Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Settlement networks express the nature of human interactions across vast regions. Over the past 20,000 years, human settlement behavior has seen several nonlinear major transitions from mobile hunter-gatherer networks, to sedentary communities, to urban societies. Through the lens of a global comparison, we aim to identify shared trajectories and global patterns, beyond chronological and spatial constraints, by analyzing comparable traits such as site size, settlement density, settlement network size, and intensity. Regional models that range across those major transitions can be contextualized within a comparative framework, thus aiming at bridging the gap between global and regional-local scales of interaction. Specific factors in the emergence of networks varied across space and time. Comparing different outcomes might inform us about the factors influencing the duration and continuities of those networks. Bringing together quantitative methods and new theoretical frameworks has the potential to shed new light on the nature of human settlement behavior in extensive regions, over long time spans.

Other Keywords
Urbanism • Survey • Historic • Digital Archaeology: GIS • Pastoralism • Landscape Archaeology • Settlement patterns • Archaic • digital archaeology • Bronze Age

Geographic Keywords
Republic of Bulgaria (Country) • Georgia (Country) • Europe (Continent) • Ukraine (Country) • Republic of Lithuania (Country) • Republic of Latvia (Country) • Republic of Belarus (Country) • Romania (Country) • Republic of Serbia (Country) • Republic of Estonia (Country)

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  • Documents (8)
Documents
  • Cities, Towns, and Villages in the Diverse Environments of the Indus Civilization (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Cameron Petrie.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The urban phase of South Asia’s Indus Civilization (ca. 2600–1900 BC) does not offer simple parallels to other contemporary complex societies. This paper will present new insights into Indus settlement networks and the diversity of Indus urbanism. There were apparently only four large-scale (80+ ha) Indus settlements, which were...

  • Computational Models of Human Settlement Behavior: An Overview of Current Methods and Motivations (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Bevan.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Computational models of human settlement have been noticeable features of intra- and interdisciplinary research for several decades, whether such models focus on the present day, on the historically documented near-present, or on deeper archaeological time scales. Now is a useful moment to revisit the pedigree of these different...

  • The Missing Big Picture: Settlement Size and Patterns in Western Mainland Southeast Asia during the First Millennium CE (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Phacharaphorn Phanomvan.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. How were cities distributed in Mainland Southeast Asia in the past? What were the population estimates and patterns in the cities? Answering these questions leads to an understanding of long-term urbanization patterns, and the historical legacies associated with the geographical effects on development. However, to date, there is...

  • Nomadic Cities and Network Modularity: Scalar Analysis in Ancient Urbanism and Social Connectivity (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Frachetti. Farhad Maksudov.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The discovery of small to mid-sized cities (Tashbulak and Tugunbulak) built by the Qarakhanids (ninth–twelfth century CE) at high elevation illustrates that urban centers used by nomadic khanates may have operated under a unique model of “modular” urbanism, which we define as a hybridized form of urban development and nomadic...

  • Roads and Rivers: The Importance of Regional Transportation Networks for Early Urbanization in Central Italy (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Francesca Fulminante. Luce Prignano. Sergi Lozano. Emanuele Cozzo.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient regional routes were vital for interactions between settlements and deeply influenced the development of past societies and their “complexification” (e.g., urbanization). For example, terrestrial routes required resources and inter-settlement cooperation to be established and maintained, and can be regarded as an...

  • Trypillia Mega-site Networks: Understanding the Centrality of the Largest Settlement in Fourth-Millennium BC Europe (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Marco Nebbia.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The emergence of the largest settlements in fourth-millennium BC Europe triggered a number of questions regarding their proto- or even "fully urban" nature. For a long time scholars have been debating on this matter, focusing attention on the intrasite features of Trypillia mega-sites, thus overseeing the implication of...

  • Urban Network Resilience and Fragility (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Roland Fletcher.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Residential densities within the settlements of sedentary communities vary between about 1,000 p/ha and less than 10 p/ha. Some regional settlement networks consist predominantly of settlements with compact, high-density residence patterns while others are dominated by settlements with dispersed, low-density residence patterns....

  • Urban Networks in Early Iron Age Europe: Nucleation and Dispersal (2021)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Manuel Fernandez-Gotz.

    This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Urbanization is a social process, rather than a final destination. More important than debating whether one specific settlement within a system should be classified as "urban," "proto-urban," or "nonurban" is to analyze the wider processes of settlement nucleation and centralization that take place within the larger landscape,...