Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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.

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-7 of 7)

  • Documents (7)

Documents
  • Adding Navigating Capabilities to a Deterministic Computer Model of Ocean Voyaging (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Alvaro Montenegro.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since pioneering efforts in the 1970’s, computer models that simulate vessel displacement have contributed useful information to the debate around several historical and archaeological problems. Existing models can be separated into two categories. In stochastic models, wind and current values are based on a probabilistic description of these...

  • Comparison of Circuit and Least Cost Path Modeling for Maritime Peopling of the Americas (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Robert Gustas.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite much recent scholarship there is still much to learn about the exact method, route, and timing of the Peopling of the New World. Geographic Information System (GIS) based analytical methods provide opportunities to model where and when coastal peopling events could have taken place. I will compare the results of traditional Least Cost Path...

  • The Highways and Byways of the Winds: Exploring Sailing Capability and Climate Variability in Pacific Interaction (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Davies.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Current debates over migration and mobility in Pacific prehistory hinge on the capacity of mariners to sail to windward. With this ability, voyages between any two points were possible, with ease of travel conditioned on the favorability of winds. Without it, movement in any given direction was dependent on winds traveling along a similar path, a...

  • Modeling Mobility in Inland Waters (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Adam Benfer.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. While rivers, lakes, lagoons, and estuaries were commonly navigated in prehistory, the only well-established methods for modeling aquatic human movement are restricted to the open sea. A small handful of researchers have proposed methods and/or attempted to simulate travel in rivers and lakes, but these methods have not been consolidated into a...

  • Navigating the Neolithic of the North Western Approaches (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Crystal El Safadi. Fraser Sturt.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The dynamics behind the development of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland has been a topic of debate for over one hundred years. At its heart lie a series of different conceptions as to the nature of connectivity across the seaways of North West Europ. Neolithic practices in Britain are evidenced c. 1000 years later than their arrival in north-west...

  • Putting a Man in the Machine: Experimental Archaeology and Computational Modeling (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Benoit Berard.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In recent years, numerous studies have shown the importance of the links that existed between the various islands of the Caribbean archipelago in pre-Columbian times. The notion of connection has thus become the central paradigm of the approach of these island but not isolated societies. Thus, until now little addressed, the question of assessing the...

  • There and Back: An Evaluation of Modeling Pre-sail Seafaring Exchange Routes (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Emma Slayton.

    This is an abstract from the "Modeling Mobility across Waterbodies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In the field of modeling water-based movement, many researchers have focused on modeling colonization or larger migration patterns. However, longer and more exploratory voyages encompasses only part of humanity’s use of sea travel. Evaluating closely connected sea-oriented communities can provide key insights into the everyday nature of sea movement,...