Nitschke, Jessica and Nitschke, Geoff and Furman, Alexander and Cherry, Matthew (2017) Modeling Patterns of Wealth Disparity in Predynastic Upper Egypt, Proceedings of Fourteenth European Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems: Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 2017), Lyon, France, 322-323, MIT Press.
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Abstract
This study reports work in progress on an Agent-Based Model (ABM) that critically explores theories that have recently gained prominence in the study of Egyptian state formation. This study’s ABM focuses on wealth accumulation and loss in a simple agrarian society within an environment that simulates the Upper Egyptian landscape in ca. 4000 BC, when clear evidence of economic inequality amongst Upper Egyptian households can be observed in the archaeological record. The question this ABM explores is how entrenched inequality emerged in the Nile Valley given abundant natural resources were available to sustain the population. Understanding the establishment of permanent, entrenched inequality is crucial for exploring the development of social complexity and hierarchy.
| Item Type: | Conference paper |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Computing methodologies > Modeling and simulation |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Nov 2017 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Oct 2019 15:31 |
| URI: | http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/1182 |
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