Ancient Environmental Preference and the Site Selection Pattern Based on the Edge Effect and Network Structure in An Ecosystem

Abstract

Archaeological sites are facing serious threats from environmental changes in the background of urban sprawl. More efforts are needed to enhance the cognition of human–environment interactions for better conservation. Under the traditional geomantic view, the environmental preference involved was presented to guide ancient life. In this study, we analyzed the edge effect and network structure of two periods in an ecological transition zone where the ancient sites were located. From the cases of Gouzhang and Yinxian, the separability of edge intensity indicated the different site selection patterns because of the discrepancy of patch fragmentation and ecological structure. Additionally, the different trends of the edge effect were thought to be related to the complexity of the ecological network. Besides that, the ancient cities located in or around the high-centrality terrain in the network of closed space could have provided the convenience of accessing living materials from early ecosystems. In practice, the comprehensive methods based on geomantic and ecological analysis proved effective when used to explore possible areas of the undiscovered archaeological sites. What is more important is that traditional environmental perceptions could be integrated into a scientific system of the ecological landscape and contribute more to archaeological research and the study of ancient culture.

Historical Ecology, Archaeology and Biocultural Landscapes: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to the Long Anthropocene

“…Four articles regard different parts of Europe, including the French Pyrenees [13], Scandinavia [14] and Slovenia [15]. The remaining studies address [16], California/French Polynesia [17] and a review on Brazil [18]. This demonstrates the global interest in the topic of Historical Ecology.…”

“…A long-term correlation between historical site selection patterns and the edge effect of the ecological transition zone is addressed in the article by Zhu et al [16] focused on mountainous and plain areas on the margins of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province in China. This approach has very promising considerations for observing the distribution of archaeological sites using tools from landscape ecology such as ecological pattern analysis or ecological patch distribution to model the characteristics of the landscape in relation to settlement location selection.…”

Historical Ecology, Archaeology and Biocultural Landscapes: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to the Long Anthropocene

“…Four articles regard different parts of Europe, including the French Pyrenees [13], Scandinavia [14] and Slovenia [15]. The remaining studies address [16], California/French Polynesia [17] and a review on Brazil [18]. This demonstrates the global interest in the topic of Historical Ecology.…”