ABSTRACT

Settlements are the most complex archaeological sources, for churches, churchyards, cemeteries, fortifications, economic struc­ tures, and even communication routes all belong to them. The archaeology of settlements includes two areas of research, besides the investigation of individual settlements as its primary objective, namely the study of communication routes and the general occupa­ tion of small and large geographic regions. Like settlement geo­ graphy and settlement history, it is a sub-discipline which endeav­ ours to clarify historical problems concerning settlement and should be thought of as a part of general historical settlement studies (Jankuhn 1977 and in Geschichtswissenschaft und Archaologie 1979).