an NSF supported program

Village Ecodynamics Project

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The late A.D. 1200s depopulation of the Mesa Verde region of the American Southwest is one of the great mysteries of American archaeology. Deserted Cliff DwellingsMany mechanisms have been proposed to account for this rapid out-migration of regional populations. Most suggest increasingly severe resource imbalances across a densely populated landscape. Some accepted research, however, shows that potential maize production was sufficient to support the estimated populations of the time. If these populations emigrated due to resource scarcity, then scarcity of other resources must have contributed to decisions to leave. On the other hand, there are hints of important changes in sociopolitical organization just prior to the depopulation.

This famous depopulation is one of the riddles that the Village Project addresses. The project was undertaken to examine the interaction of simulated agrarian households with their natural environment taking in to account the production and consumption of various natural resources essential for everyday life. By evaluating the possibility of crises in factors such as potable water, woody fuels, and protein, this research will help determine whether resource factors were in fact critical in these decisions, or whether social factors may have largely influenced the exodus.

See our Research Plan for other problems we are addressing.

VEP meeting on the Pajarito Plateau

Submitted by stefani.crabtree on Wed, 09/01/2010 - 14:18

group photo VEP
VEP researchers enjoying the view, see below for names
On August 16th I touched down in New Mexico for a two-day meeting with Village Ecodynamics Project collaborators. These face-to-face experiences are essential for maintaining the collaborations that make this project possible. This time the meetings were not just in the boardroom—a full day was dedicated to visiting sites on the Pajarito Plateau north of Bandelier National Monument. As a graduate student new to this project, I found these visits were especially useful.

VEP Researchers Publish New Book on Depopulation of the Northern Southwest

Submitted by tako on Wed, 08/11/2010 - 09:30

Leaving Mesa Verde
Leaving Mesa Verde
Leaving Mesa Verde: Peril and Change in The Thirteenth-Century Southwest has just been released by the University of Arizona Press. Edited by Tim Kohler, Mark Varien, and Aaron Wright, this volume is the result of an advanced seminar held at the Amerind Foundation in February 2008. Its 14 chapters (most involving VEP-affiliated researchers) include commentaries by Cathy Cameron, University of Colorado, and Jeff Dean, University of Arizona. This is the most comprehensive treatment available on the timing and causes for the famous depopulation of the northern Southwest in the AD 1200s. Please see the University of Arizona Press for more details.

Agent-based Modeling

Since the 1990s there has been a marked increase in interest in computational approaches—including simulation—by social science researchers. This appears to be driven both by a cross-disciplinary interest in the sciences of complexity and the ever-increasing computational capacity at our disposal.

In the past, due to the complexity of the phenomena involved, we have been forced to use simplistic world models. Today we are able to study a world in which most important phenomena emerge from the non-linear interaction of many agents (physical, biological, or social) in systems that are rarely at equilibrium.

This vision promotes a method—agent-based modeling—that provides a computational environment in which the behaviors of such systems can be studied.

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