While many of the examples in this book focus on the current day, one area of active research for agent-based modelling in archaeology. Perhaps one of the most iconic agent-based models of past societies is the Artificial Anasazi model by Axtell et al. (2002). In this model, the population dynamics of Kayenta Anasazi in Long House Valley, Arizona between 800 and 1350 AD was simulated. Axtell et al. (2002) were able to closely capture changes in the population along the changing settlement patterns over time which match the archaeological record.
While the links to the original model are not active, several replications of the model including one in Ascape (http://ascape.sourceforge.net/), a Java based agent-based modelling toolkit created by Miles Parker, who was also the original programmer. However, the one we show in the Figure below is by Janssen (2009) which replicates the model via NetLogo.
Graphical user interface of the Understanding Artifcial Anasazi Model.
Model Available at: https://www.openabm.org/model/2222/
Reference:
Janssen, M.A. (2009), 'Understanding Artificial Anasazi', Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 12(4), Available at http://jasss.soc.surrey.ac.uk/12/4/13.html.