Central place foraging and hunter-gatherer settlement patterns: how resource depletion influences population concentration

Settlement patterns are one of the main products of the Stone Age archaeological research. Their
emergence processes can be explained by different models of settlement and mobility choices
done by past inhabitants. In current study we explore central place foraging (CPF) model of huntergatherers
as a tool for exploring formation of settlement patterns.
CFP model is used for describing mobility choices of hunter-gatherer groups. It implies the groups
settle at a central location and make logistic forays to surrounding areas foraging for required
resources. The central location is chosen by it’s optimal position in relation to those resources and
the group is willing to leave the current base location if a better alternative arises.
We introduce a spatially explicit Agent-Based Model (ABM) of the CPF and explore how heterogeneous
environment influences the settlement pattern formation. The motivation to move in CFP comes from
changes in the environment. An important part of the change is the depletion of existing resources
by the hunter-gatherers themselves.
We are using the ABM model to explore how depletion process influences the dispersal of huntergatherer
groups in the environment and which conditions and strategies will result in higher
concentration and clustering of the population.