An Experiment on the Simulation of Culture Changes

Publisher Summary This chapter describes an experiment in systems modeling in which a gain of some valuable experience of the real problems involved is possible. The problem for which this model is formulated is the explanation of the emergence of complex societies in the Aegean in the third and second millennia BC. In the present early stage of development, the model proposed cannot be regarded as simulating in any meaningful sense the early development of Aegean civilization. That specific cultural context has simply been used as the starting point for the formulation of a much more general model and the exploration of some of its properties.