Key Takeaways: Settlement Patterns
- The study of settlement patterns in archaeology involves a set of techniques and analytical methods to examine the cultural past of a region.
- The method allows examination of sites in their contexts, as well as interconnectedness and change across time.
- Methods include surface survey assisted by aerial photography and LiDAR.
What are the three main types of settlement patterns?
What are three types of rural settlement?
- Metro.
- Suburb.
- Big satellite town.
- Mid-size town.
- Small town.
- Village & Settlement cluster.
- Sparse settlement.
What factors affect settlement patterns?
- Factors that Influence Settlement.
- Physical factors.
- Drainage/rivers.
- Land quality.
- Altitude and relief.
- Coastal location.
- Human factors.
- Communications.
What are the 4 types of settlements?
hamlets are are tiny settlements - they are just a collection of houses, perhaps centered around a few farms and maybe without even a shop; villages are small settlements - several hundred people live in them and they have: a few shops, a place of worship and maybe a school too; towns are medium-sized settlements - thousands of people live in them and they have a shopping centre and factories;
What different settlement patterns are there?
There are five main settlement patterns: compact settlement, scattered settlement, ordered settlement, linear settlement and nodal settlement. A settlement pattern is the way a population disperses over a particular area. Settlement patterns are defined by size, shape and population size. Topography and climate are the two major influences on settlement patterns.
What are the 3 settlement patterns?
Population settlement patterns can be separated into to three distinct patterns: Linear. Clustered (or nucleated) Scattered.
What are the 4 types of settlement patterns?
Rural settlement patterns refer to the shape of the settlement boundaries, which often involve an interaction with the surrounding landscape features. The most common patterns are linear, rectangular, circular or semi-circular, and triangular.
What are settlement patterns examples?
There are three main settlement patterns: nucleated, linear and dispersed. Nucleated settlements comprise of buildings that are situated close together, usually clustering around a central area such as a river crossing or road junction.
What is settlement pattern study?
The study of settlement patterns in archaeology involves a set of techniques and analytical methods to examine the cultural past of a region. The method allows examination of sites in their contexts, as well as interconnectedness and change across time.
What is types of settlement?
The four main types of settlements are urban, rural, compact, and dispersed. Urban settlements are densely populated and are mostly non-agricultural. They are known as cities or metropolises and are the most populated type of settlement.
What are the 2 types of settlement?
Settlement is a place where people live and carry out various economic activities on a relatively permanent basis. It can be divided into two types: rural settlement and urban settlement. The two types of settlement are differentiated by their size, density of population and employment pattern.
What is importance of settlement?
The function of a settlement helps to identify the economic and social development of a place and can show its main activity. Most large settlements have more than one function though in the past one function was maybe the most important in defining the success and growth in importance of the settlement.
What is settlement distribution?
Settlement Distribution or “Settlement Distribution Plan” means the plan for allocation of the Net Settlement Amount prepared by the Special Master setting the Settlement Sum for each Participating Class Member.
What are types of Class 7 settlements?
Settlements can be permanent or temporary.Temporary Settlement. Settlements which are occupied for a short time Eire called temporary settlements. ... Permanent Settlement. Under permanent settlements, people build homes to live in.
What is the most common type of settlement pattern in the world?
Dispersed, linear and nucleated are the most common. A dispersed pattern is where isolated buildings are spread out across an area, usually separated by a few hundred metres with no central focus. It is typically an area containing buildings rather than a single settlement.
How many settlements are there?
There are 5 types of settlement classified according to their pattern, these are, isolated, dispersed, nucleated, and linear.
What is settlement pattern?
In the scientific field of archaeology, the term "settlement pattern" refers to the evidence within a given region of the physical remnants of communities and networks. That evidence is used to interpret the way interdependent local groups of people interacted in the past. People have lived and interacted together ...
What is the difference between a settlement pattern and a settlement system?
If there is a difference, and you could argue about that, it might be that pattern studies look at the observable distribution of sites, while system studies look at how the people living at those sites interacted: modern archaeology can't really do one with the other.
What is the study of settlement patterns in archaeology?
The study of settlement patterns in archaeology involves a set of techniques and analytical methods to examine the cultural past of a region.
How was settlement pattern study conducted?
Settlement pattern studies were first conducted using regional survey, in which archaeologists systematically walked over hectares and hectares of land, typically within a given river valley. But the analysis only truly became feasible after remote sensing was developed, beginning with photographic methods such as those used by Pierre Paris at Oc Eo but now, of course, using satellite imagery and drones.
When was the settlement pattern developed?
Settlement pattern as a concept was developed by social geographers in the late 19th century. The term referred then to how people live across a given landscape, in particular, what resources (water, arable land, transportation networks) they chose to live by and how they connected with one another: and the term is still a current study in geography of all flavors.
Who was the first person to study Pueblo settlement?
According to American archaeologist Jeffrey Parsons, settlement patterns in anthropology began with the late 19th-century work of anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan who was interested in how modern Pueblo societies were organized.
Where were regional studies performed?
By the end of the 1950s, regional studies had been performed in Mexico, the United States, Europe, and Mesopotamia; but they have since expanded throughout the world.
What is a settlement pattern?
A settlement pattern re fers to the shape of the settlement as seen from above. The shapes of early settlements were influenced by the surrounding landscape. They were also shaped by other factors such as who owned the land and whether the land was good for building on or not. Some examples of settlement patterns include, nucleated settlements, linear settlements and dispersed settlements .
What is a dispersed settlement?
Dispersed settlements are ones where the houses are spread out over a wide area. They are often the homes of farmers and can be found in rural areas. Example of a dispersed settlement: Brülisau, Switzerland is an example of a linear settlement. Brülisau in Switzerland is an example of a dispersed village.
Why did early settlers form villages?
Early settlers forming villages would often live together for safety, for friendship, and to share services. These early settlements would take on distinctive patterns based on the shape of the land around them. Here we can see some examples of different settlement patterns.
What are the patterns of rural settlement?
Patterns of rural settlement indicate much about the history, economy, society, and minds of those who created them as well as about the land itself. The essential design of rural activity in the United States bears a strong family resemblance to that of other neo-European lands, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, or tsarist Siberia —places that have undergone rapid occupation and exploitation by immigrants intent upon short-term development and enrichment. In all such areas, under novel social and political conditions and with a relative abundance of territory and physical resources, ideas and institutions derived from a relatively stable medieval or early modern Europe have undergone major transformation. Further, these are nonpeasant countrysides, alike in having failed to achieve the intimate symbiosis of people and habitat, the humanized rural landscapes characteristic of many relatively dense, stable, earthbound communities in parts of Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
What are the characteristics of American settlement?
Another special characteristic of American settlement, one that became obvious only by the mid-20th century, is the convergence of rural and urban modes of life. The farmsteads—and rural folk in general—have become increasingly urbanized, and agricultural operations have become more automated, while the metropolis grows more gelatinous, unfocused, and pseudo-bucolic along its margins.
How were townships laid out?
Townships were laid out as blocks, each six by six miles in size, oriented with the compass directions . Thirty-six sections, each one square mile, or 640 acres (260 hectares), in size, were designated within each township; and public roads were established along section lines and, where needed, along half-section lines. At irregular intervals, offsets in survey lines and roads were introduced to allow for the Earth’s curvature. Individual property lines were coincident with, or parallel to, survey lines, and this pervasive rectangularity generally carried over into the geometry of fields and fences or into the townsites later superimposed upon the basic rural survey.
What is the impression of the settled portion of the American landscape, rural or urban, is one of disorder and inco?
The overall impression of the settled portion of the American landscape, rural or urban, is one of disorder and incoherence, even in areas of strict geometric survey. The individual landscape unit is seldom in visual harmony with its neighbour, so that, however sound in design or construction the single structure may be, the general effect is untidy. These attributes have been intensified by the acute individualism of the American, vigorous speculation in land and other commodities, a strongly utilitarian attitude toward the land and the treasures above and below it, and government policy and law. The landscape is also remarkable for its extensive transportation facilities, which have greatly influenced the configuration of the land.
How did pre-European settlements affect the United States?
Although the land that now constitutes the United States was occupied and much affected by diverse Indian cultures over many millennia, these pre-European settlement patterns have had virtually no impact upon the contemporary nation—except locally, as in parts of New Mexico. A benign habitat permitted a huge contiguous tract of settled land to materialize across nearly all the eastern half of the United States and within substantial patches of the West. The vastness of the land, the scarcity of labour, and the abundance of migratory opportunities in a land replete with raw physical resources contributed to exceptional human mobility and a quick succession of ephemeral forms of land use and settlement. Human endeavours have greatly transformed the landscape, but such efforts have been largely destructive. Most of the pre-European landscape in the United States was so swiftly and radically altered that it is difficult to conjecture intelligently about its earlier appearance.
Where is checkerboard pattern found?
A systematic rectangular layout, rather less rigorous in form, also appears in much of Texas and in those portions of Maine, western New York and Pennsylvania, and southern Georgia that were settled after the 1780s.
Where did the rectangular layout originate?
A systematic rectangular layout, rather less rigorous in form, also appears in much of Texas and in those portions of Maine, western New York and Pennsylvania, and southern Georgia that were settled after the 1780s.
What is a pattern in a settlement?
Patterns refer to the shape of a settlement, not its density. It's easier to define the compact or semi-compact settlements, as the dispersed settlements are usually too spread out to define a shape. There are many more patterns, but the most common rural settlement patterns are:
Where are linear settlements found?
Linear: These settlements are built in a line of houses. Often, they are found in a long valley, but they can also stretch out along a roadway or riverbank.
What is a semi compact settlement?
Semi-compact types are clusters of houses, also called hamlets, not as tightly placed as compact settlements, but showing a clear grouping and boundary. Dispersed settlements are scattered throughout the rural landscape with farmers building homes directly on their farmland.
What are the factors that make up a dispersed settlement?
Dispersed settlements are the result of many different factors, including the needs of the farm to have permanent attendants, open grasslands, hilly terrains, and relative security that raiders will not attack it. Patterns refer to the shape of a settlement, not its density.
What type of settlements are built around a lake?
We also find this in settlements built all at once. Circular or semi-circular: These types of settlements are often built partway around or completely surrounding a lake or large pond. Circular settlements are also built for defense with a protective wall around the perimeter.
Which settlement has the highest density of population?
Compact settlements have the highest density of population. They have homes stacked together, often touching at the sides or stacked in multi-family buildings. Streets tend to be narrow between the rows of homes. We often find this type of arrangement in highly fertile floodplains.
What are cultural factors?
Cultural factors, including how people traditionally use the land, ideas of ownership, the crops they choose to grow, social hierarchy, and transportation availability.
Anthropological Underpinnings
Patterns Versus Systems
- Archaeologists refer to both settlement pattern studies and settlement system studies, sometimes interchangeably. If there is a difference, and you could argue about that, it might be that pattern studies look at the observable distribution of sites, while system studies look at how the people living at those sites interacted: modern archaeology can't really do one with the other.
History of Settlement Pattern Studies
- Settlement pattern studies were first conducted using regional survey, in which archaeologists systematically walked over hectares and hectares of land, typically within a given river valley. But the analysis only truly became feasible after remote sensing was developed, beginning with photographic methods such as those used by Pierre Paris at Oc Eobut now, of course, using sat…
New Technologies
- Although systematic settlement patterns and landscape studies are practiced in many diverse environments, before modern imaging systems, archaeologists attempting to study heavily vegetated areas were not as successful as they might have been. A variety of means to penetrate the gloom have been identified, including the use of high definition aerial photography, subsurfa…
Selected Sources
- Curley, Daniel, John Flynn, and Kevin Barton. "Bouncing Beams Reveal Hidden Archaeology." Archaeology Ireland32.2 (2018): 24–29.
- Feinman, Gary M. "Settlement and Landscape Archaeology." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences(Second Edition). Ed. Wright, James D. Oxford: Elsevier, 2015. 654–58, doi:10....
- Curley, Daniel, John Flynn, and Kevin Barton. "Bouncing Beams Reveal Hidden Archaeology." Archaeology Ireland32.2 (2018): 24–29.
- Feinman, Gary M. "Settlement and Landscape Archaeology." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences(Second Edition). Ed. Wright, James D. Oxford: Elsevier, 2015. 654–58, doi:10....
- Golden, Charles, et al. "Reanalyzing Environmental Lidar Data for Archaeology: Mesoamerican Applications and Implications." Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports9 (2016): 293–308, doi:10.1016/...
- Grosman, Leore. "Reaching the Point of No Return: The Computational Revolution in Archaeology." Annual Review of Anthropology45.1 (2016): 129–45, doi:10.1146/annurev-anth…
