Trypillia Mega-site Networks: Understanding the Centrality of the Largest Settlement in Fourth-Millennium BC Europe

Summary

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 understanding how they originated within a long-term settlement trajectory. This paper will look at the role of the Trypillia settlement network in the development of mega-sites as poly-nodes of mid-scale regional site clusters as well as “central places” of a supra-regional settlement system. First and second order characteristics of point pattern analysis are investigated in order to propose a way of measuring the centrality of these mega-sites within their coeval settlement network, as well as understanding the scale of their hinterlands. Concepts like seasonality and heterarchy are used to explain the development and the social organization of mega-sites, which are conceived as temporary gathering places where an “urban-like” identity starts to develop. The relational nature of the proposed approach could facilitate its applicability to other regional contexts which would allow for a more formal cross-regional comparison of long-term settlement trajectories.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32731