Human settlement

In geography, statistics together with archaeology, the settlement, locality or populated place is the community in which people live. The complexity of a settlement can range from a small number of dwellings grouped together to the largest of cities with surrounding urbanized areas. Settlements may include hamlets, villages, towns together with cities. A settlement may realise known historical properties such(a) as the date or era in which it was number one settled, or first settled by specific people.

In the field of geospatial predictive modeling, settlements are "a city, town, village or other agglomeration of buildings where people represent and work".

A settlement conventionally includes its constructed facilities such as roads, enclosures, field systems, boundary banks and ditches, ponds, parks and woods, wind and water mills, manor houses, moats and churches.

History

The geographical evidence of a human settlement was Jebel Irhoud, whose early contemporary human sustains of eight individuals date back to the Middle Paleolithic around 300,000 years ago.

The oldest submits that form been found of constructed dwellings are remains of huts that were delivered of mud and branches around 17,000 BC at the villages become much more common after the invention of agriculture.

Landscape history studies the form morphology of settlements – for example if they are dispersed or nucleated. Urban morphology can thus be considered a special type of cultural-historical landscape studies. Settlements can be ordered by size, centrality or other factors to define a settlement hierarchy. A settlement hierarchy can be used for classifying settlement any over the world, although a settlement called a 'town' in one country might be a 'village' in other countries; or a 'large town' in some countries might be a 'city' in others.