Diffusion-driven demographics -- Turing model as a concept for the emergence of sedentism

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the emergence of sedentary settlements in human history can be explained by a diffusion-driven Turing instability, leading to regular spatial patterns of land use seen in modern agricultural regions.

Contribution

It introduces a Turing model framework to explain the development of sedentism and settlement patterns in early human societies, linking mathematical theory with archaeological observations.

Findings

Settlement patterns can be modeled as Turing patterns resulting from diffusion processes.

The model predicts regular spatial arrangements of settlements similar to those observed today.

Sedentism emergence is linked to diffusion-driven instability in land use behaviors.

Abstract

Sedentism was a decisive moment in the history of humankind. In a review article Kay and Kaplan quantified land use for early human settlements and found that sedentism and the emergence of farming go hand in hand. For these settlements two primary land use categories, farming and living, can be identified, whereas for hunter gatherer societies no distinct differences can be made. It is natural to search for this in the behavior of two different groups, settlers and farmers. The development of two distinct zones and the two groups lead us to the hypothesis that the emergence of settlements is the result of diffusion-driven Turing instability. In this short communication we further specify this and show that this results in a regular settlement arrangement as can still be seen today in agricultural regions.