ABSTRACT
Terrain provides a key to many aspects of archaeology, since ancient land uses were dependent on particular site conditions recognizable both on the ground and from the air. For example, roadways follow bare hill crests, forts are on isolated hills, and towns and villages are almost always beside surface-water sources. Terraces along important rivers such as the Nile, Rhine, and Thames, occur in flights showing progressively more recent artefacts and remains down the sequence.
