We are pleased to invite you all to our session #545: Challenging the models: Reflections of reality? at the EAA meeting in September 2018 in Barcelona!

Currently modelling is a central part of archaeological behavioural research. Many papers focus on the ability to extract the reflections of past social interactions and structures from a variety of archaeological and environmental sources. Especially in the light of highly theoretic archaeological modelling in pre- and proto history this often leads to environmentally driven, Darwinian like models, devoid of cognitive human factors, fuzzy decision making, and the possibility of non-rational choice. Considering all implemented assumptions required for social interaction models we have to question whether a model might be too complex to operate on the basis of our data. Has it entered the vicious circle of self-affirmation? Are our models questioning our own lack of knowledge? Where are we on an epistemic-ontic scale?

In our session we wish to address and discuss current problems in archaeological behavioural modelling. Questions tackled might include:
• whether we are creating Processualism 2.0?
• how narratives are encoded in models, as discussed from a theoretical, methodological or practical viewpoint?
• how the inclusion of social theory and the fuzziness of human decision making alters the results from a model?
• what is the impact of assumptions on modelling results?
• what is the impact of archaeological data on a model’s outcome?
• how we can use inherent capabilities and inabilities of models to better interpret and narrate our approximations of reality?


To submit an abstract for our session (# 545) please visit:
https://eaa.klinkhamergroup.com/eaa2018/

Deadline for submissions: 15th February 2018
For any questions regarding our session please contact: [log in to unmask]

We look forward to your contributions,
Chiara Girotto (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Tim Evans (Imperial College London)
Ray Rivers (Imperial College London)