Site Catchment Analysis

Site catchment analysis has a long history in archaeological studies. It has been used to explore a wide range of topics from changing land use patterns to socio-political organization. In this paper we discuss the results of site catchment analysis applied to the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Roman eras in the Kazanlak Valley, Bulgaria, especially the evolving relationship between past inhabitants and their environment. Combining geoarchaeological data, geographic modelling, and multivariate cluster analysis, this study develops a quantitative potential arable productivity model for the cultivation of wheat and barley. We contextualise this model with settlement data produced through systematic surface survey conducted by the Tundzha Regional Archaeological Project (TRAP). Arable productivity proved to be a significant factor controlling the location of settlements within the study area during all periods except for the Early Iron Age. Multivariate cluster analysis produced three distinct productivity-based site classifications, and successfully delineated strategic site locations from those chosen based on agricultural potential. This study demonstrates how catchment analysis can reveal the factors determining human habitation in later prehistory. This arable productivity model also provides one of the inputs for site catchment analysis.

The Jebel al-Ma'taradh and its surroundings contain exceptional deposits of lithic raw materials, including flint and chert, but especially chalcedony, agate, carnelian, and chrysoprase. These deposits were intensively exploited during the Neolithic, and some of the artefacts produced entered the trade network that included settlements on the coast and inland, sometimes as far as 300 km. During earlier periods, probably as early as the Pleistocene, only flint was used. Between the sixth and the fourth millennia, carnelian and agate were exploited to make beads, which are found in the necropolises and settlements of the UAE.

The allocation of groundwater resources has been a challenge for many years due to its unforeseen side effect and lag time issues, which are often overlooked. The full impact of groundwater utilization/abstraction takes time to realize its effect at its full. In this paper, long‐term effects and groundwater dynamics were assessed using a water balance model and a time series analysis, respectively. Undeveloped groundwater systems are commonly found in a state of equilibrium, where, on average, equal amounts of water are recharged and discharged. A water budget is a static accounting of the state of the system at a given time, often before the system is developed. Water balance analysis was carried out together with the groundwater through flow, hydrograph, and surface‐groundwater interaction analysis (base flow index) to develop a conceptual water balance model, which is a very basic representation of a complex natural aquifer system and is instrumental to constrain and build a robust numerical model that can be readily justified and updated. A noble approach was employed to assess and constrain the discharge coming out of the model area to sustain the lake level, located to the north of the study area, using the whole lake catchment and lake water balance analysis. Based on the lake water balance, there is a deficit between input and output computation, and hence there should be a groundwater input to sustain the historical lake area. The analysis showed that the model area contributes 40% of the lake catchment, and hence the portion of the groundwater inflow feeding the lake was computed. This is one of the means to constrain the discharge, which adds more confidence to the recharge estimation. This is very important because the size of a sustainable groundwater development usually depends on how much of the discharge from the system can be captured by the development. Capture is independent of the recharge. Instead, it depends on the dynamic response of the aquifer system to the development. The idea that knowing the recharge is important in determining the size of a sustainable groundwater development is a myth and has no basis. The important entity in determining how a groundwater system reaches a new equilibrium is capture. How capture occurs in an aquifer system is a dynamic process. Following this study, lake water balance assessment was indirectly considered as prior information for the numerical model calibration of the discharge from the model area using a conductance parameter. Conductance is a key parameter to estimate the discharge volume together with the change in the simulated hydraulic head between time steps. The water balance error highlights which one is more sensitive, and this could help to assist in planning for future data collection/field work and where to invest the money. The water balance computation helps to figure out the degree of surface‐groundwater interaction, uncertainty, sensitive parameter, helps in the decision to invest time and money, and operates as a cross check with other analytical or numerical modelling.

A method is presented to analyze the interaction between groundwater and Lake Linlithgow (Australia) as a case study. A simplistic approach based on a " node " representing the groundwater component is employed in a spreadsheet of water balance modeling to analyze and highlight the effect of groundwater on the lake level over time. A comparison is made between the simulated and observed lake levels over a period of time by switching the groundwater " node " on and off. A bucket model is assumed to represent the lake behavior. Although this study demonstrates the understanding of Lake Linlithgow's groundwater system, the current model reflects the contemporary understanding of the local groundwater system, illustrates how to go about modeling in data‐scarce environments, and provides a means to assess focal areas for future data collection and model improvements. Results show that this approach is convenient for getting first‐hand information on the effect of groundwater on wetland or lake levels through lake water budget computation via a node representing the groundwater component. The method can be used anywhere and the applicability of such a method is useful to put in place relevant adaptation mechanisms for future water resources management, reducing vulnerability and enhancing resilience to climate change within the lake basin.

La zone d’étude concerne un territoire situé à l’extrémité orientale de l’avant-pays savoyard, sur le littoral méridional du lac Léman. Elle comprend une portion du Bas-Chablais, centrée sur l’agglomération de Thonon-les-Bains, qui montre une occupation dense au cours du Bronze final. Elle s’étire sur une quinzaine de kilomètres dans l’arrière-pays, ce dernier appartenant au domaine de la moyenne montagne. Une approche fondée sur la modélisation des temps de parcours entre les sites permet de tester le modèle de l’heure de marche admis comme pertinent dans le cadre de l’exploitation quotidienne d’un terroir agricole immédiat, pour des communautés agropastorales sédentaires, dans des régions non montagnardes. Cette démarche participe à l’analyse de la structuration d’un territoire où le village lacustre de Rives 2 occupe une place importante.

The Bronze Age was a period of significant socioeconomic transformation that gave rise to the first complex regional polities with institutionalized inequality in Europe. Communities in southwest Transylvania, a major source of gold, copper, and salt, played a critical role in this transformation. This article examines how socioeconomic changes affected how people situated settlements in resource procurement zones during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2700–1500 cal. BCE). Taking advantage of the heterogeneous distribution of natural resources across the landscape, a GIS catchment analysis of the orientation of settlements toward particular constellations of resources is presented. Our results show increased preference for access to high quality agricultural land and access to interregional trade through the Mureș River corridor over the course of the Bronze Age. Despite the increased importance of metal within Bronze Age economies, there is no evidence that Transylvanian communities placed their settlements to maximize their ability to contest or secure access to the metal ore sources in the Apuseni Mountains. The organization of settlement systems in the Bronze Age demonstrates that Transylvanian communities prioritized socioeconomic institutions beyond metal procurement. This study demonstrates that tracing how humans situate themselves in variable landscapes can provide new insights into the conditions and mechanisms of social change.

A method for reconstructing prehistoric territories implementing the geographic informa­ tion systems (GIS) is presented in this article. We focused our research on Iron Age com­ munities of northern and central Velebit Mountain (Croatia), but traces of their territorial extent are very scarce or nonexistent. Territories of the communities in question were modeled using GIS according to the relief characteristics and the time scale of a two-hour walk from the central hill forts using Tobler’s Hiking Equation.

Our study assesses the influence of differences in terrain and locomotor energetics on the land-use strategies and settlement patterns of Levantine Neanderthals and Modern Human – Early Upper Paleolithic groups through a digital application of site catchment analysis. Our findings indicate that Neanderthals habitually commanded smaller site exploitation territories (SETs), principally situated in the rugged Mediterranean Woodlands of the Levant, whereas early Upper Paleolithic groups generally enjoyed larger SETs and displayed a more generalized, wider settlement range encompassing both rugged woodland and more regular, level steppe landscapes. The broader implications of these findings may explain the biogeographic limits on the Neanderthal dispersal into Southwest Asia.

Territory and settlement strategies in the Nuragic Gallura. A preliminary hypothesis - This paper present the preliminary results based on the analysis of the territory and the paleodemography in the Nuragic Gallura (Sardinia). The aim of this research is the reconstruction of the social landscape during the Bronze Age in Gallura, by analyzing the settlement strategies, the exploitation of natural resources and the relationship between people and landscape.
The application of a multidisciplinary approach on the historical region of Gallura allows to detect and outline some great territorial systems for the use, control and exploitation of natural resources. The creation of a GIS integrated system allowed to investigate in details two of these territorial systems with more specific analysis: cost surface analysis and site catchment analysis. This approach provide an interesting method for reconstructing the social, political and economic organization of some nuragic communities during the Bronze Age in Sardinia.