Dynamic Modeling of the Effects of Site Placement on Environmental Suitability: A Theoretical Example from Northwest Morocco

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a new numerical approach to model the effects of archaeological site placement and population density on environmental suitability using two ecological models, the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD) and Ideal Despotic Distribution (IDD), treating the Oued Loukkos in northern Morocco as an example. This method incorporates local resource depletion with increasing population density consistent with the predictions of the IFD. It also incorporates the potential for the exclusion of part of the population from certain productive areas consistent with the IDD. In this study, we propose a dynamic approach to the impact of site placement on habitat suitability and therefore broader application for understanding changes in settlement distribution with population density through time. Furthermore, resulting settlements can be parameterized by a Zipf-Mandelbrot distribution, entailing a direct relationship between the ecological, demographic, and political factors and the resulting rank-size distribution of sites. This approach allows for a broader range of applications among foraging and agricultural economies.

KEYWORDS:

• Human behavioral ecology
• ideal free distribution
• ideal despotic distribution
• settlement patterns
• rank-size rule
• Zipf-Mandelbrot distribution
• Oued Loukkos
• Morocco

Acknowledgments

This work was originally presented at the 120th Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in San Diego. Support for the project ‘Gardens of the Hesperides: The Rural Archaeology of the Loukkos Valley’ is thanks to the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, the Delegation of the Ministry of Culture in Larache, Morocco, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Marco Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the University of Nevada, Reno. We would like to thank Elic Weitzel and Brian Codding for inviting us to participate in this edited collection. Many useful comments and suggestions were provided by the anonymous peer reviewers. Any errors are those of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This area is currently under study by the Moroccan-American project ‘Gardens of the Hesperides: The Rural Archaeology of the Loukkos Valley,’ a cooperation between the Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Rabat, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, directed by Aomar Akerraz and Stephen A. Collins-Elliott.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen A. Collins-Elliott

Stephen A. Collins-Elliott is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a Roman archaeologist who focuses on computational methods and applied probability in archaeology.

Christopher S. Jazwa

Christopher S. Jazwa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is an archaeologist who focuses on human behavioral ecology and isotope ecology. Chris conducts his fieldwork in coastal locations in Morocco, California, and Mexico.