Modelling prehistoric settlement activities based on surface and subsurface surveys

摘要

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.