Some problems with modelling the positions of prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlements on the basis of landscape topography

This paper discusses a couple of basic methodological problems inherent in predictive modelling as used today in mapping the location of Stone Age settlements based solely on landscape topography/bathymetry. It argues that the modelling approach employed is based on elements adopted from a type of landscape ecology that was abandoned more than 20 years ago, because it was unable to produce reasonable results, and that it can be difficult to develop prediction methodology based on the present understanding of landscape ecology as being extremely complex and dynamic. Furthermore, it maintains that the modelling approach currently employed in Stone Age archaeology is based on assumptions about prehistoric resource-strategic behaviour that are simplistic and out of tune with what we now know. It therefore questions whether it is possible to develop a precise and efficient predictive procedure for modelling the locations of Stone Age sites.