Authors:
Cameron Browne, Dennis J. N. J. Soemers, Éric Piette, Matthew Stephenson, Michael Conrad, Walter Crist, Thierry Depaulis, Eddie Duggan, Fred Horn, Steven Kelk, Simon M. Lucas, João Pedro Neto, David Parlett, Abdallah Saffidine, Ulrich Schädler, Jorge Nuno Silva, Alex de Voogt, Mark H. M. Winands

Venue:
Dagstuhl Reports, Dagstuhl Seminar 19153, 2019

Topics:
Digital Archæoludology, General Game Playing, AI for games, game reconstruction, cultural heritage, stochastic CSP

Links: PDF · arXiv

This report introduces Digital Archæoludology, a new research field dedicated to the study and reconstruction of ancient games using computational methods.

It presents the objectives of the Digital Ludeme Project and outlines how artificial intelligence, constraint programming, and data-driven techniques can be used to model, analyse, and reconstruct historical games from incomplete evidence.

The work emphasizes the use of ludemes as fundamental components of games, enabling unified representations, automated analysis, and large-scale comparisons across cultures and historical periods.

This publication marks the formal introduction of Digital Archæoludology as a research domain, combining artificial intelligence, archaeology, and game studies.

It is closely linked to the development of the Ludii system and the broader research program on constraint-based approaches to General Game Playing.

The report synthesizes interdisciplinary discussions from the Dagstuhl seminar and establishes the foundations for future research on the computational analysis of traditional strategy games.

Browne, C., Soemers, D. J. N. J., Piette, É., Stephenson, M., Conrad, M., Crist, W., Depaulis, T., Duggan, E., Horn, F., Kelk, S., Lucas, S. M., Neto, J. P., Parlett, D., Saffidine, A., Schädler, U., Silva, J. N., de Voogt, A., Winands, M. H. M. (2019). Foundations of Digital Archæoludology. Dagstuhl Reports, Dagstuhl Seminar 19153.

@article{browne2019archaeoludology,
  author  = {Browne, Cameron and Soemers, Dennis J. N. J. and Piette, Éric and Stephenson, Matthew and Conrad, Michael and Crist, Walter and Depaulis, Thierry and Duggan, Eddie and Horn, Fred and Kelk, Steven and Lucas, Simon M. and Neto, João Pedro and Parlett, David and Saffidine, Abdallah and Schädler, Ulrich and Silva, Jorge Nuno and de Voogt, Alex and Winands, Mark H. M.},
  title   = {Foundations of Digital Archæoludology},
  journal = {Dagstuhl Reports},
  year    = {2019},
  note    = {Dagstuhl Seminar 19153},
  url     = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.13516}
}