SETTLING STRATEGIES OF HUMAN COMMUNITIES IN PANNONIAN HOLOCENE RIVERSCAPE. A MICRO ZONE CASE STUDY FROM BANAT (ROMANIA)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/jaha.13.1.2026.1505Keywords:
Riverscape archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Geochronology, settling strategies, Romanian BanatAbstract
To balance the advantages and disadvantages of living near a river, communities faced strategic choices when establishing their settlements: settling along an active river channel, a fossil (abandoned) channel, or avoiding watercourses. In this research, we tried to identify these ancient options, establishing an absolute chronology for the fossil river channels. Therefore, in addition to producing a distribution map of historical human settlements, our study aims to reconstruct part of the local paleo-hydrographic network by integrating multiple methodological approaches. Former human settlements were identified through a systematic field survey covering the entire study area. The paleochannel network was reconstructed using high-resolution LiDAR data, which enabled a detailed analysis of the micromorphology of both, inhabited and uninhabited areas. Furthermore, sediment samples were collected by drilling into former riverbeds and analyzed using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL), dating to establish an absolute chronology for each paleochannel.
By correlating the results obtained from these approaches, we achieve a partial reconstruction of the spatial and temporal relationship between past human communities and nearby water resources.
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