Unusual timing in summer, but we’re ready to take Oxford by storm for CAA 2022
For all things digital and computational, there is one event we hold dear above all others: CAA. After seeing the event cancelled in 2020 and held entirely online in 2021, we were excited to finally find ourselves in Oxford for the first hybrid CAA conference. While in-person attendance was relatively low and technical issues were more prevalent than one might have hoped from a conference of digital savants, it felt great to finally meet friends and colleagues again. Watching presenters showing off their latest research, chatting over coffee and biscuits, sharing lunch and holding wild evening discussions over a beer, the conference experience was finally back.
Of course, we were not only there to soak in the atmosphere. We had work to do as well. A lot of it. NASSA organized two sessions: a roundtable session titled “Towards an open platform for computer simulations of past socioecological systems”, chaired by NASSA members Philip Verhagen, Iza Romanowska, and Dries Daems, and a regular session on “Formal modelling and models of social complexity”, chaired by NASSA member Iza Romanowska together with Claudio Cioffi-Revilla. The regular session showed the wide breadth of simulation approaches currently applied in archaeology, whereas the roundtable brought together a wide range of computational archaeologists to brainstorm about the future of modelling approaches in archaeology. The NASSA crew was well-represented in a wide number of presentations across other sessions as well. All in all, it was a highly fruitful event that generated lots of new ideas that we will want to explore in the future. Stay tuned!
In-person and online attendees of the CAA annual meeting in Oxford have enjoyed not one, but TWO NASSA-flavoured sessions!
We thank the effort of our (very active) members involved in organising them!
Session 06. Towards an open platform for computer simulations of past socioecological systems
Organisers:
- Philip Verhagen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Iza Romanowska, Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University
- Dries Daems, Middle East Technical University
- Clemens Schmid, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH), Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA)
Abstract:
Archaeologists are increasingly relying on computer simulations to reconstruct and understand past societies. They are successfully building and running simulations of agrarian production, trade, settlement development and movement, to name a few. The current state of the field, however, is characterised by idiosyncrasy and limited communication and integration of the community, hampering the ability of modellers to cumulatively build on each other’s work. This is predominantly due to the lack of appropriate tools and platforms enabling closer integration.
To remedy this situation, the NAS2A project (Network for Agent-based modelling of Socioecological Systems in Archaeology; https://archaeology-abm.github.io/NASA/) is developing an open library of model algorithms and code for modelling of socio-ecological systems in archaeology. It aims to redefine current practices in collaboration and synergy in modelling communities by developing an openly available and functional models library, offering a host of elements (modules, techniques, algorithms, how-to’s/wikis etc.) as modular building blocks for elaborate and case-driven models and research questions.
In this roundtable we will present the results of the project’s first results towards developing the necessary infrastructure and standards, and invite feedback from the roundtable audience. In particular, we want to address the following questions:
- how can we ensure that model elements can be used for a wide range ofresearch questions?
- how can we facilitate interaction, comparison and testing of models across platforms and programming languages?
- how can we achieve a sustainable infrastructure for this?
- and what more is needed to make simulation modelling accessible to a wider community of archaeologists?
Session 12. Formal modelling and models of social complexity – in concepts, numbers, equations and agents (Part 2)
Organisers:
- Iza Romanowska, Aarhus Insitute of Advanced Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
- Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, George Mason University, USA
Abstract:
CAA has a historically long tradition fostering formal theory and research on social complexity, building on earlier foundations by social scientists (including archaeologists), mathematicians, and computer scientists. These approaches proliferated in archaeology as they helped researchers to understand past societies, their evolution, transformations and strategies in new and exciting ways. This stands in contrast to the rapid empirical shift whereby researchers increasingly invest in data-intensive approaches and digital means of analysing them. As a result, we are seeing a significant rise in robust and more mature scientific practices in archaeology for examining past peoples and their polities in a systematic, formal, testable, and reproducible way.
Modelling links data and, in particular, trends in data to causal processes (whether social, natural, cultural, etc) that gave rise to them. While data analysis answers such questions as “what?”,”where?”, “when?” or “how many?”, modelling focuses on “why?” and “how?” making the two approaches complementary and in many cases necessary if the goal is to understand long-term trajectories of human groups.
This session is dedicated to archaeological models of all types: conceptual, mathematical, or computational. To stimulate a discussion on the role of models and modelling in archaeology we hope to encourage wider use of formal methodologies, in particular, computational models. The goals of this session are:
- To showcase the best applications of different forms of formal modelling to archaeological questions concerned with social complexity. This can include but is not limited to agent-based models, mathematical models, spatial and statistical models, formal ontologies etc.
- To exchange new and exciting avenues of research such as new modelling methods, surprising applications of models from other disciplines, or new techniques and tools that other modellers should be aware of.
- To discuss the “academic outreach” of the modelling community and explore innovative ways of teaching, presenting, and using formal models in and outside of the world of academia.
While the format of the session calls for standard 20-minute presentations we will happily consider alternative formats, such as software demos, coordinated discussions over pilot studies or even interpretative dance. We will encourage participants to share publications, drafts, data, and code prior to the event so that participants can engage in a more informed and meaningful exchange at the conference venue.
Papers addressing the following themes and other investigations of social complexity origins and pre-modern phases are sought for this session:
- Formal models of social complexity, whether computational or mathematical
a) Agent-based models of the emergence of social complexity (With or without geospatial landscapes)
b) Mathematical models of social complexity formative phases- Computational or mathematical tools for analysis of long-term patterns of social complexity
a) Braudelian long-duree
b) Cycling patterns of social complexity
c) Long-range geospatial analysis of social complexity
d) Spatiotemporal hyperspatial models of social complexity- Formal conceptual analysis of social complexity
a) Use of computational tools such as UML, SysML, and other formalism for conceptual analysis
b) Network-theoretic models of social complexity
c) Comparative conceptual analysis of social complexity using formal methods- Formative phases of social complexity
- Social complexity in comparative perspective: cross-polity analysis
- Data sonification for social complexity
Program:
- Foraging communities: How to model social complexity by Reschke*, Hertler, Hoelzchen, Puspaningrum, Anwar and Ngetich
- Hunter-gatherer role in vegetation change during the last and current interglacials in Europe: agent-based modelling by Nikulina*, Scherjon, MacDonald, Zapolska, Serge, Davoli, Pearce, van Wees and Roebroeks
- Agent-based model to simulate desert kite complex reality: An incremental method to reconstruct mechanisms and dynamics of past hunting strategies by Castiello*, Rey-Coyrehourcq, Banos, Mathian, Barge, Crassard, Chahoud and Vila
- Applying fractal analysis on settlement plans for assessing degrees of village planning and household autonomy (Poster) by Bruvoll*
- An Agent-based model of pre-Columbian land-use in the Monumental Mound region of Amazonian Bolivia (Poster) by Hirst*, Mayle, Singarayer and Lombardo
- Foodways, nutrition, and demography in the Indus Village model by Angourakis*, Bates, Suryanarayan and Petrie
- Testing the extent to which the circumscription theory can explain the emergence of social complexity in the Valley of Oaxaca using an agent-based modelling approach by Williams* and Mesoudi
- Modelling the spatial diffusion of past populations: A cellular automata approach by Hewitt*
- MINERVA: Modelling the Roman economy by Pažout* and Brughmans
- Archaeo-riddle: A collaborative project to test the accuracy of archaeological inference by Cortell-Nicolau*, Carrignon, Brainerd, Simmons, Lewis and Crema
by Andreas Angourakis and Dries Daems
