Front cover image for An enchantment of digital archaeology : raising the dead with agent-based models, archaeogaming and artificial intelligence

An enchantment of digital archaeology : raising the dead with agent-based models, archaeogaming and artificial intelligence

Shawn Graham (Author)
The use of computation in archaeology is a kind of magic, a way of heightening the archaeological imagination. Agent-based modelling allows archaeologists to test the 'just-so' stories they tell about the past. It requires a formalization of the story so that it can be represented as a simulation; researchers are then able to explore the unintended consequences or emergent outcomes of stories about the past. Agent-based models are one end of a spectrum that, at the opposite side, ends with video games. This volume explores this spectrum in the context of Roman archaeology, addressing the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of a formalized approach to computation and archaeogaming

eBook, English, 2020
Berghahn Books, New York, NY, 2020