Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Evaluating how and why people traveled between two points across the sea has been an integral interest of archaeologists for many years. These efforts have expanded with the digital age, looking towards computer modeling to answer questions about both the earliest efforts in human exploration as well as more recent migration patterns. However, due to its ad-hoc nature, researchers have developed several different methods for tracing past water mobility. The lack of a dedicated forum has made it difficult to discuss challenges that face the field at large. This session will be a platform to broach concerns and successes in modeling. This session invites those who have worked to re-trace past sea, river, or lake movement through computer modeling to discuss their methods, including any adaption or adoption of techniques that have been developed by researchers in the past 10 years. By bringing water-movement modelers together, there can be a broader conversation around the ‘how to’ and ‘why’ of evaluating past movement that can help to clarify new standards and interests within the modeling community.