“…In this microregion, diverse archaeological sites (e.g., settlements, farms, and luxury agricultural estates) were located in different geomorphological settings, including plains, plain-mountain transitional areas, intra-mountain basins, and small tributary valleys (Horejs, 2011a(Horejs, , 2014Pirson, 2020Pirson, , 2022. These landforms are potentially favorable for small settlements because of the proximity to fertile floodplains for agriculture and mountains for horticulture or pastoralism (Sommerey, 2008;Yang et al, 2021). Rural areas were also highly influenced by the rising demand for agricultural products during the period of transformation (Knitter, 2013;Laabs and Knitter, 2021).…”