<P> In the field of geospatial predictive modeling, settlements are "a city, town, village ghost or other agglomeration of buildings where people live and work ." </P> <P> A settlement conventionally includes its constructed facilities such as roads, enclosures, field systems, boundary banks and ditches, ponds, parks and woods, wind and water mills, manor houses, moats and churches . </P> <P> The oldest remains that have been found of constructed dwellings are remains of huts that were made of mud and branches around 17,000 BC at the Ohalo site (now underwater) near the edge of the Sea of Galilee . The Natufians built houses, also in the Levant, around 10,000 BC . Remains of settlements such as villages become much more common after the invention of agriculture . </P> <P> Landscape history studies the form (morphology) of settlements--for example whether they are dispersed or nucleated . Urban morphology can thus be considered a special type of cultural - historical landscape studies . Settlements can be ordered by size, centrality or other factors to define a settlement hierarchy . </P>

When did humans begin to live in permanent settlements