Apologies for cross-posting!

Dear all,

We would like to draw your attention to a workshop on agent-based modelling in archaeology as part of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference

Ever wondered what all this complex systems talk in archaeology is about, or how to design your own sophisticated simulation model? Then this might be for you:

We will organise a workshop on complex systems and agent-based simulations models in archaeology at the CAA Conference in Perth, Australia, this March. Places are still available but Early Bird Registration to the conference ends on Thursday February 7th, so hurry up to get a discount! The workshop itself is free of charge.

The workshop will take place on Monday March 25th and will consist of a morning and an afternoon session. At the end of the day you will be able to design and program your own simulation model to help you answer your research questions in archaeology or related social sciences - guaranteed ...

Registration for the conference at:

http://www.caa2013.org/drupal/registration

Registration to the workshop will be announced on the CAA website soon, but you can already reserve a seat by contacting Carolin at [log in to unmask]

For further information see the abstract below. A flyer with a detailed programme is attached.

Hope to see you there.

Best wishes,

Carolin, Iza, Tom and Eugene

Carolin Vegvari (Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
Iza Romanowska (Institute for Complex Systems Simulation, University of Southampton)
Tom Brughmans (Archaeological Computing Research Group, University of Southampton)
Eugene Ch'ng (IBM Visual and Spatial Technology Centre, University of Birmingham)

WORKSHOP ABSTRACT

W1:     Complex Systems and Agent-Based Modelling in Archaeology
Chairs: E. Ch'ng, C. Vegvari
Discussants: I. Romanowska, T. Brughmans

Modelling in various forms has always been an integral part of archaeology.
In the broadest sense, archaeology is the study of human activities in the
past, and a model is a simplified representation of reality. As a map is a
useful abstract of the physical world that allows us to see aspects of the
world we chose to, so a computational model distils reality into a few key
features, leaving out unnecessary details so as to let us see connections.
Human societies in their environmental context can be considered as complex
systems. Complex systems are systems with many interacting parts, they are
found in every hierarchy of the universe, from the molecular level to large
planetary systems within which life and humanity with its cultural
developments occur. Formal modelling can help archaeologists to identify
the relationships between elements within a complex socio-environmental
system in that particular hierarchy. Simulating large populations and
non-linear interactions are computationally expensive. In recent years,
however, the introduction of new mathematical techniques, rapid advances in
computation, and modelling tools has greatly enhanced the potential of
complex systems analysis in archaeology. Agent-Based Modelling (ABM) is one
of these new methods and has become highly popular with archaeologists. In
Agent-Based Modelling, human individuals in ancient societies are modelled
as individual agents. The interaction of agents with each other and with
their environment can give rise to emergent properties and
self-organisation at the macro level - the distribution of wealth within a
society, the forming of cohesive groups, population movements in climate
change, the development of culture, and the evolution of landscape use are
among the examples. Thus, the application of Agent-Based Models to
hypothesis testing in archaeology becomes part of the question. The ability
to construct various models and run hundreds of simulation in order to see
the general developmental trend can provide us with new knowledge
impossible in traditional approaches. Another advantage of agent-based
models over other mathematical methods is that they can easily model, or
capture heterogeneity within these systems, such as the different
characteristics (personalities, gender, age, size, etc), preferences
(coastal, in-land, food, fashion), and dynamics (microstates of position
and orientation).

We would like to invite archaeologists new to complex systems and
Agent-Based Modelling for an introductory workshop on Complex Systems and
Agent-Based Modelling in archaeology. The workshop introduces the concept
of Complexity in archaeology, drawing relationships between Information,
Computation and Complexity. The practicality of the workshop leads
beginners in building simple agent- based models and provides a means to
build more complex simulations after. Participants knowledgeable in
Complexity wishing to gain insights on real-world applications of
Complexity will benefit from this workshop. Participants will get the
opportunity to experiment with simple models and draw conclusions from
analysis of simulations of those models. Programming experience is not
required as the workshop leads beginners from the ground up in modelling
tools.






Tom

PhD student
Archaeological Computing Research Group
University of Southampton
http://archaeologicalnetworks.wordpress.com/
http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/