Barcelo Juan A., Del Castillo Florencia (eds.). Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds. Springer,2016. — 410 p.. 2016

This book has been edited with the explicit idea of allowing the reader to imagine that virtual histories can be generated in a computer in the same way as in her/his mind. This is not a literary exercise, however, but an example of a radical revolution in the way of doing History as a social science. While computational models can be used to simulate real-world processes in greatdetail(e.g., some manufacturing processes), their greatest potential for historical explanation lies in using them as environments of systematic, controlled, virtual experiments in human social and socio-ecological dynamics (Bankes et al. 2002; Diamond and Robinson 2010; Barton et al. 2012; Barton 2013, 2014; Hmeljak and Goldstone 2016; Nakoinz and Knitter 2016; Cegielski and Rogers 2016). Importantly, such models are constructed from the bottom up, requiring the integration of knowledge about human social processes and theory about the relationships among individual actors and groups at multiple scales to create the algorithms which drive agent perception, decision-making, and action. Used in this way, building computational models can help refine our concepts about the operation of societies, and the models can serve as complex hypotheses that can be tested against the empirical record of archaeological, ethnological or historical research (Barton 2014).

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Contents

Chapter 1 Simulating the Past for Understanding the Present. A Critical Review

Juan A. Barcelo and Florencia Del Castillo

Introduction to an Introduction

The Past as a Virtual Model

Testing the Virtual Model

Recreating the Past in the Computer

From Animality to Humanity

Hunting-and-Gathering in the Past Explains How We Have Survived Until the Present

Rationality Within the Computer. The Myth of the Stupid Prehistoric Savages

What Made Humans Really Human? Cooperation and “Collective” Action at the Dawn of Humanity

The Myth of the Good Prehistoric Savage: The Origins of Social Differentiation and Complexity

Simulating Economic, Social and Cultural Change in Prehistory. Why Humans Have Made Life so Complex and Difficult

Why Humans Have Made Life Even More Complex and Difficult. The Making of the State and the Origins of Class Struggle

Simulating Social Life After Prehistory

Simulating the Recent Past

Predicting the Future

Conclusions. Rethinking the Way the Past Can Be Made Understandable

References

Chapter 2 Multi-scale Agent-Based Simulation of Long-Term Dispersal Processes: Towards a Sophisticated Simulation Model of Hominin Dispersal

ngo J. Timm, Fabian Lorig, Ericson Holzchen and Christine Hertler

Abstract

Introduction

Understanding Hominin Dispersal

Agent-Based Computer Simulation

When reconstructing emergent phenomena in complex environments, like the conditions given by the Out-Of-Africa-Hypothesis, a consideration of each individual actor being involved in the scenario is required.

Software Agents

Agent-Based Modeling and Simulation

Modeling Dispersal Processes

Environmental Abstraction

Challenges for Scaling Agent-Based Modeling

Conclusions

References

Chapter 3 An Agent-Based Model of Resource Distribution on Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Clumped Habitats Favor Lower Mobility, but Result in Higher Foraging Returns

Marco A. Janssen and Kim Hill

Chapter 4 Testing Brantingham's Neutral Model: The Effect of Spatial Clustering on Stone Raw Material Procurement

Simen Oestmo, Marco A. Janssen and Curtis W. Marean

Introduction

Test Case and Model Description

Mossel Bay Region

Model Description

Model Analysis Results and Discussion

Assuming 5000 Unique Raw Materials

Assuming 20 Unique Raw Materials

Archaeological Implications and Predictions

References

Chapter 5 Population Spread and Cultural Transmission in Neolithic Transitions

Joaquim Fort, Neus Isern, Antonieta Jerardino and Bernardo Rondelli

Introduction

Limitations of Fisher’s Model

Possible Forms of the Cultural Transmission Term

Chapter 6 Modelling Routeways in a Landscape of Esker and Bog

Yolande O’Brien and Stefan Bergh

Chapter 7 Modelling Cultural Shift: Application to Processes of Language Displacement

Neus Isern and Joaquim Fort

Cultural Shift and Language Shift

Processes of Language Shift

Modelling Language Shift

Moving Linguistic Borders

Application to a Modern Example of Language Shift

Conclusions

References

Chapter 8 Pathways for Scale and Discipline Reconciliation: Current Socio-Ecological Modelling Methodologies to Explore and Reconstitute Human Prehistoric Dynamics

Mehdi Saqalli and Tilman Baum

Introduction

Modelling Past Rural Environment-Society Systems

Modelling Environmentally-Constrained but Adaptable Society-Environment Systems

Modelling Innovative Societies in Its Environment

Building a Grid of Analysis for Expanding the Genericness of a Past Society-Environment Model

References

Chapter 9 Simulating Land Use of Prehistoric Wetland Settlements: Did Excessive Resource Use Necessitate a Highly Dynamic Settlement System?

Tilman Baum

Introduction

Regional and Archaeological Setting

The Economic System: Data and Hypotheses