Modelling Agricultural Strategies in the Dutch Roman Limes via Agent-Based Modelling (ROMFARMS)

Abstract

This chapter presents an agent-based model developed to investigate the impact on land and labour costs of different agricultural strategies that could have been undertaken in the Early and Middle Roman periods (12 BCE to 270 CE) in the Lower Rhine delta. A short description of the sub-processes in ROMFARMS to simulate settlement population dynamics, arable farming, animal husbandry and wood acquisition is provided. The results show that settlements in the Dutch limes zone during the Roman period were mostly limited by the relatively small labour pool available. Whilst not prevented outright by the availability of labour, the results show that only a small proportion of the total quantity of grain demanded by to military settlements, towns and vici can be supplied by local settlements. Two different possible scales of supply were envisaged with the results indicating that a macro-regional supply network was more feasible in which all settlements in the Lower Rhine delta were involved in the supply of consumer-only settlements. Whilst several methodological issues were noted, ROMFARMS is presented as an innovative tool for Dutch Roman archaeology with good potential for further development. ROMFARMS is an agent-based model developed in NetLogo (v. 6.0.2; Wilensky 1999) to investigate different possible agricultural strategies undertaken during the Early and Middle Roman periods (12 BCE to 270 CE) in the Lower Rhine region. ROMFARMS produces results on the land and labour costs of agriculture under the conditions of different scenarios. These have been used to assess the relative limiting impact of these factors of production on agricultural productivity to better understand the impact of different agricultural behaviours and the feasibility of