Aarhus University Seal

Cliodynamic archaeology – computational methods and cultural evolution across deep time

Talk by Felix Riede, School of Culture and Society - Archaeology

Info about event

Time

Tuesday 26 March 2019,  at 11:00 - 13:00

Location

IMC Meeting Room, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483-312

Organizer

AMP

Abstract

 

Computational methods are set to transform the humanities, including the historical sciences. Quantitative approaches to historical dynamics have been dubbed ‘cliodynamics’ and in this presentation I will present an outline of a coming project, funded generously by the European Research Council’s Consolidator Grant instrument, that extends such quantification into deep time. With the climatically turbulent period between 15,000 and 11,000 years ago in focus, I sketch how novel digital data capture methods allow us to track the dynamics of cultural transmission, which in turn facilitate the definition of epistemologically robust and replicable cultural ‘taxa’ through material culture proxies reflecting past communities of practice. Through a downstream integration with climatic models and eco-informatics, the precise relationship of these taxa to climatic and topographic factors can then be investigated at a European scale. Finally, these same methods also facilitate the search for new sites, and the field data generated there can be used to test prior model-based predictions.

  

About the speaker

Professor MSO Felix Riede, Dept. of Archaeology and Heritage Studies