Settlement archaeology, emerging in mid-20 century as a response to the limitation of artifact-based culture-historical approach, providing a powerful framework for understanding how socio-cultural changes manifest in the spatial distribution of human activities. Settlement analysis showed that layout and hierarchy of settlements----ranging from small hamlets to large urban centers----can reveal key insights into resource use, social stratification, and political organization. Chinese archaeologists have preferred to use wall as the evidence to define a city, but foreign colleagues emphasized population density, occupational specialization, and integrative institutions as defining criteria. In light of global findings that societies may adopt distinctive urban trajectories----even without defensive walls or explicit evidence of markets----archaeologists now use a variety of quantative and qualitative indicators, including settlement size, function, and inter-site relationships, to identify urbanism in the archaeological record. In China, debates around sites such as Xishan, Erlitou, and Liangzhu highlight the importance of this perspective: walls alone may not suffice to classify a settlement as city, and more comprehensive information about economic specialization, population aggregation, and administrative or ceremonial functions must be collected. Ultimately, settlement archaeology, with its multi-scalar analysis of communities and their interactions, is essential for reconstructing the emergence of urban life as a core facet of early civilization.