The Limits of Settlement Growth: A Theoretical Outline

Description

In this study Roland Fletcher argues that the built environment becomes a constraint on the long-term development of a settlement. It is costly to move settlements, or to demolish and rebuild from scratch, so the initial layout and buildings, and the forms of communication that result, may come to shackle further development and also to place constraints on social and political change. Using this theoretical framework, Dr Fletcher reviews worldwide settlement growth over the past 15,000 years, and concludes with a major discussion of the great transformations of human settlements - from mobile to sedentary, sedentary to urban, and urban to industrial. This book is an ambitious contribution to archaeological theory, and the questions it raises also have implications for the future of urban settlement.

'I found the book stimulating and thought provoking. I recommend it to anyone interested in settlement size, growth, sedentism and change throughout time ... the book is well worth the effort and time, and other readers will find other topics of interest in this complex but fascinating book.' American Antiquity '... this book is important; it is Big Picture archaeology at its best and a provocative and stimulating proposal worthy of consideration.' American Anthropologist