Statistical physics applied to stone-age civilization

TL;DR

This paper models the spread of information in stone-age societies using a physics-inspired percolation model on a lattice, incorporating finite lifetime of information to better understand cultural transmission thresholds.

Contribution

It simplifies previous demographic models by applying a percolation framework with finite information lifetime, offering a physics-based perspective on early human cultural spread.

Findings

Information spreads only if occupancy probability exceeds a shifted percolation threshold.

Finite lifetime of information raises the threshold for successful spread.

Model aligns with percolation theory to explain cultural transmission in early societies.

Abstract

About 45,000 years ago, symbolic and technological complexity of human artefacts increased drastically. Computer simulations of Powell, Shennan and Thomas (2009) explained it through an increase of the population density, facilitating the spread of information about useful innovations. We simplify this demographic model and make it more similar to standard physics models. For this purpose, we assume that bands (extended families) of stone-age humans were distributed randomly on a square lattice such that each lattice site is randomly occupied with probability p and empty with probability 1-p. Information spreads randomly from an occupied site to one of its occupied neighbours. If we wait long enough, information spreads from one side of the lattice to the opposite site if and only if p is larger than the percolation threshold; this process was called "ant in the labyrinth" by deGennes 1976. We modify it by giving the diffusing information a finite lifetime, which shifts the threshold upwards.