Agent Based Modelling in Archaeology- When Will It Get Complex?
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2016-04-08

Archaeologists were one of the first groups to embrace agent based modelling (ABM). For several decades now we have been modelling the past with ABM. In that time our models have become much bigger – more agents, larger study areas, more detailed data, 100x more computing power, etc. But, our models are not any more complex than they were decades ago, with some exceptions. Archaeology AB models tend to focus on modelling one or two variables for very specific times and spaces. Enough agents interacting can create the semblance of complex outcomes but they do not learn in the process and as such most ABM do no model complex systems. This paper examines the challenges to creating agents in ABM that learn and base their interactions upon past interactions. It will offer some solutions to these challenges and the potential implications of this work for archaeology and modelling the past.