Settlement Scaling in the Ancient World

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organized by Luis Bettencourt, Scott Ortman (SFI), Jose Lobo, and Michael Smith (ASU)

This working group brings together a diverse group of anthropologists, archeologists and urban theorists who share an interest in empirical studies of ancient settlements across time and space, and a desire to develop general theories of their form and function. Our goal is to develop the empirical basis for comparative studies of settlement form and function and for the development of new quantitative models of urbanism that clarify the early urban implosions around the world, the prevalence of low density urbanism in certain contexts, and how such forms have been elaborated in modern cities and urban systems.

Please read our update letter of April 29: Media:Update letter for participants.pdf

We recommend that all participants read the following papers before the meeting begins:

Bettencourt (2013) The Origins of Scaling in Cities Media:Science-2013-Bettencourt-1438-41.pdf

SI Media:Bettencourt.SM.pdf

Bettencourt et al. (2010) Urban Scaling and its Deviations [1]

Bettencourt et al. (2013) Professional Diversity and the Productivity of Cities [2]

Schlapfer et al. (2013) The Scaling of Human Interactions with City Size [3]

Ortman et al. (2014) The Pre-History of Urban Scaling [4]

Files Submitted by participants:

May 15: Jerry Moore, Continuities and Disjunctures in Urban Planning in the ancient Andes File:Moore2012-ContinuitiesDisjunctures.pdf

May 15: Mike Smith, Peasant Mobility, Local Migration, and Premodern Urbanization (Accepted, World Archaeology) File:WorldArchMobilityRev-Send.pdf.

June 9: John Bintliff:

Paper 1 File:Age of Theodosius.pdf

Paper 2 File:Comp Med History 2014 Horden&Kinoshita.pdf

Paper 3 File:EconomicarchBintliff.pdf

June 15: John Blitz:

File:Notes on Mississippian Urban Scale Measures.pdf