Modelling prehispanic Pueblo societies in their ecosystems

We review a suite of agent-based models developed by the Village Ecodynamics Project (VEP) to study ecological, economic, social, and political processes among prehispanic Puebloan (“Anasazi”) populations in the Northern US Southwest in the context of a dynamic natural environment. Collectively these models shed light on processes that include the local intensification of turkey raising, the emergence of complex societies in this region, and the complete depopulation of the Northern Southwest in the thirteenth-century AD. Quantitative computational modelling contributes to the explanatory goals of a scientific archaeology and such models should eventually provide standards allowing for more rigorous comparison of distinct archaeological sequences.

► ABM integrate social and environmental processes in a unified model.
► ABM complements traditional inductive archaeological research strategies.
► These models help us to understand why hierarchical societies emerge.
► Why turkey use was greatly intensified.
► Why all Pueblo farmers left this area in the AD 1200s, among other phenomena.