Topographical/bathymetric archaeological modelling of potential Stone Age settlement zones has been criticized for operating in a world of its own and producing results with a poor relation to the real world. As landscape archaeologists who use modelling and an awareness of the importance of being able to detect Stone Age sites effectively in relation to GIS-based management and protection as well as research, we find it important to extend the debate about modelling. This includes its more advanced forms such as agent-based modelling (ABM) to a point where it interfaces in a convincing way with the available archaeological, ethnographic/social anthropological, landscape ecological, as well as geomorphological data and knowledge.To obtain this goal, it has been necessary not to base this review on the generally accepted presumptions inherent in archaeological topographical modelling of potential Stone Age settlement zones, but to approach this theme "from the outside" in a wide interdisciplinary perspective with a special focus on the highly relevant data from ethnography/social anthropology, landscape ecology, as well as geomorphology.This chapter aims to sum up the difficulties in topographical settlement zone modelling as well as its possibilities for making progress. It offers a review of the historical and theoretical background for modelling of potential Stone Age settlement zones in relation to the debate about environmental determinism in anthropology as well as the geomorphological and landscape ecological 1596 O. Grøn et al. backgrounds for topographical settlement zone modelling. Examples of modelling methods ranging from the rather basic to the quite complex, such as agentbased modelling (ABM), are used to give an idea of how different types of topographical modelling work. Tests/evaluations of their results are used to indicate how well they work. To elucidate the types of complexities, a number of examples are presented of behavior from recent small-scale cultures who demonstrate dynamic cultural variation.
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