Cities, Large Villages, or Neither? The Conundrum of "Megasites" in Prehistory

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tom Moore.

The question of whether Late Iron Age oppida in Europe were truly ‘urban’ has dominated debate over these sites since the 19th century. Oppida, however, have been surprisingly absent from comparative urban studies, despite increasingly nuanced perspectives on the nature and diversity of the urban phenomenon. In particular, Roland Fletcher’s suggestion that oppida might be examples of a range of alternative urban-like centres has been largely ignored by scholars of the European Iron Age. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only John Chapman. Bisserka Gaydarska.

Recent geophysical investigations of Trypillia megasites created a second methodological revolution, following the first revolution (1970s) defined by the discovery of the megasites and their dating to the 4th millennium BC. So far, this second revolution comprised primarily a methodological advance based upon detailed geophysical prospection; but its potential gains may be subverted without a fundamental re-interpretation of the very nature of megasites. The prevailing view of the megasites for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ruth Van Dyke.

Two dozen monumental buildings lie at the heart of Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Southwest United States. However, ancient Chaco Canyon was not a single locality but a focal point for outlier settlements spanning a region of 60,000 square miles. The canyon-outlier relationship is key to understanding the Chacoan polity. Residents of canyon and outlier settlements within a dialectical relationship gathered periodically to share resources, marriage partners, and ritual...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Nam Kim.

In the archaeological study of ancient large-scale settlements, there is considerable debate regarding definitional criteria for categories of "city" and "urban". New field studies from different world areas have enriched our understanding of the variability of past settlement configurations along dimensions of utility, meaning, space, scale, and demography. In northern Vietnam, the remains of monumental constructions of the prehistoric settlement of Co Loa still stand today. Dating to the first...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Innocent Pikirayi. Federica Sulas. Tendai Treddah Musindo. Elton Munyaradzi Sagiya.

In southern Africa, Great Zimbabwe has long been the focus of research, debates and preservation as the remains of what was once the urban centre of a vast state system. As new research findings are reframing the development of the Zimbabwe civilization in the region, local environmental settings and natural resources at Great Zimbabwe remain poorly understood. Using approaches in geoarchaeology, this paper presents Great Zimbabwe as a living landscape. New soil sequences from within and around...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Roland Fletcher.

Urban as a label is a problem. This was recognised by Childe and Adams and is re-iterated in the 21st century. Varied definitions apply in different regions, some huge settlements are excluded - apparently arbitrarily, others go in and out of "urban" fashion. Concurrently, the term "urban" has huge cachet, providing social dignity, national respect and access to research funds. The news media rarely refer to "The Lost Village" with awe. The conundrum is that while western European languages...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kirrily White.

There is no agreement as to how very large, dispersed, occupation aggregates in prehistory such as the Trypillia megasites (4th M BCE), Chaco Canyon (9th–12th C CE) and the sprawling Neolithic settlements of the Middle Yangzi (3rd M BCE) should be classified in archaeology. Often these sites behaved very differently to the large, higher-density settlements with which they are sometimes compared. The aim of this research is to look at material and spatial patterns in the formation, development...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gregory Wilson. Timothy Pauketat.

What practices generated the largest and most complex Mississippian centers? We examine this issue through an analysis of Mississippian public and ritual architecture from Moundville in west-central Alabama and Cahokia in southwestern Illinois. Politico-religious buildings and associated practices or powers constituted the historical development of both places. Cahokians created a wider variety and more complicated distribution of such buildings than did Moundvillians. We argue that the Cahokian...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mike Parker Pearson.

Stonehenge is part of a larger complex of Late Neolithic (3000–2450 BC) sites and monuments on Salisbury Plain, including a major settlement complex with monumental timber circles at Durrington Walls. Evidence for occupation from this period covers over 8 square miles. In particular, the Durrington Walls settlement covered 42 acres, built in the same period as Stonehenge’s main stage of construction. This settlement was occupied only for decades, or even just a few years, by people with a...