Introduction to imaginary models for archaeological scaling and clustering
David L. Clarke · 2014
This chapter explains the recent advances in field techniques for studying archaeological sites, which have been developed over a number of years by various members of the British Academy Major Research Project on the Early History of Agriculture. Crook&s;s discussion is of some help here, and his emphasis on the variability and complexity of territorial and aggressive behaviour is a salutary warning against the dangers of facile generalization. Neolithic sites, on the other hand, have been assumed to be concerned primarily with arable agriculture, and thus confined to exploitation within an hour&s;s walking distance. The Palaeolithic mammoth and reindeer hunters of southern Russia evidently coped with a considerably harsher climate apparently inhabiting huts constructed of bones and skins, while recent examples of peoples exploiting climatically severe areas also indicate their ability to manage without fortuitously situated caves.