Outlook

The archaeological application of computer simulation is undoubtedly undergoing something of a reconnaissance, fueled in large part by the development of new technologies which facilitate the use of simulation to address current theoretical concerns, but also by the increasing use of simulation in related disciplines such as sociology and, of course, the ever Decreasing price of computing power (see Paleoanthropology, Computer-Assisted). Recent moves to couple spatially explicit agent-based models and cellular automata with ‘geographical information systems’ look especially promising for archaeological purposes and are generating considerable excitement. In addition, it is only a matter of time before archaeological agent-based models incorporate explicit ‘cognitive architectures’ such as those implemented in recently developed toolkits like Jason and JessAgent. Given the range of technologies now available (from simple spreadsheets through to geographically situated agents who reason using an ‘expert system’) it is likely that simulation will continue to be used tactically, for hypothesis building and heuristically. It is equally likely that there will continue to be healthy debate about the relative merits of simplification versus realism in archaeological simulation.

See also: Paleoanthropology, Computer-Assisted; Processual Archaeology; Social Inequality, Development of.