Discussions of the ‘prehistoric’ landscape have been dominated by the study of monumentality. Although evidence for contemporary occupation in the form of domestic structures is limited, extensive traces of former ‘settlement patterns’ have been identified in the form of lithic artefact scatters. Despite the biases inherent in the distribution of artefacts within these scatters, lithic assemblages recovered by surface artefact survey represent an unparalleled dataset for the study of the inhabited landscape. Lithic scatters are frequently part of a more extensive, multi-period surface spread, the complexity of which has presented an insurmountable barrier. GIS provides a powerful set of tools with which the complexity of surface artefact scatters can be explored. Potential applications will be discussed with reference to the analysis of a lithic artefact scatter from Eastern Yorkshire.
