From Local to Global: Nested Interaction and Community in Late Bronze Age Crete
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 15/10/2020

The exploration of archaeological questions through computer-based approaches often focuses on one of two things: spatial or material data. On one hand, rich archaeological datasets are ideal for interrogating various social practices such as consumption, crafting, mobility and interaction locally at the settlement level (through assemblages) and comparatively between several com-munities. Such methodologies often consider the micro-scale socio-material networks by exam-ining various facets of object networks for example through similarity, dissimilarity approaches in visualizing and drawing out patterns from the data. On the other, approaches interrogating settlement patterns, variability and landscape transformation often utilize point based spatial data for modeling and analyzing archaeological questions. Rarely are these two combined. This paper takes such an approach in exploring the possibility of combining empirically observed socio-material networks derived from a large archaeological data set of 13,700+ ceramic vessels from the Late Bronze Age (LBA) with modeling spatial interaction between 150+ settlements across Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean. We explore a two-factor threshold model in two parts:  one  for  modelling  interaction  between  pan-Cretan  sites  dynamically  by  including  pa-rameters that consider distance and landscape in testing hypotheses regarding the growth and centrality of sites across a 250 year period; and two, nesting our pan-Cretan network within the larger landscape of the east and west Mediterranean. The results of modelling are tested against our archaeological dataset with the goal of considering whether such exploration is fruitful in supporting our hypotheses regarding LBA interaction in this part of the world.


Paula Gheorghiade, Henry Price