Glossary Architecture and settlements
Settlement hierarchy
A ranking of settlements by size and function, from towns down to villages and hamlets, within one region or state.
Archaeologists look for tiers of settlements as a sign of centralised political organisation. Middle Bronze Age villages show little of it: houses of similar size and no elite residences, though a two-tier pattern starts to form at the end of the period.
In the Late Bronze Age a clear hierarchy emerges, with coastal towns such as Enkomi and Kition, inland centres with administrative buildings, and the farming villages, mining hamlets and pottery-making sites that supplied them. See village life in the Late Bronze Age.