PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
To reconstruct the settlement patterns of ancient societies, archaeologists use what they term as 'the known site distribution'—that which is recovered by archaeological research—as well as 'the total settlement pattern'—that which existed at the time the ancient society was in existence. These two patterns can obviously be very different in regions where archaeological survival is problematic.
In Malaysia, the known patterns indicate that Hoabinhians and early Borneo hunter-gatherers camped in caves, near lakes, and laid down coastal shell middens, while the sites of Neolithic people tended to focus on river valleys, reflecting the need for fertile soils for cultivation. Early historical sites tend to be found in coastal locations from which their inhabitants could trade with outsiders for commodities such as rice, glass beads and metals. From around 1,500 years ago, such coastal settlements also lubricated the flow of foreign ideas into Malaysia, especially those associated with the Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic religions.
In the hot and wet environment of Malaysia, few sites survive to be identified and excavated. The visible distribution is thus only a very small part of the former total pattern. Therefore, in order to reconstruct a total settlement pattern for a given time period, archaeologists use ethnography and history as a guide. These show that foragers, such as the Negritos and Punan, live in small, temporary camps which leave few traces unless they are located in caves. Agriculturalists tend to live in villages, but also use minor camps for other activities. Villages leave identifiable archaeological traces, but are not universal as many agriculturalists of the Asia-Pacific region today still live in scattered, single family homesteads.
However, one important generalization can be made from both archaeology and ethnography. As past societies became more complex—as they moved towards statehood and urban life—their settlement sizes increased. In Thailand and Vietnam, large villages appeared with agriculture from the 3rd millennium BCE. Towns developed during the Iron Age (after 500 BCE), as rice agriculture with iron tools became more intensive and capable of supporting much denser populations. But lesser settlement types continued; both farmers and town dwellers used hunting camps on occasion, and throughout Malaysian prehistory, foragers continued to live side by side with agriculturalists and urban people, as they decreasingly do today.
Reconstruction of a total prehistoric settlement pattern can be a very difficult undertaking. In regions where villages and cities were made of brick, as in the Middle East, survival can of course be excellent and it is possible to trace the growth of a settlement hierarchy—a patterning of settlements where a few large centres come to dominate many smaller settlements, as in today's Malaysia. In Iraq, settlement hierarchies were developing by 4000 BCE, while in northeastern Thailand and Vietnam, these developments began during the Iron Age, about 500 BCE. In Peninsular Malaysia, it is likely that a similar settlement hierarchy was also in formation during the Iron Age, perhaps dominated by coastal trading settlements such as Kuala Selinsing. But in Malaysia, ancient sites do not project high above the ground as they do in zones further north. This does not mean that data are not there to be discovered, but it does mean that they will be harder to discover.
