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Aksumite Settlement Patterns: Site Size Hierarchies and Spatial Clustering

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Journal of Archaeological Research Aims and scope

Abstract

Settlement pattern analysis offers a range of insights about social, economic, and political relationships of Aksumite civilization. Two common approaches involve analyzing site size distributions and the spatial distribution of sites to evaluate possible clustering. We review the history of archaeological survey and settlement pattern analyses for Pre-Aksumite, Aksumite, and Post-Aksumite periods. We focus on data from two areas of northern Ethiopia collected by the Eastern Tigray Archaeological Project and the Southern Red Sea Archaeological Histories Project. We conduct Ripley’s-K multi-distance spatial cluster analysis to evaluate spatial clustering/dispersion, and Gaussian mixture model/Bayesian information criterion analysis to evaluate possible site size hierarchies. Results show similar patterns in the two areas, including site clustering predominantly during the Pre-Aksumite period, an increase in the number of sites and decrease in average site size from the Pre-Aksumite to Aksumite periods, and no definitive evidence that site size hierarchies are an indicator of political changes over time. Overall, results indicate locally aggregated political organization during the Pre-Aksumite period, locally decentralized organization, infilling, and population growth during the Aksumite period, and a subsequent decline in population and political centralization during the Post-Aksumite period.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the people and institutions that enabled this research, including the Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage, Tigray Culture and Tourism Bureau, Simon Fraser University, Mekelle University, Aksum University, Adigrat University, University of California-Los Angeles, and Johns Hopkins University. We are grateful for lithic analyses conducted by Alicia Hawkins, Steven Brandt, Elizabeth Peterson, and Laurel Phillipson and pottery analyses conducted by Andrea Manzo, Luisa Sernicola, Jennifer Swerida, Cinzia Perlingieri, and Gabriella Giovannone, which added crucial artifact and chronological data to our survey results. Thanks also to Kebede Amare, Aley Woldeselassie, Fantahun Zelelew, Mekonnen Gebre-Meskel, Tesfay Aragie, Seminew Asrat, and the people of Edaga Rabu, Adwa, Ahferom, and Gulo Makeda Woredas for their support. Funding for the ETAP component of this research was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Funding for the SRSAH component was provided by the University of California-Los Angeles, Johns Hopkins University, the Danish National Research Foundation under grant DNRF119 - Centre of Excellence for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), and NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (Grant #NNX13AO48G).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Near Eastern Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Gilman Hall 113, 3400 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Michael J. Harrower

  2. Impact Observatory Inc., 900 19th St NW, Squad 18, Washington, DC, 20006, USA

    Joseph C. Mazzariello

  3. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Education Building 9635, 8888 University Dr., Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    A. Catherine D’Andrea

  4. Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Smiti Nathan

  5. Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, University of Toronto, 4 Bancroft Ave, 2nd Floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 1C1, Canada

    Habtamu M. Taddesse

  6. Centre for Urban Network Evolutions (UrbNet), School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 4230-224, 8270, Højbjerg, Denmark

    Ioana A. Dumitru

  7. Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Carey E. Priebe

  8. Archaeology and Heritage Management, Aksum University, P.O. Box 1010, Aksum, Ethiopia

    Kifle Zerue

  9. Center for Imaging Science, Johns Hopkins University, Clark Hall, 3400 N. Charles St., Suite 301, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Youngser Park

  10. Tigray Culture and Tourism Bureau, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Gidey Gebreegziabher

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Harrower, M.J., Mazzariello, J.C., D’Andrea, A.C. et al. Aksumite Settlement Patterns: Site Size Hierarchies and Spatial Clustering. J Archaeol Res 31, 103–146 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-021-09172-2

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