Site Catchment Analysis

A method of reconstructing the economy of a site by studying the resources that are available within a reasonable distance, generally 1-2 hours' walking time from the site. The technique was devised by E. Higgs and C. Vita-Finzi for 'the study of the relationship between technology and those natural resources lying within economic range of individual sites', an extension of the least-cost principle. The catchment area is defined by drawing a circle around the site; the radius has often been set at 5 km (i.e. an hour's walk) for agriculturists and 10 km (i.e. two hours' walk) for hunter-gatherers, figures which represent ethnographically observed averages. Within the catchment area the proportions of such resources as arable or pastoral land are calculated, and from these figures conclusions can be drawn concerning the nature and function of the site. The technique offers a valuable and reasonably objective method for analyzing relationships between site location, technology, and available resources. This type of off-site analysis can concentrate on the total area from which a site's contents have been derived.

Method for attempting to reconstruct the economy of archaeological sites, introduced in the late 1960s and early 1970s by E.S. Higgs and his colleague C. Vita-Finzi. A ‘site catchment’ is defined as the total area from which all the animals, plants and artefacts of which there are remains preserved on the site, are derived. Each group of people living on the site is assumed to have had a ‘territory’, the area around the site which they habitually exploited. A site territory for a hunter-gatherer group is assumed, from ethnographic parallels, to be an area lying within two hours’ walking distance of the site. On similar grounds, the corresponding territory for farmers is assumed to be an area within one hour’s walking distance. Territories are determined by walking out from the site along a number of radii. The resources contained within each territory are then assessed by walking over the ground, looking for sources of water, variation in slope, soils, drainage etc. A less exhaustive method, which is widely employed, is simply to draw a 5 km or 10 km circle around the site. These correspond respectively to the one-hour radius and two-hour radius, in ‘optimum’ terrain. Many assumptions of site catchment analysis cannot be tested and may be valueless. Particular care must be taken to consider evidence of environmental change in an area. This could give rise to an ancient geography, resources and land use completely different to those of the present day. The technique does, however, place archaeological sites in the context of their surroundings, something that has too often been ignored.