Characterizing Optimal Locational Environment for the Bronze Age Settlement in Baekseok-dong, Cheonan, South Korea in the Perspective of Ridge Environment: A Focus on the Locational Characteristics of Residental Areas based on Spatial Analysis

Keywords: Ridge, The Bronze Age, Settlement, Topographical environment, Location
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 4/10/2021 09:35 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/10/2021 10:50 AM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 17

Abstract

Characterizing the important factors for the Bronze Age settlers to their residential decision-making improves our understanding about the geographical perspectives of the Bronze Age settlers. In this study, we aim to reconstruct the optimal locational environment of the Bronze Age settlement in Baekseok-dong, Cheonan, South Korea and to identify the priority ranking of the important topographical factors to the Bronze Age settlement. To achieve these research goals, the topographical factors of approximately 200 Bronze Age dwellings (hereinafter refer to as dwellings) in the study area were analyzed in the perspective of ridge’s environment. The results from analysis shows that the optimal ridge environment of the Bronze settlement was placed in the sub-ridges from the N-S direction (i.e., NNW-SSE, N-S, NNESSW), especially at the top (i.e., Crest slope and Crest flat). In addition, we found that the influential topographical factors on determining the settlers’ residential areas were in the following: 1) the slope direction of the ridge surface, 2) the micro-landform of the ridge, 3) the ridge scale, 4) the ridge direction, and 5) the surface relief. These results can serve as a foundation for further analysis in the related studies, such as archaeology, quaternary research, traditional architecture and so on.