Page 19 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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lias selected a central ancient city and its hinterlands for study. In each of these
attempts, new archeological data have been presented in highly informative
contexts. All have demonstrated that changes in settlement pattern and land use
can be determined from archeological surface surveys, and that such changes have
occurred throughout the archeological record.
Spatial analyses such as these have not gone without criticism, however.
Adams (Adams and Nissen 1972) has reported Benno Landsberger’s remark upon
reading the manuscript of Land Behind Baghdad (Adams 1965). He characterized
the Diyala survey as "an attempt to describe a dialect before the paradigm of the
heartland was known." Such comments reflect upon problems inherent in these
approaches. But, in answer to Landsberger’s comments one might suggest that the
study of dialects can only enrich the understanding of the "paradigm of the
heartland." Neither macro nor micro views alone can provide the understanding
needed in Near Eastern archeology. What we require are mutually reinforcing
research strategies that consider both views simultaneously and revise respective
paradigms as the results dictate.
The Near Eastern surveys by Adams and the others are examples of this
type of research. They have attempted to derive a collective understanding of the
Mesopotamian Plain and adjacent Iran as a system by selectively isolating potential
cultural and natural subsystems. This research is a further variation on site survey
and spatial analysis techniques.
We are concerned with the processes occurring within and affecting
human groups. Archeologically, the goal is to attempt the reconstruction of past
human social patterns from physical data that reflect upon such processes. One of
the difficulties in past work in the Near East has been a lack of synthesis of
available data. Another difficulty has been that of presenting a paleoecological
framework within which to assess hypothetical cultural processes. Both of these
problems must be overcome if we are to attain the hoped-for understanding of
man’s past and his relationship to the land. Butzer (1976) has suggested that a more
complete understanding of social organization and differentiation, including trade,
can be obtained by using a comprehensive ecological approach. Here, environment,