INTRODUCTION

The main goal of the RPC project, as set forth in the project design, was to gain insight into processes of centralization and urbanization taking place over a long period from protohistory into Roman times, within three regions studied since the early 1980s by the participating Dutch archaeology departments (GIA and ACVU). The spatial, ecological, technological, socio-economic, and political aspects of these processes were to be analyzed from a long-term and comparative perspective.

This was an ambitious goal, as it involved the study and explanation of observed changes in settlement and land use patterns in geographically diverse areas and over a long period of time. These changes were in our opinion the outcome of a complex interaction of internal and external forces, and eventually they resulted in more complex forms of society in all three study areas – hence the project title ‘Regional Pathways to Complexity’. Additional fieldwork was conducted in all three regions to collect urgently needed data on the hitherto neglected ‘marginal’ areas (coastal margins, former marshes, and uplands). These, though perhaps economically less productive in the past, nonetheless represent a significant percentage of both the ancient and the modern landscape, and no modern regional archaeological study can afford to ignore them. Specialist studies were conducted into the application of palaeo-economic land evaluation, historical and ethnographic aspects of pastoralism, the analysis of site distribution patterns and the production and distribution of pottery. Where relevant, the results of these studies have been integrated in this monograph.

Here we will present the methodological advances and increased understanding that the RPC project has resulted in.

METHODOLOGICAL ADVANCES

The methodological advances coming out of the RPC project may be grouped under three headings. Firstly, the importance of a proper assessment of research- and visibility biases in archaeological field walking surveys, and of the relationship between potential and actual land uses, will be argued. Secondly, the importance of studying historic and ethnographic aspects of pastoralism will be stressed, since this is a type of land use that was a major factor in past subsistence and economic strategies but is not included in formal land evaluation studies using the FAO method. Thirdly, the potential of technological pottery studies to improve the chronological resolution of survey finds will be assessed, as well as its potential to reconstruct socio-economic aspects of past societies.