networks (Other Keyword)
1-25 (25 Records)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Archaeology of Urban Dissonance: Violence, Friction, and Change" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1770, the Provost-Marshal of the city of Charlestown (now Charleston, SC) advertised the land of a former gunsmith as for sale in The South Carolina Gazette. The valuable lot, situated in the center of the oldest part of the city, was described as “fifty-one feet, more or less” on front and in depth “two...
Ancient networks of the Caribbean: Interaction and Exchange across the Historical Divide (2017)
In this paper, we present multiple lines of evidence for the existence of interwoven and dynamic ancient networks in the Caribbean. This region is characterized by a long and unique history of social relationships between communities and peoples at various temporal and spatial scales. Through time, Caribbean networks of human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas were shaped by expanding and contracting group territories, fission and fusion of local communities, and variable degrees of...
Circles and Circuits: A Computational Social Science Approach to Neolithic Circular Enclosures (2017)
Through the combination of Social Network Analysis (SNA), Agent-Based Modeling (ABM), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this paper will examine the relationship between physical and social networks in the Middle Neolithic of Central Europe. This Computational Social Science approach will provide insight into social aspects of the archaeological phenomenon of circular enclosures.
Conceptual and Technical Connectivity in Indigenous South American Rock Art Traditions (2017)
Archaeologists have long sought to explain the distribution of rock art traditions across Amazonia and circum-Amazonia with reference to stylistic variability in the iconography, often as a proxy for exploring shared concepts of symbolic representation, mediated through local cultural norms. Where it has been possible, cross-referencing this kind of data with the ethnographic and archaeological records has engendered valuable new interpretations of indigenous symbolic repertoires in a variety of...
Cultural Corridors in South Central Pennsylvania (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A recent cultural resource management project located in south central Pennsylvania's Path Valley identified a series of five sites oriented around one of the waterways forming the headwaters of the Potomac River Drainage. Background research and local informants indicate that a network of small- to medium-sized pre-contact sites can be found along the...
The Deep Structure of Dependency: Relational data and heuristics in archaeology (2016)
The last decade has seen a rise in archaeological studies addressing network concepts, models and dynamics. These studies cover a range of archaeological approaches and subdisciplines, from the conceptual, like Actor Network Theory (ANT) to the formalized, like Agent Based Modelling (ABM), as well as frameworks that have connected archaeological theory and network methods, like Knappett’s Archaeology of Interaction and Hodder’s Entanglement. What all of these studies have in common is an...
The Early Spread of Peaches (Prunus persica) across Spanish La Florida and their Importance for Modeling Archaeological Chronologies and Indigenous Networks (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Peaches were ubiquitous across eastern North America by the mid-seventeenth century, less than 100 years after the founding of St. Augustine in 1565, the earliest possible cultivation date for peaches in what is today the United States. As such, preserved or charred peach pits at archaeological sites, each with a built-in terminus post quem of c. 1565,...
The Fortified Settlement of Pujini and Implications for a Swahili Urban Landscape (2015)
During its lifespan from the mid-fifteenth to early sixteenth century AD, the fortified settlement of Pujini shared Pemba Island, Tanzania with numerous, undefended, more typical Swahili settlements ranging from earth-and-thatch hamlets to stone-built urban centers. The site expresses a unique combination of qualities on the Eastern African coast: complex ramparts around nearly two hectares of space, in which stood some dozen domestic and special-purpose features. Archaeological evidence from...
From central places to network-centrality? (2013)
Networks are fashionable in contemporary archaeology, but what causes this fascination with network theory in medieval and post-medieval archaeology? This paper will briefly explain the state of current historical archaeology research in Germany, with a focus on how network theories can be profitably used. In particular, the connections between "Zentralorttheorie" and network theory will discussed. Networks detect interactions, and central places can be described as "density...
From Discrete Frontiers to Cross-Cutting Religious Networks: Religious Monuments and Cultural Syncretism in the Peruvian North Coast and Highland, Ninth to Eleventh Centuries AD (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Them and Us: Transmission and Cultural Dynamism in the North of Peru between AD 250 and 950: A Vision since the Recent Northern Investigations" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Colonialist perspectives of territorial expansion envision the political entities as spatially defined by discrete frontier boundaries. Under this approach, the distribution of objects a given cultural style parallels the area of influence of the...
Globalizing Graves: Necklaces and Networks of Consumption during the Viking Age (2016)
Viking Age graves typically contain two types of exotic goods: coins and jewelry. Coins have long dominated discussions of early medieval economics because they have been understood as being closely linked to exchange. Two factors militate against this one-sided approach. First, coins appear alongside jewelry either as pendants worn singly or as parts of necklace groups. Second, ornamental objects appear in coin hoards, and beads in particular are attested in written sources as a means of...
Inheritance, Innovation, and Interaction:the motivations for and consequences of social interaction in the context of initial settlement (2017)
While providing a general outline of several initial settlement strategies pursued across the Americas, I argue that social networks between the small-scale communities involved would be established rapidly upon arrival. Certainly, the events of initial contact and process of network formation would have occurred within a sub-generational time-frame. The flow of material goods, genes, and information between members of the small-scale pioneering communities is essential to the survival of...
La Feria Colonial: flow and exchange of products in the Nueva Vizcaya in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (2017)
The trade network in the colonial era formed a great circuit that used communication paths. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was used to transport the products sold through fairs that were established at strategic points in the New Spain. Kingdoms away as was the Nueva Vizcaya had people who used to travel these roads annually to bring their products and other materials to get points not only of the New Spain, but also from Spain and the Philippines. The circuit of fairs and marked trails around...
Long distance networks in Neolithic Europe (2016)
In Neolithic Europe, certain artefacts made of high-quality stone were distributed over considerable distances. For example, Jade axe heads, which originate from the Alps, were found between 5300 and 3700 BC in small numbers all over Central and Western Europe as far as Brittany, Scandinavia and the British Isles, i.e. up to 1700 km from their original quarries. Likewise, between 4500 and 2200 BC single daggers, arrowheads and other artefacts made of flint that came from Northern Italy have been...
Moments of Change: Network Systems of Bristol and Copenhagen from 1400-1700 and Their Role in the Development of Early Modern Cities (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Between the years 1400-1700 processes such as urbanisation were transforming European cities. What were the driving forces for this urbanisation? Was it due to the expansion of external processes of cultural exchange and trade (Howell 2010), or did changes within towns also have wider implications for these networks as seen through processes such as harbour urbanisation (Milne...
Networks through Time: Filling in the Gaps (2015)
The Middle Neolithic circular ditched enclosure of Goseck in Central Germany was built and used during the Stichbandkeramik period. Subsequently, during the Gatersleben period, another ditched feature was constructed, which intersected the earlier enclosure. However, between these two periods, in the intervening century, during the Rössen period, the site was not in use. This temporal gap has been glossed over in narratives of the site that stress continuity. This paper will examine the...
Periploi and the Greek Worldview (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Research in Maritime Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The periplous is generally considered to be a subset of the popular genre of Greek geographical writing. The surviving examples of periploi, including those physically extant and those cited in other works, were written between the Archaic and Byzantine periods. The word periplous, meaning "sailing around," "circumnavigation," or "coasting...
Plummets, Ritual Dance, Individuals, and Macroregional Interactions during the Woodland Period in Florida (2017)
Community making during the Woodland period in Eastern North America manifested itself in a variety of material forms, most notably in the wide distribution of elaborate artifacts dispersed as part of Hopewellian related exchange. In this paper, we examine the role that one particular class of artifact, plummets, played in community making during the Woodland period in Florida. Often interpreted as fishing gear, we suggest that instead such artifacts played a large role in community style dances...
Precontact Coast Salish Seasonality in Social Networks: A Modeling Approach (2018)
A crucial aspect for examining the production and reproduction of material culture among complex foraging societies such as those of the Pacific Northwest Coast is understanding the relationships between social networks and assemblage diversity. This model examines one small aspect of this issue, seasonal variation in social network size. The model is ethnographically informed by Coast Salish ethnographic household sizes. Assemblage richness and evenness in discrete artifact styles are examined...
Regional Maritime Networks of Bronze Age Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean (2020)
This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Bronze Age in the Mediterranean has been studied extensively in the past by a variety of researchers, including both historians and archaeologists, simply because it is the time during which “civilization” first develops. Maritime trade was a key element in the development of civilization. This project identifies the regional trade networks operating in the Bronze Age Eastern...
The Role of Infrastructure in Wari State-Making in Southern Peru (2017)
In southern Peru, the transition from the Early Intermediate to the Middle Horizon during the seventh century A.D. was marked by the expansion of Wari state colonists and influence from the Ayacucho heartland. Andeanists have long postulated the role of climate change and drought during this initial state expansion, while issues of chronology complicate this issue. Here, we reevaluate the radiocarbon data from the early Wari colonies of Cerros Baúl and Mejía in the upper Moquegua Valley in...
Sight Communities in the American Southwest (2015)
Communities can be conceptualized along a number of dimensions – spatial, demographic, economic, ritual, among others. This study proposes that it may also be productive to consider communities organized around vision. It is well established that people construct mental representations or "cognitive maps" of their surroundings to organize spatial information and experiences and for spatial orientation and navigation. Populations who shared significant portions of their cognitive maps are...
Signaling Theory, Network Creation, and Commodity Exchange in the Historic Caribbean (2016)
Signaling theory is becoming a common tool in the interpretation of slave-era households in the United States and Caribbean. As a heuristic tool, signaling theory’s effectiveness lies in its ability to provide insight into the differential consumption and disposal habits of past populations. This paper addresses not only consumer and disposal habits, but also commodity exchange and personal networks to place the material culture of enslaved and freed Africans from the Caribbean island of St....
We Built This System: Hohokam Irrigation Communities as Social Networks (2016)
In the prehispanic Salt River Valley (SRV), the extensive canal systems that provided irrigation to the desert farmers, known by archaeologists as the Hohokam, also serve as tangible networks that link villages along an individual canal’s route. Many of the villages in the valley are incredibly long-lived, spanning hundreds of years and multiple generations, providing unique time-depth in which to study how social relationships changed within a region of the Southwest. In order to better...
Weaving the Fabric of Society at Çatalhöyük: A Socio-Material Network Approach to the Study of Early Agricultural Settled Life, Social Structure and Differentiation (2017)
The end of the Çatalhöyük Research Project’s (ÇRP) 25-year mandate and the consequent generation of large and unique datasets produced by the collaboration of excavators and the specialists labs provide an extraordinary opportunity to investigate patterns of early agricultural settled life, social structure and differentiation at an intra-site level through a synthetic approach capable of weaving together different data threads. In this study, a relational framework rooted in models of...