Abstract

Site catchment analysis was originally introduced in archaeology as a scale of analysis suitable for studying site location patterns. Its utility in this role has been overlooked by many modern archaeologists largely because of its links with environmental determinism. Until its introduction, archaeologists interested in site location often classified sites by the environmental zone in which they were located. The study of site catchment increased the scale and level of detail available, and created a standardised format for analysis. The significance of this innovation is often overshadowed by the research questions to which it has been linked. In this paper I look at the modifications necessary to make site catchment analysis a useful tool for current archaeology.