AHRC Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity

What is the CECD?

The CECD is an AHRC funded research group dedicated to examining the evolutionary underpinnings of human cultural behaviour, past and present. more>

Principal Investigator Profile
Dr Mark Lake
Lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, University College London

31-34 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PY
Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 1535
Email: mark.lake@ucl.ac.uk

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Funding

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Research and Teaching interests

I am actively engaged in the development and use of quantitative and
computational methods for studying the past, especially agent-based
computer simulation and geographical information systems. I have used
these techniques to study the evolutionary origins of cultural
transmission, the spread of farming in Neolithic Europe and
Mesolithic settlement strategies in Scotland. I also have a long
standing interest in the problem of memes and the manner in which
human innovation explores design space. I am currently working with
Jay Venti on a study of clade diversity in the evolution of the bicycle.

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Educational Background

1991: University of Cambridge, B.A. 1995: University of Cambridge, Ph.D.

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Associated Links:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/profiles/lake.htm
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnmar/

Associated AHRC CECD Projects (Phase 2):

•	Project C007 Network structure, environmental change, and cultural response

•	Project C008 Transmission of spatial configuration in early Christian churches

Associated AHRC CEACB Projects (Phase 1):

•	Project 008 What factors affect evolution of craft skills?

•	Project 010 Does technological evolution occur on smooth or rugged fitness landscapes?

•	Project 040 Human mobility and the prehistoric spread of farming: Isotopes in archaeological skeletons

•	Project 043 Investigating evolutionary adaptive radiation patterns in the history of bicycles

Associated Publications - AHRC CECD - phase 2:

•	M. Lake & E. Crema (2011). The Cultural Evolution of Adaptive-Trait Diversity when Resources are Uncertain and Finite.Advances in Complex Systems.

•	Crema, E.R., Bevan, A.,Lake, M (2010). A probabilistic framework for assessing spatio-temporal point patterns in the archaeological record.Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol 37. 1118-1130.

•	M.W. Lake (2010). The Uncertain Future of Simulating the Past.A. Costopoulos & M.W. Lake (eds.). Simulating Change: Archaeology Into the 21st Century. University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City.

•	A. Costopoulos and M.W. Lake (eds.) (2010). Simulating Change: Archaeology Into the 21st Century.University of Utah Press: Salt Lake City.

•	Lake, M.W. (2007). Computer Simulation Modeling.D. Pearsall (ed.). Encyclopedia of Archaeology, Volume 2. Academic Press. 1034-1040.

•	M. Lake (2007). ‘Whither processualism?’ [review article] Review of MJ O’Brien, RL Lyman & MB Schiffer, Archaeology as a Process: Processualism and its Progeny, and AL Johnson (ed.) Processual Archaeology: Exploring analytical strategies, frames of references, and culture process.Antiquity. Vol 81. 208-210.

Associated Publications - AHRC CEACB - phase 1:

•	Lake, M.W. and J. Venti (2009). Quantitative analysis of macroevolutionary patterning in technological evolution: bicycle design from 1800 to 2000.S. J. Shennan (ed.). Pattern and Process in Cultural Evolution. University of California Press. 147-162.

•	Bentley, R.A., M.W. Lake and S. Shennan (2005). Specialisation and wealth inequality in a model of a clustered economic network.Journal of Archaeological Science . Vol 32. 1346-1356.

•	Lake, M.W (2004). Being in a simulacrum: Electronic agency.A. Gardner (ed.). Agency Uncovered: Archaeological Perspectives on Social Agency, Power, and Being Human. UCL Press: London. 191-209.