Abstract
Settlement scaling theory predicts that higher site densities lead to increased social interactions that, in turn, boost productivity. The scaling relationship between population and land area holds for several ancient societies, but as demonstrated by the sample of 48 sites in this study, it does not hold for the Northern Maya Lowlands. Removing smaller sites from the sample brings the results closer to scaling expectations. We argue that applications of scaling theory benefit by considering social interaction as a product not only of proximity but also of daily life and spatial layouts.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2022.103
Funding Information
We received no funding for the analyses reported in this paper. The analyses were based on already-exist- ing data, both published and unpublished (see supplementary materials for notes on sources of data and acknowledgment of funding for data gathered as part of prior archaeology projects).
Repository Citation
Hutson, Scott R.; Chase, Adrian S. Z.; Glover, Jeffrey B.; Ringle, William M.; Stanton, Travis W.; Witschey, Walter R. T.; and Ardren, Traci, "Settlement Scaling in the Northern Maya Lowlands: Human-Scale Implications" (2024). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 31.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/anthro_facpub/31
Notes/Citation Information
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for American Archaeology. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.