Simulation reveals social movement patterns in ancient pompeian household
IMPACT: Modeling Socially Interdependent Movement in a Generative Multi-Agent Simulation of a Pompeian Household
Multiagent Systems
Summary
It can be hard to understand how people moved and interacted in ancient homes. The authors created a computer simulation called IMPACT that models how people’s actions depend on others based on social roles and rules. They tested it with a dinner scene in a Pompeian house and found that the simulation showed realistic social behaviors like waiting or moving together. Experts found these patterns believable and useful for interpreting ancient life.
What this means in practice
- •For archaeological site modelers: Create simulations that reproduce social movement patterns in historical households for research and interpretation.
- •For museum exhibit designers: Develop interactive visualizations of ancient daily life with realistic social behaviors and movement dynamics.
Authors
Tianqi Liu, Nayoung Kim, Julia Sebastien, Kathryn Gleason, Caitlín Eilís Barrett, Andrea Stevenson Won
Abstract
Simulations of archaeological sites can make interpretations of past cultural practices observable and examinable. Generative multi-agent simulations offer a bottom-up approach to modeling how people collectively moved through and used historical spaces. However, current agents designed to simulate everyday life often plan and act independently, limiting their ability to capture how movement depends on others' actions. We introduce IMPACT (Interdependent Movement Planning through Inter-Agent Constraints and Triggers), an architecture that uses culturally specific roles and obligations to define dependencies among agents' activities and guide coordination. IMPACT connects socially gated milestone planning, wait-or-prompt resolution, structured directive issuance, and directive integration. These mechanisms determine whether and when activities can begin or change as social conditions evolve, producing socially constrained and prompted movement as their primary observable outcome. We instantiate IMPACT in a five-hour simulation of a Pompeian dinner involving ten agents across interdependent roles. Analysis of five simulation runs shows how social roles, responsibilities, and status relations shape household activities and spatial practices, as reflected in patterns of co-location, asymmetric waiting, co-movement, and social directives. In a controlled ablation evaluation, thirty-seven participants rated the complete architecture's behavior as more socially coherent and believable than that of two reduced architectures. Interviews with six archaeology experts highlighted historically plausible movement patterns and the simulation's potential to support archaeological interpretation, while identifying areas requiring stronger historical grounding for future work.