
What are the main patterns in settlement patterns?
What are the main characteristics of rural settlement?
- Size of the Community: The village communities are smaller in area than the urban communities. …
- Density of Population: …
- The primacy of Agriculture: …
- Close Contact with Nature. …
- Homogeneity of Population: …
- Social Stratification: …
- Social Interaction: …
- Social Solidarity:
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 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 pattern of settlement?
Pattern of settlement is defined as the relationship between one house or building to another. It can be identified by reading and observing a local scale map. The patterns of settlement deals with compact and semi-compact only, as dispersed has its own shape.
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 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 studies?
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.
How have the settlements changed over a period of time?
They have changed over a period of time due to many other changes: Early man lived in caves and under trees and with the beginning of agriculture more permanent settlements were developed. The settlements grew near the river valleys due to availability of water and fertile soil.
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.
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 are the 5 types of settlements?
There are 5 types of settlement classified according to their pattern, these are, isolated, dispersed, nucleated, and linear.
What are 2 main types of settlement?
Settlements can broadly be divided into two types – rural and urban.
What is the importance of settlement pattern?
The settlement pattern makes clear why good stratigraphy was obtained in what is normally a difficult context, that of a stratified series of villages. The reason is that, once abandoned, structures were never disturbed.
What causes changes in settlement patterns?
One of the most basic factors affecting settlement patterns is the physical geography of the land. Climate is key, because if a place is too dry, too cold or too hot, it's more difficult for large numbers of people to settle there, especially if they make their living from farming.
What does settlement patterns mean in history?
A settlement pattern refers to the way that buildings and houses are distributed in a rural settlement. Settlement patterns are of interest to geographers, historians, and anthropologists for the insight they offer in how a community has developed over time.
What are the 5 types of settlements?
There are 5 types of settlement classified according to their pattern, these are, isolated, dispersed, nucleated, and linear.
What are the three types of settlement?
There are generally three types of settlements: compact, semi-compact, and dispersed.
What is nucleated settlement give example?
Nucleated settlements are ones where the houses are grouped closely together, often around a central feature like a church, pub or village green. New settlements that are planned often have a nucleated pattern. Example of a. nucleated settlement: Little Thetford in England.
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 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 ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Why is settlement pattern important?
The settlement pattern makes clear why good stratigraphy was obtained in what is normally a difficult context, that of a stratified series of villages. The reason is that, once abandoned, structures were never disturbed . Burials within the structures were also never drastically disturbed; abandoned houses were abandoned household cemeteries.
What are the factors that influence settlement patterns?
Settlement patterns are influenced by the price of land, available transportation infrastructure, public policy initiatives, and social and ecological processes that are not necessarily quantifiable.
Why is the division of open land areas into prototypical areas important?
Furthermore, the division of open land areas into prototypical areas also makes it possible to evaluate the potential of forests, soil, and peat bogs to serve as carbon sinks. To maintain or enhance this carbon storage capacity, measures to protect ecosystems and improve soil are necessary.
Why is central place theory important?
The quantitative revolution's interest in central place theory stemmed largely from its potential as an explanation of settlement patterns – of why settlements appeared on agricultural landscapes in the observed locations and sizes, and offering particular combinations of goods. From time to time, the same theory has been used for a quite different purpose, as a basis for planning new landscapes, when decisions on locations, sizes, and perhaps offerings of goods are in the hands of planners. For example, planners were required to make decisions about the locations of settlements during the draining of the Dutch polders in the mid-twentieth century.
How does channel straightening affect river water?
This also increases possibility of increased rates of soil erosion particularly where overgrazing and deforestation have reduced vegetation cover. Modification of river channels through channel straightening can lead to rapid flow of water into streams, thus promoting rapid increase in water level in rivers.
What are the different types of settlements?
There are innumerable geometric possibilities relating to local terrain and location (such as road, canal, riverbank, or spring-line settlements), political conditions, or genesis of the settlements: colonial villages often had defensive functions expressed in linear or circular forms (Figure 2 ). The simpler hamlet clusters which characterized settlement in poorer more difficult agricultural environments were often associated with kinship groups, organic growth of settlements over long periods of time, as well as tribal roots of landownership in the early Middle Ages.
How does settlement affect the environment?
Settlement patterns are partly influenced by population pressure. In urban areas, there is a tendency for the slums to develop in areas which have been designated as flood-prone zones. Settlement on steep slopes as well as cultivation on such lands also tends to increase the vulnerability of the community to landslides. This also increases possibility of increased rates of soil erosion particularly where overgrazing and deforestation have reduced vegetation cover. Modification of river channels through channel straightening can lead to rapid flow of water into streams, thus promoting rapid increase in water level in rivers. Flooding of the low-lying areas often follows this.
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.
What is an example of a dispersed village?
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.
Is Little Thetford a nucleated village?
Little Thetford in England is an example of a nucleated village.
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.
How were farms connected to towns?
Successions of such farms were connected with one another and with the towns by means of a dense, usually rectangular lattice of roads, largely unimproved at the time. The hamlets, villages, and smaller cities were arrayed at relatively regular intervals, with size and affluence determined in large part by the presence and quality of rail service or status as the county seat. But, among people who have been historically rural, individualistic, and antiurban in bias, many services normally located in urban places might be found in rustic settings. Thus, much retail business was transacted by means of itinerant peddlers, while small shops for the fabrication, distribution, or repair of various items were often located in isolated farmsteads, as were many post offices.
How much land did farms have in the 1980s?
By the late 1980s, for example, when the average farm size had surpassed 460 acres, farms containing 2,000 or more acres accounted for almost half of all farmland and 20 percent of the cropland harvested, even though they comprised less than 3 percent of all farms.
How many states surrendered to the new government?
With the coming of independence and after complex negotiations, the original 13 states surrendered to the new national government nearly all their claims to the unsettled western lands beyond their boundaries. Some tracts, however, were reserved for disposal to particular groups.
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.
What were the early settlers?
The early settlers were primarily English merchants, traders, and farmers from the Jamestown area seeking better opportunities and freedom from taxation. Among them were small numbers of Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh immigrants. Their southern advance was slow and the date of onset obscure.
When did the colonists move west into the interior?
1733). As land near the coast became less available, colonists moved west into the interior along rivers and creeks, reaching the Eno River by about 1735.
Where did the first colonists settle in North Carolina?
Although there had been earlier attempts at settlement by the Spanish and English, the first permanent colonies in North Carolina took hold during the mid-seventeenth century and were scattered along the sounds, rivers, and creeks north of Albemarle Sound, a region then claimed by Virginia. The early settlers were primarily English merchants, traders, and farmers from the Jamestown area seeking better opportunities and freedom from taxation. Among them were small numbers of Irish, Scotch-Irish, and Welsh immigrants. Their southern advance was slow and the date of onset obscure. Some colonists arrived with slaves, and records indicate that lands were sometimes granted or sold by local Indians.
When did the Moravians arrive in North Carolina?
The Moravians began to arrive in 1753, one year after a party of Moravian brethren from Pennsylvania purchased a tract of land in modern-day Forsyth County. The peak period of the settlement of North Carolina lasted from about 1730 until the American Revolution.
Where did the Highland Scots move to?
Some settlers entered the Cape Fear region by way of the "100-mile road" from the vicinity of New Bern. Among the largest groups traveling north along the Cape Fear River were the Highland Scots, many of whom moved into the region now centered around Fayetteville after 1732.
How many people lived in North Carolina in 1663?
By 1663 about 500 people lived between Virginia and Albemarle Sound; by 1675, around 4,000 were situated there. The coastal population in 1730 has been estimated at about 36,000 (including about 6,000 blacks); nonetheless, North Carolina remained the most sparsely settled English colony on the continent. Aside from a few Lowland Scots and Welsh, the majority of settlers throughout the Proprietary period (1663-1729) continued to be English. French Huguenots also located along the upper Neuse River beginning in the 1690s, and German Palatines and Swiss inhabited New Bern from its founding.
What are the patterns of settlement?
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.
Where do dispersed settlements occur?
Dispersed settlements usually occur in: remote or mountainous regions. areas where the land is predominantly used for agriculture. areas with limited job opportunities. locations with few, if any, job opportunities. A linear settlement pattern occurs in a line or arc shape.
What does it mean when a city is nucleated?
Most large cities are nucleated indicating they are well planned . Nucleation occurs due to:

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…