Computational Models of Human Settlement Behavior: An Overview of Current Methods and Motivations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Computational models of human settlement have been noticeable features of intra- and interdisciplinary research for several decades, whether such models focus on the present day, on the historically documented near-present, or on deeper archaeological time scales. Now is a useful moment to revisit the pedigree of these different strands of research, as well as what problems and potential they hold today and what problems they seek to address in future. This paper leaves to one side those models primarily concerned with the “pure prediction” of past settlement intensity (e.g., those intended to predict and protect dwindling heritage resources: a very important but different objective), and instead will take stock of where we are in terms of developing computational models that help us understand issues such as changing locational priorities in the past, the emergence or disintegration of settlement sizes and hierarchy, altered subsistence or territorial strategies, or indeed patterns of short- or long-distance cultural and economic interaction. Emerging from an exciting and diverse range of settlement modeling applications today are also several persistent challenges in urgent need of wider debate.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Regional Settlement Networks Analysis: A Global Comparison

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33257