Modeling Settlement Systems in a dynamic Environment, Case Studies from Mesopotamia

Citation: Wilkinson, Tony J. Et al. (1997) Modeling Settlement Systems in a dynamic Environment, Case Studies from Mesopotamia. Timothy A. Kohler / Sander E. van der Leeuw (eds.), The Model-Based Archaeology of Socionatural Systems. Pp. 175-208. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press (RSS)
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Summary

Wilkinson et al. researched state level society in Mesopotamia in the Near East by using agent-based modeling in order to incorporate a wide range of interacting process. They focus on the bottom-up processes that the state formation resulted from the growth of early settlements. That it, they emphasized the basic subsistence economy rather than the developed political economy. Before applying model, they collected the environmental data relative to the development of state, such as route system, which can reveal the interexchange network, and environment fluctuations, which might impact this region.

Wilkinson et al. viewed the individual as a member of a patriarchal household as “agent”, because household is the fundamental social and economic unit in the ancient Near East, and it is the basis of subsistence economy. In addition to households, exchange network, accumulation and distribution of wealth, and dissemination of information also serve as important proxies to examine state formation. The input data contains the basic processes of everyday life and the behaviors of the individual agents. The factors include the size of households, components of the agricultural and pastoral economy. All of the data will be represented in a quantitative way.

The data comes from archaeological excavations, ethnoarchaeology, cuneiform texts, historical documents, and landscape data. In addition to basic subsistence economy based on household, they also collected the information from single settlement system located at Tell Beydar in northern Syriawhich. This settlement system includes 82 sites, and can serve as a proxy for political economy. After setting up the data, they used agent-based models to capture the dynamics interaction between natural processes and social processes within this system. Each agent in the simulation governs their own behavior based on the local rules and in response to its own preferences, capabilities, perceptions, and goals.

The results of one-hundred year simulation shows that the population rose about 41percent, the number of households increased 46 percent, and the settlement had more supply of grain than they needed. Moreover, the result also provides so called “Household diary”, which provides fine-scale detail of every day life of each household, such as the number of member, and the condition of the basic economy. The authors conclude that this simulation is helpful to understand household dynamics and how settlements evolved through time.