Sedentism refers to staying in one place, and in archaeology this is visible through architecture, materials and faunal remains and more. The perspective of prehistoric communities being either primitive if they're mobile/ hunter-gatherers or more complex if they are agricultural is a common modern misconception. The evidence below will debunk these ideas and highlight the continuum that comes with sedentism: that mobility does not necessarily represent simplicity, and farming communities are not necessarily the most complex sedentary societies.
Archaeological Case Studies
The Pacific Northwest
Sedentism in the Pacific Northwest varied largely over roughly 8000 years until the American Revolutionary War in 1775 AD. The native groups that spanned prehistoric Oregon, Washington, and the Northwest coast of Canada were mobile until about 5000 BP when various forms of houses, middens and other evidence arose that indicated increasingly sedentary behaviour. While these communities relied on foraging and subsequent collection based food strategies rather than farming, they are still on the spectrum of sedentism and exhibit complex traits such as long-distance trade and house-hold based social systems with property rights and structure.
Click on the white hotspots for more information
The Levant
The Levant, or Near East, is said to be the site from which agriculture was birthed in the “Neolithic Revolution”; where Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan are today. However, in the period before that, the Natufian, is when mobile hunter-gatherers are evidenced to have become more sedentary, 3000 radiocarbon years before farming. The Natufian (12,800-10,300 BP) is the primary period where there are sites with intensive plant processing, medium game hunting, and large burials in one area which go hand in hand with more permanent architecture and more complex technology as discussed above. These important societal and strategic hallmarks are what makes these sites evidence of arising sedentism as opposed to mobile hunter-gatherer camps.
Photo references
Pithouse: Hirst, Kris. (2019). What Is a Pithouse? Winter Home for our Ancient Ancestors. Thought Co. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-a-pit-house-172088
Plank house: Sullivan, Scott D. (2010). Traditional Yurok Indian family house at Sumeg Village, in Sue-Meg State Park, northern California. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plank_house
Midden: Lubofsky, E. (2018). In the Chesapeake Bay, Shell Mounds Show a Long History of Sustainable Oyster Harvests. Hakai Magazine. Retrieved from https://hakaimagazine.com/news/in-the-chesapeake-bay-shell-mounds-show-a-long-history-of-sustainable-oyster-harvests/
Gazelles: Gardner, Sarah. (2011). Late Stone-Age Enclosures for Gazelle Hunting Identified. Bluesci: Cambridge University Science Magazine. Retrieved from https://bluesci.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/late-stone-age-enclosures-for-gazelle-hunting-identified/
Groundstones: No name (2014). Old European culture. Acorns in Archaeology. Retrieved from https://oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/11/acorns-in-archaeology.html
Skeleton: Retrieved from Twitter from Atlas Obscura (2018). https://twitter.com/atlasobscura/status/1044717045806493696