ABSTRACT
Archaeologists have understood the value of studying the spatial arrangement of settlement locales since the nineteenth century, but it has only been within the last three decades that archaeologists have begun to view the study of past settlement systems as a respectable and fruitful area of research (Chang 1972:1; Clarke 1977:3). Since the 1950s archaeologists in North America and Europe have sought to understand settlement systems better and have adopted a number of geographical and statistical techniques for use with their archaeological data sets (Hodder 1977; Hodder and Orton 1976; Zimmerman 1978). While many different types of spatial analyses have been conducted by archaeologists, perhaps the greatest potential is in the area of settlement dynamics (Crumley 1979). It is in this area of study that plantation archaeology can make the greatest contribution to our knowledge of past settlement practices.
