Authors:
Cameron Browne, Eric Piette

Venue:
Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA), 2019

Topics:
Digital Archaeoludology, Game AI, cultural heritage, traditional games, Digital Ludeme Project

Links: PDF

All human cultures have their own games, which form an important part of cultural heritage. However, while archaeological evidence of ancient games exists, their rules are often lost or only partially known.

This work highlights the gap between historical studies of games and computational approaches in artificial intelligence. It introduces the Digital Ludeme Project, which aims to model traditional games in a unified digital database, reconstruct missing knowledge, and analyse their historical evolution.

The project pioneers the field of Digital Archaeoludology, combining AI techniques and cultural heritage research to better understand the development and diffusion of games across human history.

This paper introduces the concept of Digital Archaeoludology as a new interdisciplinary field at the intersection of artificial intelligence, archaeology, and cultural heritage.

It is closely related to the Digital Ludeme Project, which aims to reconstruct and analyse traditional games using computational models and large-scale digital representations.

This work expands the scope of Game AI beyond performance and gameplay, positioning it as a tool for understanding human culture and history.

Browne, C., Piette, E. (2019). Digital Archaeoludology. Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA).

@inproceedings{browne2019archaeoludology_caa,
  author    = {Browne, Cameron and Piette, Eric},
  title     = {Digital Archaeoludology},
  booktitle = {Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA)},
  year      = {2019}
}