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Explaining the Past with ABM: On Modelling Philosophy

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Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology

Part of the book series: Advances in Geographic Information Science ((AGIS))

Abstract

This chapter discusses some of the conceptual issues surrounding the use of agent-based modelling in archaeology. Specifically, it addresses three questions: Why use agent-based simulation? Does specifically agent-based simulation imply a particular view of the world? How do we learn by simulating? First, however, it will be useful to provide a brief introduction to agent-based simulation and how it relates to archaeological simulation more generally. Some readers may prefer to return to this chapter after having read a more detailed account of an exemplar (Chap. 2) or of the technology (Chap. 3). Textbooks on agent-based modelling include Grimm and Railsback [(2005) Individual-based modeling and ecology, Princeton University Press, Princeton] and Railsback and Grimm [(2012) Agent-based and individual-based modeling: a practical introduction, Princeton University Press, Princeton], both aimed at ecologists, the rather briefer [Gilbert (2008) Agent-based models. Quantitative applications in the social sciences, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA], aimed at sociologists, and [Ferber (1999) Multi-agent systems: an introduction to distributed artificial intelligence, English edn. Addison-Wesley, Harlow], which treats agent-based simulation from the perspective of artificial intelligence and computer science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although agent-based modelling also has semi-independent roots in ecological modelling, where, as individual-based modelling the initial focus was on the importance of organism heterogeneity and spatial localism (DeAngelis and Gross 1992, p.xv).

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Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Gabriel Wurzer and Kerstin Kowarik for inviting me to contribute to this volume and also for their hospitality in Vienna during the 2011 trans-disciplinary workshop Agents in Archaeology. I am also grateful to many others with whom I have debated the pros and cons of agent-based modelling and/or who have invited me to present or discuss agent-based models in various workshops and conferences over the years, notably: Ariane Burke, Mark Collard, Andre Costopoulos, Enrico Crema, Tim Kohler, Marco Madella, Steven Mithen, Luke Premo, Bernado Rondelli and James Steele.

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  1. UCL Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, London, UK

    Mark W. Lake

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Correspondence to Mark W. Lake .

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  1. Digital Architecture and Planning (E259.1), Institute of Architectural Sciences, Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Gabriel Wurzer

  2. Prehistory, Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Kerstin Kowarik

  3. Prehistory, Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Hans Reschreiter

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Lake, M.W. (2015). Explaining the Past with ABM: On Modelling Philosophy. In: Wurzer, G., Kowarik, K., Reschreiter, H. (eds) Agent-based Modeling and Simulation in Archaeology. Advances in Geographic Information Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00008-4_1

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