Deconstructing ‘The Sense of Place’? Settlement Systems, Field Survey, and the Historic Record: a Case-study from Central Greece

Abstract

After a generation of intensive regional surface survey in the Mediterranean lands, it is both necessary and enlightening to evaluate the ways in which this

Central Place Theory Reloaded and Revised: Political Economy and Landscape Dynamics in the Longue Durée

“…Temporality, spatiality, materiality and site-based analysis are all encompassed in the concept of landscapes, and therefore through its study much can be said about human responses to the changing conditions of life in the longue durée. It would not be possible to cite here the vast bibliography on the evolution of landscape archaeology and settlement research, and how developments in those fields (theoretical, technical and epistemological) have contributed to converting earlier 'traditional' approaches into a more advanced field of enquiry [14,[24][25][26]. We should note, however, that the spatial interrelationship of artefacts, features and human societies through time, together with a special focus in the study of microlandscapes or microregions [27] (pp.…”

“…We should note, however, that the spatial interrelationship of artefacts, features and human societies through time, together with a special focus in the study of microlandscapes or microregions [27] (pp. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], all have comprised special areas of research in the field of landscape archaeology since the late 19th century.…”

“…Another German tradition, historical geography [12,13], has shown that microenvironments with natural boundaries (e.g., rivers, mountains and woods) and desirable resources (e.g., water, arable land and minerals) sustained nucleated communities and remained occupied for almost every period. The potential shifting microlocation of settled communities within the same 'settlement chamber' or Siedlungskammer was "a conjunction of natural geographic opportunities and the specific economic and political context of the culture concerned" [14] (p. 148). It is noteworthy that there is an instinctive association between a hierarchical system of settled spaces, environmental and topographical parameters, the availability of and control over natural resources and the construction of dependent territories around central places within their settlement chambers.…”

Socializing geoarchaeology: Insights from Bourdieu's theory of practice applied to Neolithic and Bronze Age Crete

“…Activities related to the land apparently differed at the two places in their nature and timing, despite the broadly similar local properties and evolution of the sediments. Bintliff (1996Bintliff ( , 2000a) is probably right when he blames extreme phenomenological approaches that tend to dismiss any form of human ecology. Following Ingold (2000: 2-5), human beings are indeed recognized as organisms/persons, where the latter aspect cannot be distinguished from the former and vice versa.…”

Landscape and early farming settlement dynamics in central Greece

“…During the Bronze Age, the hamlet village network continued to operate at the older, widely spaced, riverfocused Neolithic locations. Indeed, whereas intensive survey in Boeotia has increased the density of archaeological sites for all periods by a factor of 90 over older, extensive research, the specific increase for prehistoric sites has only been by a factor of 22 (Bintliff, 2000c).…”