Eric Sidney Higgs
Site Catchment Analysis
Site Catchment Analysis
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During his work at the sites in Greece with the geologist [Claudio Vita\-Finzi](/wiki/Claudio_Vita-Finzi "Claudio Vita-Finzi"), Higgs began to think more about the nature of occupation at each site, restricted as they were by settings within a steep gorge (at Asprochaliko) or at a lakeside (Kastritsa). Higgs and Vita\-Finzi developed a method to evaluate the setting of each site in a process that became known as "Site Catchment Analysis", later modified to "Site Territorial Analysis". This sought to define the limits of accessibility of land and resources around a settlement site, usually on the basis of a time\-distance model measured by walking, recording the extent of the different land forms and [soil types](/wiki/Soil_type "Soil type"). From the first investigations in Greece, this model was then extended to [Natufian](/wiki/Natufian "Natufian") sites in Israel, often mooted as the homes of early farming innovations. The "site catchment" investigations showed that these sites had a diversity of landforms and soils that were much more suited to hunting than to farming, and that true early farming sites were located elsewhere.

This model has been widely criticised within the framework of both [processual archaeology](/wiki/Processual_archaeology "Processual archaeology") and [post\-processual archaeology](/wiki/Post-processual_archaeology "Post-processual archaeology"), in which the interpretation of social concerns is paramount, beyond the strict needs of subsistence. Yet such criticisms are from archaeologists with little or no direct experience of obtaining food from nature, and Higgs' deterministic views must be seen in the light of his own lengthy and hard experience of farming, where some of his pastures were at a far remove from his farmhouse, necessitating lengthy and time\-wasting journeys from his home. Whatever criticisms are now made against Higgs' view of the human past, his profound legacy remains. He taught archaeologists to look outside the site to its setting, in a way that is as standard a part of methodology as is the recording of the site [stratigraphy](/wiki/Stratigraphy "Stratigraphy").


How has Site Catchment Analysis been criticized within archaeology?