Modelling prehistoric settlement activities based on surface and subsurface surveys
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Modelling prehistoric settlement activities based on surface and subsurface surveys Dagmar Dreslerová 1
&
Peter Demján 1
Received: 25 January 2018 / Accepted: 13 June 2019 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract This study resumes our research into variations in settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the Migration Period (5600 BC–570 AD). After using a large dataset of less precisely localized finds from the Czech Republic, we now examine data from large-scale surface surveys. The higher spatial precision allows us to analyse settlement activities in terms of quantity, size, duration, continuity, stability and degree of complexity. First, we analysed the data using descriptive methods regarding its spatial structure, dating and environmental setting. We assessed the possibility of integrating data from surface and subsurface research. In the second stage, we reconstructed possible configurations of habitation areas and their adjacent primary production areas (settlement cores) and chronologically ordered the finds using algorithmic modelling. A more detailed phasing transcending the chronological resolution of the data was achieved by using mutual spatial exclusion of settlement cores as a chronological marker. The resulting ordering was then analysed using probabilistic methods. The results portray the intensity of settlement activities during various periods as well as changes in their structural organization. The observed patterns suggest higher-order social organization starting in the Early Bronze Age, culminating in the Final Bronze Age followed by a gradual decline. In later periods, we observe hot spots in the landscape with stable habitation over hundreds of years. The method used is widely applicable for all periods of agricultural prehistory regardless of region. Original data and an example implementation of the method are available as supplementary material and online at https://github.com/demjanp/chrono_spatial_modelling. Keywords Prehistory . Settlement development . Modelling settlement activities . Landscape . Surface survey . Hot spots
Introduction A deep knowledge of prehistoric settlement structures is a basic prerequisite for understanding the development of the prehistoric landscape. A comprehensive landscape reconstruction can only be created by combining archaeological evidence and the results of environmental methods working with both natural and anthropogenic changes in past relief and vegetation. For this purpose, it is necessary to cover the quantitative aspects of settlement, especially Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00884-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Dagmar Dreslerová [email protected] 1
Department of Information Sources and Landscape Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague, Letenská 4, 118 01 Praha, Czech Republic
its residential and economic activities (i.e. spatial extent, intensity, a
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