Early Framing societies made settlement choices by more than just the environment: regional strategies, social factors, and agricultural diversification influenced where communities settled.

Settlement patterns of early farming communities are closely related to specific environmental parameters. However, these patterns vary regionally and over time. To investigate this, this new publication performs a nonparametric rhohat analysis, and an inhomogeneous Poisson point analysis. Results suggest that site selection exhibits a diachronic shift over time.

Citation:

S. Suhrbier, S. Scharl, Oliver A. Kern, T. Zerl, A. Schick, A. Röpke, Spoiled for choice? dynamics of settlement patterns in early farming societies (c. 5400–4300 BCE) in Northwestern Bavaria and North Rhine-Westfalia, Germany , Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 75, 2026, 106080, ISSN 2352-409X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.106080.