Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology

✍ Scribed by Gabriel Wurzer, Kerstin Kowarik, Hans Reschreiter (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 276
• Series: Advances in Geographic Information Science
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Archaeology has been historically reluctant to embrace the subject of agent-based simulation, since it was seen as being used to "re-enact" and "visualize" possible scenarios for a wider (generally non-scientific) audience, based on scarce and fuzzy data. Furthermore, modeling "in exact terms" and programming as a means for producing agent-based simulations were simply beyond the field of the social sciences.

This situation has changed quite drastically with the advent of the internet age: Data, it seems, is now ubiquitous. Researchers have switched from simply collecting data to filtering, selecting and deriving insights in a cybernetic manner. Agent-based simulation is one of the tools used to glean information from highly complex excavation sites according to formalized models, capturing essential properties in a highly abstract and yet spatial manner. As such, the goal of this book is to present an overview of techniques used and work conducted in that field, drawing on the experience of practitioners.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xiv
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Explaining the Past with ABM: On Modelling Philosophy....Pages 3-35
Modeling Archaeology: Origins of the Artificial Anasazi Project and Beyond....Pages 37-50
Front Matter....Pages 51-51
Agent-Based Simulation in Archaeology: A Characterization....Pages 53-76
Reproducibility....Pages 77-98
Geosimulation: Modeling Spatial Processes....Pages 99-118
Large Simulations and Small Societies: High Performance Computing for Archaeological Simulations....Pages 119-137
Front Matter....Pages 139-139
Mining with Agents: Modelling Prehistoric Mining and Prehistoric Economy....Pages 141-159
Modelling Settlement Rank-Size Fluctuations....Pages 161-181
Understanding the Iron Age Economy: Sustainability of Agricultural Practices under Stable Population Growth....Pages 183-216
Simulating Patagonian Territoriality in Prehistory: Space, Frontiers and Networks Among Hunter-Gatherers....Pages 217-256
Front Matter....Pages 257-257
How Did Sugarscape Become a Whole Society Model?....Pages 259-269

✦ Subjects

Geographical Information Systems/Cartography