NASSA goes Europe! So…ESA?
Ever wondered what would happen if you brought thousands of archaeologists together in the same city? No need to wonder. The experiment is conducted every year at the annual conference of the EAA. This year, Budapest was the happy recipient. All bars and restaurants in the vicinity stocked up their supplies because the archaeologists were coming and there is nothing we love more than talking about dirt over drinks and good food with our friends.
Naturally, NASSA members were present in numbers amongst the hordes of archaeologists roaming around the venue and the city. We again organised two sessions, one regular session titled “Agent-based modelling of socio-ecological systems in Archaeology. Towards a new research community”, chaired by Dries Daems, Philip Verhagen, and Iza Romanowska; and a roundtable titled “Towards an open platform for computer simulations of past socio-ecological systems”, chaired by Philip Verhagen, Dries Daems, Iza Romanowska, and Martin Hinz. Compared to CAA, the main advantage of these sessions was that it brought together modellers and non-modellers alike to brainstorm about the current state and future directions of modelling approaches in archaeology. In particular, the input given in the questionnaires distributed during the roundtable will be useful for creating a models library as a key resource for modelling in archaeology in years to come.
by “Dries Daems”
