The Interactive Pasts Conference: Tomáš Glomb & Adam Mertel
1Presentation at the Interactive Pasts Conference, April 4th 2016, Leiden University.
Tomáš Glomb & Adam Mertel (Masaryk University)
Epidemiology of the Egyptian Cults during the Hellenistic Period: Can you spread it too?
"This paper is one of the results from the interdisciplinary research project (GEHIR) at Masaryk University in Brno, which applies innovative methods used in the study of the dynamics of complex systems (mathematical and computational modelling, network science) to the historiography of ancient Graeco-Roman religions. This paper is thematically concerned with the spread of Egyptian cults during the Hellenistic period. Historians of religion and geographers from the GEHIR project are currently constructing a computational model which based on environmental and archaeological datasets should determine if the cults spread from ancient Egypt mainly through trade or political networks. One of the aims of this project is to broaden the imagination of the public in the question of new scientific methods in humanities. We are therefore considering to transform our model into interactive strategic game that would clarify to the player 1) which factors had impact on the spread of ancient Egyptian cults; 2) which methods can be used in historical and archaeological research; 3) what is the perspective of an interactive application in the popularisation of historical research. As a part of this paper, we are able to provide a playable prototype of the game."
http://coffeegnome.net/godsonthebarge/