Dynamic Modeling of the Effects of Site Placement on Environmental Suitability: A Theoretical Example from Northwest Morocco

Stephen A. Collins-Elliott and Christopher S. Jazwa

Environmental Archaeology, 2022, vol. 27, issue 4, 447-460

Abstract: This paper offers a new numerical approach to model the effects of archaeological site placement and population density on environmental suitability using two ecological models, the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and Ideal Despotic Distribution (IDD), treating the Oued Loukkos in northern Morocco as an example. This method incorporates local resource depletion with increasing population density consistent with the predictions of the IFD. It also incorporates the potential for the exclusion of part of the population from certain productive areas consistent with the IDD. In this study, we propose a dynamic approach to the impact of site placement on habitat suitability and therefore broader application for understanding changes in settlement distribution with population density through time. Furthermore, resulting settlements can be parameterized by a Zipf-Mandelbrot distribution, entailing a direct relationship between the ecological, demographic, and political factors and the resulting rank-size distribution of sites. This approach allows for a broader range of applications among foraging and agricultural economies.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/14614103.2020.1763020

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