empire, reveal the role of Filipino logging workers in shaping the landscape through settlement decisions, and uncover intricate connections across a pan-Pacific American colonial frontier that was shaped by both extractive and settler colonialism. This article adds to an emerging trend in Americanist archaeology in which archaeology investigates recent historical and even contemporary events.

EMERGING EMPIRES AND OPPORTUNISTIC LAND-USE LEGACIES: TESTING A NEW MODEL ON ROME'S CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION THROUGH ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY DATA IN THE TERRITORIES OF COSA AND TARRACO

This paper tests a new model to study the Roman conquest and colonization of the Western Mediterranean. This recent model depicts Roman expansion as a more sustainable process than previously assumed, which tapped into, reinforced and integrated wider Mediterranean settlement trends. Contrary to what is assumed by traditional narratives, colonization did not entail the immediate destruction and restructuring of native landscapes — but rather the integration, opportunistic reuse, appropriation and development of previous land-uses and settlements. Two legacy datasets collected through pedestrian survey in the colonial territories of Cosa (Italy) and Tarraco (Spain) were used to test this model on a supranational scale. The analysis indicated that certain portions of the native landscape were possibly integrated into the Roman Empire without initial drastic changes being reflected in the settlement patterns or the landscape.

Culturing the body in the context of the neolithisation of the southern Levant

The body is a site of lived experience as people engage their social, cultural, and physical worlds through their bodies. As a product of both nature and culture, it can be modified to fulfil, challenge, or rebel against ideals and expectations. While not all the ways in which humans modify their bodies leave traces in the archaeological record, the use of personal ornaments is well documented. In this paper, we focus on the practice of body modification through personal adornment in the context of the neolithisation of the southern Levant. We argue that shifting subsistence strategies, settlement patterns, and social relationships (including relationships with ancestors) necessitated new ways of being in the world that were manifested in and through material culture including personal ornaments. In the Neolithic, living bodies did not need to be present for an individual to have a social “life” and personal ornaments as heirlooms likely played a fundamental and complementary role in “presencing” a person who would otherwise be absent.

Wari across the Andes: Modeling the radiocarbon evidence

The expansion and impact of the Wari polity across the Andes has been heavily debated by scholars over the past two decades. We use radiocarbon dates, Bayesian statistics, and contextual data from several Andean regions to review the chronology for Wari expansion, political reorganization, and impact on local settlements. We recognize that Wari political and economic influence will vary in space and time and present a model that addresses how influential moments (expansion, reorganization, collapse) in Wari’s trajectory may or may not have had broader impacts across the landscapes of its peer polities. Our model, while not completely comprehensive, draws on both Wari’s presence in the north highlands and in the south, where scholars have argued for distinct trajectories and character of Wari influence. It also examines data from local communities in these same regions contemporary with identified Wari settlements, but perhaps without outward indicators of Wari hegemony, to evaluate broader patterns in Middle Horizon settlement through the latter half of the first millennium CE.

Analysis of Housing Settlement Patterns on the Banks of the Chilca River

Analysis of Housing Settlement Patterns on the Banks of the Chilca River

Spatial and Temporal Variability in Oyster Settlement on Intertidal Reefs Support Site-Specific Assessments for Restoration Practices

As some of the most threatened ecosystems in the world, the declining condition and coverage of coastal habitats results in the loss of the myriad ecosystem services they provide. Due to the variability in physical and biological characteristics across sites, it is imperative to increase location-based information to inform local management projects, which will potentially help to reestablish functions of coastal habitats. Since oysters are often used in restoration projects, this study quantified spatial and temporal patterns in eastern oyster spat settlement in a bar-built estuary in northeast Florida, USA that is host to a robust population of intertidal oyster reefs. Spat settlement was found to occur from April to October with small peaks in the spring and large ones around September. Inter-annual differences in spat settlement were likely influenced by existing environmental conditions and heavily affected by large-scale events such as tropical cyclones. Variations in regional spat settlements are possibly driven by the residence times of the watersheds, the density of adult populations, and the location of the spat collectors. The results of this study illustrate place-based variability in oyster settlement patterns and underscore the importance of local monitoring for oyster resource management, restoration, and research.

Towards conceptualizing ‘demographic agency’ in Family Language Policy

This article investigates the success story of language maintenance in Arab families in Iran. Taking Fishman’s (1991) emphasis on micro face-to-face interactions in language maintenance processes as our point of departure, it argues that language maintenance requires that families live in a sociolinguistic milieu in which face-to-face interactions are facilitated by demographic patterns of settlement. Despite unfavorable institutional policies towards minority languages in Iran, the specific geographical makeup of the country has historically pushed speakers of minority languages to settle in certain regions (Katouzian, 2009). Drawing on Sealey and Carter’s (2004) concept of ‘demographic agency’, this article argues that such a demographic settlement of Arabs in southern cities and towns in Iran has given them a collective power to maintain their language, which takes the form of laissez-faire interactions in Arabic at home. The findings, based on interviews with families and recordings of interactions at home, suggest that, although parents express concern regarding their children’s academic achievement and socioeconomic mobility, which requires higher proficiency in Persian, this concern does not readily translate into language practices in Persian at home.

GIS and Machine Learning Models Target Dynamic Settlement Patterns and Their Driving Mechanisms from the Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Traditional GIS-based statistical models are intended to extrapolate patterns of settlements and their interactions with the environment. They contribute significantly to our knowledge of past human–land relationships. Yet, these models are often criticized for their empiricism, lopsided specific factors, and for overlooking the synergy between variables. Though largely untested, machine learning and artificial intelligence methods have the potential to overcome these shortcomings comprehensively and objectively. The northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP) is characterized by diverse environments and significant changes to the social system from the Neolithic to Bronze Age. In this study, this area serves as a representative case for assessing the complex relationships between settlement locations and geographic environments, taking full advantages of these new models. We have explored a novel modeling case by employing GIS and random forests to consider multiple factors, including terrain, vegetation, soil, climate, hydrology, and land suitability, to construct classification models identifying environmental variation across different cultural periods. The model exhibited strong performance and a high archaeological prediction value. Potential living maps were generated for each cultural stage, revealing distinct environmental selection strategies from the Neolithic to Bronze Age. The key environmental parameters of elevation, climate, soil erosion, and cultivated land suitability were calculated with high weights, influencing human environmental decisions synergistically. Furthermore, we conducted a quantitative analysis of temporal dynamics in climate and subsistence to understand driving mechanisms behind environmental strategies. These findings suggest that past human environmental strategies were based on the comprehensive consideration of various factors, coupled with their social economic scenario. Such subsistence-oriented activities supported human beings in overcoming elevation limitation, and thus allowed them to inhabit wider pastoral areas. This study showcases the potential of machine learning in predicting archaeological probabilities and in interpreting the environmental influence on settlement patterns.

The relationship between initial retroreflective luminous coefficient, thickness and retroreflection attenuation of thermoplastic markings

This study aims to investigate the effect of thickness and initial retroreflective luminous coefficient (RL) on the retroreflection attenuation of thermoplastic road marking. The road marking with a thickness range of 2.5-3.7 mm were divided into six groups with a 0.2 mm interval to assess the relationship between the initial RL and the retroreflection attenuation. The settlement pattern of glass beads was also investigated for road markings with different thicknesses. Furthermore, the road markings with an initial RL range of 457-492 mcd·lx-1·m-2 and a thickness range of 2.46 ~ 3.42 mm were divided into four groups. The RL values at 7, 15, 30, 60 and 90 days were measured and compared to assess the impact of thickness and initial RL on retroreflection attenuation. It is concluded that the change of RL value is due to the change of glass bead embedment. When the thickness is 3.08 mm and the initial RL is 465.5 mcd·lx-1·m-2, there is a noticeable delay in the retroreflection attenuation.

Starch Granule Yields from Open-Air Metates Unaffected by Environmental Contamination

Abstract The morphological characteristics of starch granules preserved on ancient ground stone tools can reveal which plant species were processed and consumed and even infer tool function. Bedrock metates are commonly associated with the processing of localized seasonal resources, providing potential evidence for past human lifeways, including foods collected and processed, social gatherings, settlement patterns, land investment, and territorial behavior. In contrast to ground stone artifacts preserved in a buried context that have been studied extensively, limited starch research has been conducted on the potential for environmental contamination of open-air bedrock mortars and metates exposed to natural erosional elements. This project examines the residue samples of bedrock metates from three archaeological sites in southern Oregon in the United States to compare the starch yields of extraneous material cleaned from the grinding surface to those extracted from interstitial matrices deeper within the bedrock. Significantly greater number of starch granules were recovered from deep within the cracks and crevices than from the surface. Our study suggests that environmental contamination can be managed if separate surface and control samples are collected and analyzed in conjunction with the interstitial samples. Examining the potential for environmental contamination on exposed grinding surfaces is crucial for confidence in starch granule results and improving our understanding of human dietary behavior.

Changing Settlement Organization in the Late Pleistocene of the Wadi al-Hasa, West-Central Jordan

Since the 1980s, surveys in Jordan’s Wadi al-Hasa document dozens of Late Pleistocene hunter–gatherer sites, some of them tested or partly excavated. To track landscape-scale forager mobility and settlement patterns over time, we examine 26 levels from 13 sites dated to the Middle, Upper, and Epipaleolithic using aspects of Barton’s whole assemblage behavioral indicators research protocol, a collection of methods designed to extract patterns from archeological palimpsests. Because forager ethnographies document adaptive strategies that do not map onto the discrete site types employed by archeologists, we evaluate the utility of the latter so far as behavioral inferences are concerned. We show that discrete bimodal contrasts like “curated” and “expedient” and their archeological correlates fail to capture the much more complex reality. Only by using these methods in conjunction with these analytical contrasts can a realistic picture of forager mobility and land use approximating that known from ethnography be attained.

Invisible landscapes. Historical research and groundwater

Groundwater is an essential part of the planet's water reserves. In modern times, this resource has become increasingly important in determining production methods, modernisation processes and urban settlement patterns, often with contradictory connotations: sometimes a complementary factor, other times a completely alternative resource to the large-scale water infrastructure projects promoted by the state and hydraulic technocracies. Yet, Italian and international historiography has so far paid little attention to groundwater as an object of study in its own right. From a methodological point of view, this requires a close dialogue with other scientific disciplines, involving categories such as the Anthropocene, the hydrosocial cycle and shadow waters, as well as a focus on international historiography, looking in particular at the national or subcontinental contexts that have had to deal with the presence of large underground aquifers.

Spatial–Temporal Evolution, Impact Mechanisms, and Reclamation Potential of Rural Human Settlements in China

In China’s pursuit of modernization, the government has introduced the rural revitalization strategy to combat rural decline, foster balanced urban–rural development, and reduce the urban–rural gap. Rural human settlements, as key components of this strategy, play a vital role. This paper examines the types and characteristics of human–earth relationships within rural settlements, emphasizing their significance. Using national land use and population census data, we analyze the spatiotemporal evolution of rural settlements at the county level, investigating landscape pattern changes, assessing the degree of coupling coordination between rural population and settlements, categorizing relationship types and features, and estimating the potential for remediation. Our findings reveal a growing trend in the scale of rural human settlements, particularly sourced from arable land, with significant expansions observed in the North China Plain and Northeast Plain, indicating potential for farmland reclamation and village consolidation. Landscape patterns of rural human settlements exhibit increased fragmentation, complex shapes, and aggregation. We categorize the utilization of rural human settlements into two types, each with four distinct features: human–land coordination is observed in regions characterized by either a higher rural population and larger rural settlement areas, or lower rural population and smaller rural settlement areas. Human–land trade-offs are evident in areas where there is either a higher rural population and smaller rural settlement areas, or lower rural population and larger rural settlement areas. This provides valuable insights for the Chinese government’s context-specific implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. It also serves as an experiential reference for the governance of rural human settlements in other developing countries.

Northwest Transdanubia from the end of the Early Bronze Age until the Koszider Period

Review article of the PhD dissertation submitted in 2023 to the Archaeology Doctoral Programme, Doctoral School of History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and written under the supervision of Gábor V. Szabó. The dissertation investigated the processes taking place at the end of the Early and in the Middle Bronze Age in northwest Hungary, predominantly in Győr-Moson-Sopron County, based on sites at Nagycenk, Hegyeshalom, Enese, Győr-Ménfőcsanak, and Mosonszentmiklós. This region between the Devín Gate and the confluence of the Rába and Danube rivers is important for European research on prehistory, as it could have been a gateway between the Carpathian Basin and the western parts of Central Europe. The complex statistical evaluation of the collected archaeological finds and their contexts has revealed the diversity of the material culture (Gáta–Wieselburg, Kisapostag, Transdanubian Encrusted Pottery Culture) and mortuary practices (inhumation and cremation burial rites, diverse patterns of grave furnishing) in the study area and period. In addition, a spatial analysis of the sites indicated a change in the settlement pattern between 2200 and 1500 BC. The typochronological analysis and the radiocarbon data helped specify the chronology and refine the connections maintained with Central European territories.

Defining urban boundaries through DBSCAN and Shannon's entropy: The case of the Mexican National Urban System

A novel method is proposed to define cities' boundaries within a given national urban system. Point Volunteered Geographic Information, such as the OpenStreetMap road network nodes, together with national geospatial information, like economic units, are recursively clustered using DBSCAN at different distance thresholds; clusters smaller than a threshold reflecting the rural settlements pattern are filtered, and then Shannon's entropy for the entire system is calculated. The system of percolated nodes obtained when this entropy reaches its maximum is compared against the current definition of what is officially urban. It is found to be very similar to the actual urban-nonurban classification, and also to have a very high correspondence with the current classification of the Mexican National Urban System (SUN). An additional finding is that the percolated system at the maximum entropy value has a very high correspondence with Zipf's law, while the current Mexican SUN does not.

Settlement Pattern and Periodization of the Jordanian Badia Early PPNB: A Fresh Approach to the PPNA/PPNB Transition Issue in the Southern Levant

Settlement Pattern and Periodization of the Jordanian Badia Early PPNB: A Fresh Approach to the PPNA/PPNB Transition Issue in the Southern Levant

Continuity, Resilience, and Change in Rural Settlement Patterns from the Roman to Islamic Period in the Sicani Mountains (Central-Western Sicily)

This study aims to analyze the dynamics of change in settlement models from the Roman, late antique, and Byzantine periods, focusing on how these transformations influenced the formation of Islamic societies in the rural landscapes of western Sicily. The study is centered around the territory of Corleone in the Sicani Mountains (central-western Sicily). This region, strategically located between the significant cities of Palermo on the Tyrrhenian Sea and Agrigento on the Strait of Sicily, has been pivotal in the communication network spanning from the Roman era to the Middle Ages and beyond. The area has been subject to extensive surveys and excavations, revealing diverse dynamics of continuity, resilience, and innovation in settlement patterns from the Roman to the Islamic periods. Beyond presenting the results of archaeological fieldwork, this study employs GIS-based spatial and statistical analyses and utilizes a range of topographic (elevation, slope, aspect, topographic position index (TPI), and distance to water sources) and ecological factors (vegetation series). These analyses aim to assess the evolving relationships and site positioning within the territory over time. Combining archaeological data with topographic and ecological landscape analysis, this integrated approach elucidates the complex transition dynamics from the Roman settlement system to the Islamic age’s landscape formation in western Sicily’s rural areas. The study thereby contributes to a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between historical developments and environmental factors in shaping rural settlement patterns.

Permukiman Megalitikum dan Budaya Kubur Batu di Kampung Nuabari, Desa Lenandareta, Kecamatan Paga, Kabupaten Sikka

Title: Megalithic Settlements and Rock Burial Culture in Nuabari Village, Lenandareta Village, Paga Sub-district, Sikka District
 Technological developments have a broad impact on all elements of human life, including society's mindset and views. In the past, all activities in human life were carried out manually, but nowadays all human activities are carried out using modern technology and equipment. The impact of technological developments also reaches all residential areas of society. Modernization has become a lifestyle and part of urban society, whereas in rural areas it has only spread to certain aspects. This also happens in East Nusa Tenggara, especially in Nuabari Village, Sikka Regency, which is known as a megalithic village with a stone grave culture. The stone grave culture is a megalithic culture that is still maintained by the Lio tribe, an indigenous tribe that lives in Nuabari Village. The settlement pattern of Nuabari Village still reflects the megalithic residential layout pattern with several typical traditional houses and the placement of ceremonial courtyard areas. The influence of modernization cannot be separated from the lives of the people in Nuabari Village. The impact can be seen in the use of materials and modified forms in some of the residential buildings of the Nuabari Village community. This can raise concerns about the process of erosion of socio-cultural philosophical values which should be the attraction and cultural heritage of megaliths in the Kampung Nuabari settlement.

Uncovering the tradition of shell ornaments in Neolithic Poland

The presented study explores shell ornaments discovered in Poland, investigating their role in Neolithic societies within spatial and chronological frameworks. We present a summary of our research findings encompassing raw material identification, procurement sources, ornament typology, shell selection, and trends in ornament use, along with their significance. The results of our study show that specific communities preferred particular shell species, sourced both locally and from distant regions. Moreover, some ornament types were distinctive and used exclusively by certain groups. This study sheds light on cultural dynamics, meaning, and social structures, shifting from a narrow focus on “exotic” shells to an increasing focus on local materials. Preferences for shell species and types are also shown to relate to settlement patterns, exchanges, and their symbolic meanings.

Domestic pig husbandry strategy during the Shuangdun Culture period (ca. 7300–6800 BP) from the stable isotopic perspective: A case study of the Yuhuicun site in Anhui Province, China

Shuangdun Culture, spanning from about 7300 to 6800 BP, was primarily distributed along the middle Huai River valley. This study aimed to elucidate the domestic pig husbandry strategy of Shuangdun Culture using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes on animal bones from the Yuhuicun site. The results revealed that most of the Sus, displaying δ13C values from −20.5 to −17.1‰, had diets based on C3 plants, comparable to the diets of large and middle-sized deer whose δ13C values ranged from −20.7 to −18.1‰. Previous zooarchaeological investigations have suggested that domestic pigs were predominant among the faunal assemblage of the Yuhuicun site, with few wild boars and feral pigs present. However, the present study found no significant differences regarding the diet among the Sus population. Domestic pigs at Yuhuicun were inferred to be reared loosely and fed with wild plants, given that the human inhabitants primarily relied on gathering, with rice cultivation being small in scale. A comparison of pig husbandry strategies among the Yuhuicun, Houjiazhai, and Shuangdun sites revealed that most Sus from these three archaeological sites had similar diets. However, three Sus individuals with mixed diets of C3 and C4 plants were identified from the Shuangdun site, which may have been introduced from an outside area where millets were widely planted. The Shuangdun site is a central settlement in the middle Huai River valley, and its inhabitants likely had access to introduced food sources. This differentiation in the diet of domestic pigs is indicative of varying settlement patterns during this time period.