Simulating Prehistoric and Ancient Worlds

“It offers a synthesis of agent-based modeling to date, provides multiple well-developed case studies, and contributes to the literature on formal models in archaeology by demonstrating the utility of simulation. … From Barceló and del Castillo’s encyclopedic introduction, to each of the well-developed case studies, this volume adds to a growing field and will be useful for archaeologists and computer scientists interested in prehistory.” (Stefani Crabtree, JASSS The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 20 (2), March, 2017)

• Simulating the Human Past for Understanding the Present. A critical review.- Multi-Scale Agent-Based Simulation of Long-Term Dispersal Processes: Towards a Sophisticated Simulation Model of Hominin Dispersal.- An Agent-Based Model of Resource Distribution on Hunter-Gatherer Foraging Strategies: Clumped Habitats Favor Lower Mobility, but Result in Higher Foraging Returns.- Testing Brantingham’s Neutral Model: The Effect of Spatial Clustering on Stone Raw Material Procurement.- Population Spread and Cultural Transmission in Neolithic Transitions.- Modelling Routeways in a Landscape of Esker and Bog.- Modelling Cultural Shift: Application to Processes of Language Displacement.- Pathways for Scale and Discipline Reconciliation: Current Sociological Modelling Methodologies to Explore and Reconstitute Human Prehistoric Dynamics.- Simulating Land Use of Prehistoric Wetland Settlements: Did Excessive Resource Use Necessitate a Highly Dynamic Settlement System?.- Revisiting the DynamicsBetween two Ancient Japanese Descent Groups: What happened from the Jomon to the Yayoi Periods in Japan.- Cultural and Genetic Transmission in the Jomon-Yayoi Transition Examined in Agent-Based Demographic Simulation.- Economic Sustainability in Relation to Demographic Decline of Celtic Agglomerations in Central Europe – Multiple-Scenario Approach.- Zambeziland: A Canonical Theory and Agent-Based Model of Polity Cycling in the Zambezi Plateau, Southern Africa.- Personalities, Physiology, Institutions and Genetics: Simulating Ancient Societies with Intelligent Virtual Agents.