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Utilizing agent-based modeling to gain new insights into the ancient minoan civilization

Georgios Chalkiadakis

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Summary

In this paper we develop an agent-based model to study land use, settle- ment, and social organization patterns at a particular region of the island of Crete during the Bronze Age. Considering farming as the main activity for sustaining the early Minoan civilization, we evaluate the impact of dif- ferent social organization models and agricultural strategies on population viability and spatial distribution of settlement locations over a 2000 year period. Interestingly, one of the social models examined promotes the tar- geted redistribution of wealth, and is inspired by a recent framework for self-organizing agent organizations. Model parameters are based on ar- chaeological studies, but are not biased towards any specific assumption. Results over a number of different simulation scenarios demonstrate an im- pressive sustainability for settlements adopting a socio-economic organiza- tion model based on self-organization; while the emerging “stratified” pop- ulations are larger than their egalitarian counterparts. This provides sup- port for theories proposing the existence of different social strata in early Bronze Age Crete, considering them a pre-requisite for the emergence of the complex social structure evident in later periods. Moreover, observed population dispersion agrees with existing archaeological evidence.

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