👉 In archaeology, a "subcivilization" is a smaller settlement or community of people living in a particular area. It may be as small as a village with fewer than 100 inhabitants, or it could encompass several hundred to thousands of people who lived together in a specific region. The term was first used by archaeologist and anthropologist Richard Buckler in the 1930s, when he studied the early history of ancient civilizations. He observed that many subcivilizations