On Dec 16, 2003, at 11:01 AM, Kris Hirst wrote:

> Hello all:
>
> Does anybody happen to know if anybody has ever applied
> Christaller's Central Place Theory to historic archaeology? I know
> I've seen about twenty articles on prehistoric settlement
> patterns, but I don't have any in historic archaeology.

Hodder & Orton's Spatial Analysis in Archaeology 1976, and David 
Clarke's Spatial Archaeology 1977 have used Central Place Theory on 
European and Near Eastern problems. O'Mara, James  1983An Historical 
Geography of Urban System Development: Tidewater Virginia in the 18th 
Century. Geographical Monographs #13. Department of Geography, Atkinson 
College, York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada is an outgrowth of 
a Ph.D. that used it to investigate the placement of courthouses. 
Starting with those and working through the Social Sciences Citation 
Index ought to give you enough reading for the cold winter months.

Theissen prooposed using Polygons, thereafter known as Theissen 
Polygons to demarcate central points and service areas based upon known 
points.

Apart from archaeological uses, the seemingly endless series of 
Gerrymandered voting districts might be rationalized by their 
application. Not that it has done one bit of good since I proposed such 
to my county for school attendance areas though ;>((

Lyle Browning