CRI Fellow Stefani Crabtree and coauthors recently published a three-part series on using agent-based modeling in archaeology, out today in Advances in Archaeological Practice.
While archaeologists have been incorporating agent-based modeling in select research approaches, there have been no tutorials on how to use the tools specifically for modeling the past. This series brings together three case studies, followed by three step-by-step tutorials (see Supplemental Info for each article). The first paper presents the idea of why someone studying the past would want to use agent-based modeling. The second paper demonstrates how to incorporate realistic spatial data into a model. The third paper explores how agent-based modeling can be helpful for outreach, policy making, and teaching. This series aims to help those interested in incorporating computational modeling approaches into their research. And while the tutorials are archaeology-focused, the papers link to cross-disciplinary research and literature. Finally, by using open source packages the authors aim to link to open science and open education, promoting the core scientific principles at CRI.
