Landscape Archaeology in Central Europe

摘要

Estimations of population density, which consider regional variability, are an important key variable inarchaeology as they have consequences not only for the environmental but also for the economical and socialdomains. In this paper, a ten-step procedure of a consistent group of methods is described which deals with thedata required for estimations of population density at different scale levels (from excavation to large-scaledistribution maps). For distribution maps, a method is presented by which densities of sites are displayed usingoptimal isolines. These demarcate so called 'settlement areas' at scales of between 1:25,000 and 1:2.5 million.Our knowledge of the density of households from key areas with the most complete archaeological records isupscaled for the regions within these isolines. The results of this procedure are estimations of populationdensity for the early Neolithic (Bandkeramik, 51st century BC) and the Roman period (2nd century AD) forregions with some 10,000 km2.