Theme:
2. Archaeological Sciences, Humanities and the Digital era: Bridging the Gaps
Title:
Modelling as Collective Undertaking: Best Practices in Building an Open Access Library for Agent-based Modelling in Archaeology
Content:
Archaeologists are increasingly relying on computer simulations to reconstruct and understand past societies. They are successfully building and running simulations of agrarian production, trade, settlement development and movement, to name a few. While methods such as agent-based modelling are increasingly carving out space, further integration with the broader discipline remains hampered due to limitations in technical skills and the lack of possibilities for modellers to cumulatively build on each other's work. This is predominantly due to the lack of appropriate tools and platforms enabling closer integration.
To remedy this situation, the NAS2A project (Network for Agent-based modelling of Socio-ecological Systems in Archaeology; https://archaeology-abm.github.io/NASSA-hub/) is developing an open library of model algorithms and code for modelling of socio-ecological systems in archaeology. It aims to redefine current practices in collaboration and synergy in modelling communities by developing an openly available and functional models library, offering a host of elements (modules, techniques, algorithms, how-to’s/wikis etc.) as modular building blocks for elaborate and case-driven models and research questions. In this roundtable, we will present the project’s first results towards developing the necessary infrastructure and standards, discuss and update current best practices, provide hands-on practice with creating and submitting modules to the open library, and stimulate general discussion centred around the following questions:
1) How can we ensure that model elements can be used for a wide range of research questions?
2) How can we facilitate interaction, comparison and testing of models across platforms and programming languages?
3) How can we achieve a sustainable infrastructure for this?
4) How can we teach modellers to submit their modules to the open library?
5) What more is needed to make simulation modelling accessible to a wider community of archaeologists?
Keywords:
computational modelling, digital archaeology, open science, simulations, models library
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
yes
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
EAA Community: Computational Modelling of Socio-ecological Systems (COMPS)
Main organiser:
Dries Daems (Turkey) 1
Co-organisers:
Philip Verhagen (Netherlands) 2
Affiliations:
1. KU Leuven
2. VU Amsterdam
THIS SESSION CAN NOT BE SELECTED AT THIS MOMENT