Subsistence Strategies in Agent-Based Models of Foraging Hominins: State of the Art and Challenges
References
- Barry, ES, Merkebu, J and Varpio, L. 2022. ‘State-of-the-art literature review methodology: A six-step approach for knowledge synthesis’. Perspectives on Medical Education, 11(5): 1–8. DOI: 10.1007/s40037-022-00725-9
- Boone, JL. 2002. ‘Subsistence strategies and early human population history: An evolutionary ecological perspective’. World Archaeology, 34(1): 6–25. DOI: 10.1080/00438240220134232
- Breitenecker, F, Bicher, M and Wurzer, G. 2014. ‘Agent-based simulation in archaeology: A characterization’. Advances in Geographic Information Science, 53–76. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00008-4_3
- Coto-Sarmiento, M, Namen, A, Varis, A and Iovita, R. 2023. The impact of cooperation under climate constraints: an Agent-Based Model for exploring Paleolithic behavioral adaptations in the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor. DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/h5enj
- Cucart-Mora, C, Lombao, D, Pineda, A, Boemke, B, Mecozzi, B and Moncel, M-H. 2026. ‘The first occupations of Western Europe: Dispersals and population dynamics in the early to middle pleistocene’. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 33(2). DOI: 10.1007/s10816-025-09752-2
- Currie, A. 2016. ‘Ethnographic analogy, the comparative method, and archaeological special pleading’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 55: 84–94. DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2015.08.010
- Foley, R. 1986. ‘Anthropology and behavioural ecology’. Anthropology Today, 2(6):
13 . DOI: 10.2307/3032838 - French, JC. 2018. ‘The use of ethnographic data in Neanderthal archaeological research’. Hunter Gatherer Research, 4: 25–49. DOI: 10.3828/hgr.2018.3
- Gravel-Miguel, C, De Vynck, J, Wren, CD, Murray, JK and Marean, CW. 2022. ‘Were prehistoric coastal sites more intensively occupied than inland sites? using an agent-based model to understand the intensity of prehistoric coastal occupation, and what it means for studies on the evolution of the coastal adaptation’. Quaternary International, 638–639, 148–158. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2022.02.003
- Griffith, CS, Long, BL and Sept, JM. 2010. ‘Hominids: An agent-based spatial simulation model to evaluate behavioral patterns of early pleistocene hominids’. Ecological Modelling, 221(5): 738–760. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2009.11.009
- Grimm, V, Berger, U, DeAngelis, DL, Polhill, JG, Giske, J and Railsback, SF. 2010. ‘The odd protocol: A review and first update’. Ecological Modelling, 221(23): 2760–2768. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2010.08.019
- Grimm, V, Railsback, SF, Vincenot, CE, Berger, U, Gallagher, C, DeAngelis, DL, Edmonds, B, Ge, J, Giske, J, Groeneveld, J, Johnston, ASA, Milles, A, Nabe-Nielsen, J, Polhill, JG, Radchuk, V, Rohwäder, M-S, Stillman, RA, Thiele, JC and Ayllón, D. 2020. ‘The Odd Protocol for describing agent-based and other simulation models: A second update to improve clarity, replication, and structural realism’. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 23(2). DOI: 10.18564/jasss.4259
- Huguet, R, Saladié, P, Cáceres, I, Díez, C, Rosell, J, Bennàsar, M, Blasco, R, Esteban-Nadal, M, Gabucio, MJ, Rodríguez-Hidalgo, A and Carbonell, E. 2013. ‘Successful subsistence strategies of the first humans in south-Western Europe’. Quaternary International, 295, 168–182. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.11.015
- Janssen, MA and Hill, K. 2014. ‘Benefits of grouping and cooperative hunting among Ache Hunter–Gatherers: Insights from an agent-based foraging model’. Human Ecology, 42(6): 823–835. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-014-9693-1
- Kelly, RL. 1983. ‘Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies’. Journal of Anthropological Research, 39(3): 277–306. DOI: 10.1086/jar.39.3.3629672
- Kelly, RL. 2013.
‘Mobility’ . In: The Lifeways of Hunter-Gatherers: The Foraging Spectrum (pp. 77–113). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139176132.005 - Kopels, MC and Ullah, II. 2024. ‘Modeling post-pleistocene megafauna extinctions as complex social-ecological systems’. Quaternary Research, 121: 1–14. DOI: 10.1017/qua.2024.6
- Leroy, SAG, Arpe, K and Mikolajewicz, U. 2011. ‘Vegetation context and climatic limits of the early pleistocene hominin dispersal in Europe’. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(11–12): 1448–1463. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.01.017
- Mandryk, CAS. 1993. ‘Hunter-gatherer social costs and the nonviability of submarginal environments’. Journal of Anthropological Research, 49(1): 39–71. DOI: 10.1086/jar.49.1.3630629
- Migliano, AB and Vinicius L. 2021. ‘The origins of human cumulative culture: from the foraging niche to collective intelligence’. Phil. Trans. R. Soc., B 377:
20200317 . DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0317 - Moncel, M-H. 2010. ‘Oldest human expansions in Eurasia: Favouring and limiting factors’. Quaternary International, 223–224, 1–9. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.02.016
- Moncel, M-H, Cucart Mora, C and Hertler, C. 2025. ‘Lateurope: Why was Western Europe settled by hominins later than other regions of Eurasia? ROCEEH Newsletter 25/2025’. Available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/392089365_ROCEEH_Newsletter_252025 . - Müller, B, Bohn, F, Dreßler, G, Groeneveld, J, Klassert, C, Martin, R, Schlüter, M, Schulze, J, Weise, H and Schwarz, N. 2013. ‘Describing human decisions in agent-based models – ODD + D, an extension of the ODD protocol’. Environmental Modelling & Software, 48: 37–48. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.06.003
- Nettle, D, Gibson, MA, Lawson, DW and Sear, R. 2013. ‘Human behavioral ecology: Current research and future prospects’. Behavioral Ecology, 24(5): 1031–1040. DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars222
- Nonaka, E and Holme, P. 2007. ‘Agent-based model approach to optimal foraging in heterogeneous landscapes: Effects of Patch clumpiness’. Ecography, 30(6): 777–788. DOI: 10.1111/j.2007.0906-7590.05148.x
- Pereda, M, Zurro, D, Santos, JI, Briz i Godino, I, Álvarez, M, Caro, J and Galán, JM. 2017. ‘Emergence and evolution of cooperation under Resource Pressure’. Scientific Reports, 7(1). DOI: 10.1038/srep45574
- Pearce, E. 2014. ‘Modelling mechanisms of social network maintenance in hunter–gatherers’. Journal of Archaeological Science, 50: 403–413. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2014.08.004
- Pineda, A, Mecozzi, B, Iannucci, A, Carpentieri, M, Sardella, R, Rabinovich, R and Moncel, M-H. 2024. ‘Reevaluating the “Elephant butchery area” at the middle pleistocene site of Notarchirico (mis 16) (Venosa Basin, Basilicata, Italy)’. Quaternary Science Reviews, 331:
108603 . DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108603 - Pineda, A and Saladié, P. 2022. ‘Beyond the problem of bone surface preservation in taphonomic studies of early and Middle Pleistocene open-air sites’. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 29(4): 1090–1130. DOI: 10.1007/s10816-022-09550-0
- Pobiner, BL. 2020. ‘The zooarchaeology and paleoecology of early hominin scavenging’. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 29(2): 68–82. DOI: 10.1002/evan.21824
- Premo, LS. 2012. ‘The shift to a predominantly logistical mobility strategy can inhibit rather than enhance forager interaction’. Human Ecology, 40(4): 647–649. DOI: 10.1007/s10745-012-9511-6
- Premo, LS. 2015. ‘Mobility and cultural diversity in central-place foragers: Implications for the emergence of modern human behavior’. Learning Strategies and Cultural Evolution during the Palaeolithic, 45–65. DOI: 10.1007/978-4-431-55363-2_5
- Robson, AJ and Kaplan, HS. 2006. ‘Viewpoint: The economics of Hunter-gatherer societies and the evolution of human characteristics’. Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue Canadienne d’économique, 39(2): 375–398. DOI: 10.1111/j.0008-4085.2006.00351.x
- Rodríguez, J, Hölzchen, E, Caso-Alonso, AI, Berndt, JO, Hertler, C, Timm, IJ and Mateos, A. 2023. ‘Computer simulation of scavenging by hominins and giant hyenas in the late early pleistocene’. Scientific Reports, 13(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-39776-1
- Romanowska, I, Wren, CD and Crabtree, SA. 2021. Agent-based modeling for archaeology: Simulating the complexity of societies. Santa Fe Institute Press.
- Santos, JI, Pereda, M, Zurro, D, Álvarez, M and Caro, J. 2015. ‘Effect of Resource Spatial Correlation and Hunter-Fisher-Gatherer Mobility on Social Cooperation in Tierra del Fuego’. PLOS ONE, 10(4):
e0121888 . DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121888 - Schuppli, C, Graber, SM, Isler, K and van Schaik, CP. 2016. ‘Life history, cognition and the evolution of complex foraging niches’. Journal of Human Evolution, 92: 91–100. ISSN 0047-2484. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.11.007
- Seuru, S, Burke, A and Perez, L. 2024. ‘Evidence of an age and/or gender-based division of labor during the last glacial maximum in Iberia through rabbit hunting’. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 56:
104560 . DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104560 - Shultz, S, Nelson, E and Dunbar, RI. 2012. ‘Hominin cognitive evolution: Identifying patterns and processes in the fossil and archaeological record’. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1599): 2130–2140. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2012.0115
- Sikk, K and Caruso, G. 2020. ‘A spatially explicit agent-based model of central place foraging theory and its explanatory power for hunter-gatherers settlement patterns formation processes’. Adaptive Behavior, 28(5): 377–397. DOI: 10.1177/1059712320922915
- Winterhalder, B and Smith, EA. 2000. ‘Analyzing adaptive strategies: Human behavioral ecology at Twenty-five’. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 9(2):
51 . DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6505(2000)9:2>;51::AID-EVAN1<3.0.CO;2-7 - Wobst, HM. 1974. ‘Boundary Conditions for paleolithic social systems: A simulation approach’. American Antiquity, 39(2 Part1): 147–178. DOI: 10.2307/279579
- Wren, CD, Atwater, C, Hill, K, Janssen, M, de Vynck, J and Marean, CW. 2018. ‘An agent-based approach to weighted decision making in the spatially and temporally variable South African paleoscape’. CAA2016: Oceans of Data, 507–522. DOI: 10.2307/jj.15135958.48
- Wren, CD, Botha, S, De Vynck, J, Janssen, MA, Hill, K, Shook, E, Harris, JA, Wood, BM, Venter, J, Cowling, R, Franklin, J, Fisher, EC and Marean, CW. 2020. ‘The foraging potential of the Holocene Cape South Coast of South Africa without the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain’. Quaternary Science Reviews, 235:
105789 . DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.012 - Wynn, T and Coolidge, FL. 2016. ‘Archeological insights into hominin cognitive evolution’. Evol. Anthropol., 25: 200–213. DOI: 10.1002/evan.21496
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.211 | Journal eISSN: 2514-8362
Language: English
Submitted on: Mar 21, 2025
Accepted on: Jan 28, 2026
Published on: Apr 7, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year
Keywords:
© 2026 Jan-Olaf Reschke, Carolina Cucart-Mora, Kamilla Lomborg, Christine Hertler, Mehdi Saqalli, Matt Grove, Marie-Hélène Moncel, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.