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Klappentext 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. Zusammenfassung This study reviews 15!000 years of worldwide settlement growth in the light of the limits imposed by buildings! layouts! and forms of communication! and examines the great transformations of human settlements - from mobile to sedentary! sedentary to urban! and urban to industrial. Inhaltsverzeichnis List of figures; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Summary; Part I. Theoretical Context: The Role of the Material as Behaviour: 1. Archaeology, settlement growth and the material component of human behaviour; 2. The material as behaviour; 3. A hierarchy of social explanation: locating the material; Part II. The Limits of Settlement Growth: Behavioural Stress and the Material Management of Community Life: 4. The behavioural parameters of interaction and communication; 5. Settlement growth trajectories; 6. Settlement growth transitions and the role of the material; Part III. Implications: Transformations and Constraints of Community Life: 7. The development of sedentism; 8. The development of agrarian and industrial urbanism; 9. Future urban growth; Technical notes; References; Index.
