Network for
Agent-based modelling of
Socio-ecological
Systems in
Archaeology

Who are we?

The Network for Agent-based modelling of Socio-ecological Systems in Archaeology (NASSA) is a research network funded by the Research Foundation Flanders Scientific Research Network Funding (W001220N-3H200066) with the goal to gather an international, interdisciplinary group of researchers to collect and compile agent-based modelling (ABM) elements (implementation modules, techniques, approaches, etc.) and organise them as an open modelling library.

The targets of this network are:

  1. identify and compile crucial modelling topics for the library;
  2. collect and develop best practices and modelling guidelines;
  3. develop tools for interoperability following the FAIR principles;
  4. guarantee sustainability of the library;
  5. create a structure for international collaboration resulting in joint publications within the network.

Join us at nassaabm@googlegroups.com (Google Groups) or by contacting Andreas Angourakis.

Coordination and membership

Coordinators

Andreas Angourakis
Andreas Angourakis

Ruhr University Bochum and University of Cologne

Computational archaeologist with a strong background in humanities and social sciences, specialising in simulating socioecological systems from the past. His main concern is to tackle meaningful theoretical questions about human behaviour and social institutions and their role in the biosphere, as documented by history and archaeology. His research focuses specifically on how social behaviour reflects long-term historical processes, especially those concerning food systems in past small-scale societies.
Clemens Schmid
Clemens Schmid

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Researcher specialised on computational methods for the integrated, large-scale, and primarily spatio-temporal analysis of archaeological, ancient genomic, and linguistic data. He is currently working between the Departments of Archaeogenetics and Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany).
Dries Daems
Dries Daems

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Archaeologist specializing in the Iron Age to Hellenistic Mediterranean. His research interests include social complexity, urbanism, connectivity and information exchange, artisanal production, and human-environment interactions through computational modeling and pottery studies. He is currently Assistant Professor at VU Amsterdam and Visiting Professor at Helsinki University. He has held positions at KU Leuven, Koç University, and Middle East Technical University.
Iza Romanowska
Iza Romanowska

Aarhus University

Associate Professor at the Social Resilience Lab, Center for Humanities Computing, Aarhus University.
Philip Verhagen
Philip Verhagen

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

associate professor at the Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, specialized in computer applications and quantitative methods in archaeology, with an emphasis on GIS, spatial analysis and modelling. He has been Publication Officer of Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods from 2011-2016, and is currently Managing Editor of the Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology. Since 1 January 2018, dr. Verhagen is Scientific Director of ARCHON, the Dutch Research School for Archaeology.

Institutional memberships

Research units currently active in NASSA are: