Examining the Concept of Hinterland in Antiquity in Arid Regions of the Levant Using Archaeobotanical Data and GIS Analysis

Summary

Studies concerning the size of agricultural hinterlands in antiquity have generally been conducted on sites with favorable climates and have become the standard comparative tool. However, little has been examined relating to the size of a settlements hinterland in arid environments even when excellent archaeological evidence for extensive agricultural production, as can be seen in southern Jordan and Israel during the Roman and Byzantine periods. Likewise, a disproportionate focus has been placed upon urban settlements in archaeological research and as a result, the knowledge we possess of rural hinterlands and their contributions to the agrarian economy is largely unknown. Identifying the scale of agricultural productivity in arid environments between urban centers and their hinterlands can be examined using botanical remains overlaid with spatially variant environmental attributes that are deemed essential in the success of agrarian practices. The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can make a complicated process of analyzing the nature and composition of botanicals according to environmental conditions readily possible. Preliminary results of this study provide an example of how GIS can aid in analyzing the relationship between settlements and hinterlands in antiquity by comparing plant communities and the corresponding essential environmental parameters they were located within.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21380