Settlement archaeology (German:''Siedlungsarchäologie'') is a branch of modern
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
. It investigates former settlements and deserted areas, forms of housing and settlements, and the prehistoric settlement of entire regions. For this purpose, the forms, functions and developments of individual habitats and settlement systems are explored by means of archaeological surveys and excavation. Settlement archaeology has developed in close cooperation with settlement history and settlement geography. Settlement sequences of several centuries or millennia are explored in individual areas. Changes and consistent elements can be studied and compared with other researched settlements. Archaeological methods are used including
archaeobotany and
-zoology and
spectroscopic phosphate analysis to resolve archaeological questions, mostly in the field of prehistory and early history.
Settlement archaeology as the archaeology of peoples
The term settlement archaeology initially referred to a research methodology whose most important exponent was
Gustaf Kossinna, who developed his "settlement archaeology method" beginning in 1887. According to Kossinna and his disciples,
cultures,
cultural areas and, ultimately, settlement areas of ethnic groups can be deduced through types and their
assemblages. This equation of "archaeological culture", ethnicity, and race led, especially during
National Socialist rule, to a fateful and alarming combination of archaeological research with racial ideology. One of the core tenets of Kossinna's teaching was that sharply defined archaeological cultural areas coincide at all times with particular peoples (''Völkern'') or tribes. When asked about the "ethnic interpretation" of prehistoric finds, answers were sought by linking "archaeological" with "historical" methods. Kossinna said that the basis of his "settlement archaeological method" was that it uses an analogy that enlightens dimly-illuminated ancient times by inferences from the better-known present, or ages that, though still ancient, are marked by rich tradition. It illuminates prehistoric times by understanding more recent history. In the
Postwar Era the empirical collecting of facts and their chronological and spatial arrangement was declared the main goal of research, which set the final course for today's German archaeology. Theoretical approaches moved to the background.
Modern settlement archeology
Since the 1920s more and more works have emerged in which individual regions have been archaeologically researched. At the same time, more emphasis was placed on investigating the settlements themselves. Researchers such as
Gerhard Bersu, Hermann Stoll, and Robert Rudolf Schmidt, who worked mainly in southern Germany, were among this pioneering phase of modern settlement archeology. The excavations at the
Federsee, for example, involved the natural sciences at an early stage (
pollen analysis (Palynology), moor geology and
geomorphology
Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand wh ...
,
dendrochronology
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...
,
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for Chronological dating, determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of carbon-14, radiocarbon, a radioactive Isotop ...
,
archaeozoology and
archaeobotany,
paleoclimatology
Paleoclimatology ( British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of ...
, material research, etc.). However, especially during the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...
under the direction of
Hans Reinerth, the ideological abuse of settlement archaeology was particularly evident. In the end, however, important impulses for the establishment and methodical definition came mainly from the north: the excavations in Haithabu (
Hedeby as well as the investigations at Wurten on the North Sea coast such as
Feddersen Wierde near
Cuxhaven by Werner Haarnagel were seminal. The archaeologist
Herbert Jankuhn is associated with the formulation of this redefinition of settlement archeology. Jankuhn was a proponent of Kossinna's methods of settlement archeology during the period of in
National Socialism.
New trends
More recently the focus has increasingly been on the individual settlement and the analysis of landscapes and territories, mostly using
geographic information system
A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and Geographic information system software, software that store, manage, Spatial analysis, analyze, edit, output, and Cartographic design, visualize Geographic data ...
s (GIS). Today the term
landscape archaeology
Landscape archaeology, previously known as total archaeology is a sub-discipline of archaeology and archaeological theory. It studies the ways in which people in the past constructed and used the environment around them. It is also known as archae ...
is preferred. The long-standing role of natural sciences in settlement archeology has recently further increased, and
geography
Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
,
geology
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...
,
zoology
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...
,
botany
Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
, and
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
have been increasingly used in the field of
soil science
Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, soil classification, classification and Soil survey, mapping; Soil physics, physical, Soil chemistry, chemical, Soil biology, biologica ...
, which is reflected, for example, in the field of
geoarchaeology.
References
{{Authority control
Archaeological sub-disciplines