Building our Neighborhood – Population Aggregation and Social Complexity Dynamics: Community Formation and Settlement Networks in Southeastern Cyprus from the Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age periods

Communities are complex social systems whose dynamics and emergent outcomes can only be
explained by contextualization in time and space. This fundamental PhD fellowship proposes an
interdisciplinary exploration of population aggregation, community formation, and settlement
nucleation in southeastern Cyprus from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age (ca. 1750 – 750
BCE). The project's innovative methodology aims to advance the integration of computational
methods in archaeological research and contribute to a deeper understanding of ancient societal
dynamics in a global perspective. It aims to bridge the gap in current research by employing complex
systems theory and computational modelling, specifically agent-based models, to explore the
dynamic processes underlying population aggregation, community formation, and settlement
nucleation. The fundamental and innovative building block of the proposed project is a bottom-up
approach where empirical archaeological datasets of regional settlement patterns and material
culture are integrated into simulations. This way, the project aims to understand the dynamic
processes and socio-cultural forces behind prehistoric community development. A case study in
southeastern Cyprus will serve as the empirical basis for building the datasets and testing
hypotheses related to social interactions, environmental factors, and the emergence of social
complexity.