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