Wiring the Past: A Network Science Perspective on the Challenge of Archeological Similarity Networks

Prignano, Luce; Morer, Ignacio; Dı́az-Guilera, Albert

doi:10.3389/fdigh.2017.00013

Cited by 19 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…We applied both Brainerd-Robinson's and Jaccard's similarity indexes to construct cultural similarity matrices of ornament assemblages -a step that is widely applied in the construction of archaeological networks (Peeples et al 2016). Following the recommendations of Prignano et al (2017), we first conducted an exploratory analysis to detect which similarity coefficient better represented our dataset. Brainerd-Robinson indices were calculated in R version 4.0.5 (Team 2013), using the script provided in Peeples (2011), including tables with the relative frequency of ornament types.…”

Section: 2-similarity Matrices and Network Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing mesolithic social networks in the Iberian Peninsula using ornaments

Cucart-Mora¹,

Gómez‐Puche²,

Romano³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Archaeologists have been reconstructing interactions among hunter-gatherer populations for a long time. These exchanges are reflected in the movements of raw materials and symbolic objects which are found far from their original sources. A social network, i.e., the structure constituted by these interactions, is a well-established concept in archaeology that is used to estimate the connectivity of hunter-gatherer populations. The heuristic potential of formal network analysis, however, has been scarcely exploited in prehistoric hunter-gatherer archaeology. In this work, we use Social Network Analysis to analyse the interactions among hunter-gatherers on the Iberian Peninsula in the Early and Late Mesolithic (10.200 to 7600 cal BP). Ornaments are accepted markers of non-utilitarian mobility and exchange. We thus used ornaments as proxies for social interaction and constructed one network for each phase of the Iberian Mesolithic. We applied three levels of analysis: first, we characterised the overall structure of the networks. Second, we performed node-level analysis to uncover the most relevant nodes in each network. Finally, we conducted an exploratory analysis of the networks’ spatial characteristics. No significant differences were found between the overall network topology of the Early and Late Mesolithic. This suggests that the interaction patterns among human groups did not change significantly on the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the spatial analysis showed that most interactions between human groups took place over distances under 300 km, but that specific ornament types such as C. rustica and Trivia sp. were distributed over more extensive distances. To summarise, our findings suggest that Iberian Mesolithic social networks were maintained through a period of environmental, demographic, and cultural transformation. In addition, the interactions took place at different scales of social integration.

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Section: 2-similarity Matrices and Network Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing mesolithic social networks in the Iberian Peninsula using ornaments

Cucart-Mora¹,

Gómez‐Puche²,

Romano³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…These routes can be short or long, straight or circuitous, and can be connected to and nested in other routes. Simulations similar to these can explore various manifestations of one or more movement behaviors at a single point in time, for example focusing on understanding the consequences of uncertainties in data attributes [63][64][65] to assess the plausibility of routes.…”

Section: Summing Up and Making Connections: Track Graphs Pathway Systems And Path Framework Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Theories, Past Practices, and Archaeological Remains of Movement through Ontological Reasoning

et al. 2020

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The amount of information available to archaeologists has grown dramatically during the last ten years. The rapid acquisition of observational data and creation of digital data has played a significant role in this “information explosion”. In this paper, we propose new methods for knowledge creation in studies of movement, designed for the present data-rich research context. Using three case studies, we analyze how researchers have identified, conceptualized, and linked the material traces describing various movement processes in a given region. Then, we explain how we construct ontologies that enable us to explicitly relate material elements, identified in the observed landscape, to the knowledge or theory that explains their role and relationships within the movement process. Combining formal pathway systems and informal movement systems through these three case studies, we argue that these systems are not hierarchically integrated, but rather intertwined. We introduce a new heuristic tool, the “track graph”, to record observed material features in a neutral form which can be employed to reconstruct the trajectories of journeys which follow different movement logics. Finally, we illustrate how the breakdown of implicit conceptual references into explicit, logical chains of reasoning, describing basic entities and their relationships, allows the use of these constituent elements to reconstruct, analyze, and compare movement practices from the bottom up.

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“…where data is accessible to us through fragmented records with usually limited coverage in time and space [31]. Comparison between ETC models with different underlying diffusion networks could be used in this context to infer the pathways of cultural diffusion.…”

Section: December 17 2020 15/28mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evoked and Transmitted Culture models: Using bayesian methods to infer the evolution of cultural traits in history

Hyafil¹,

Baumard²

2020

Preprint

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A central question in behavioral and social sciences is understanding to what extent cultural traits are inherited from previous generations, transmitted from adjacent populations or produced in response to changes in socioeconomic and ecological conditions. As quantitative diachronic databases recording the evolution of cultural artifacts over many generations are becoming more common, there is a need for appropriate data-driven methods to approach this question. Here we present a new Bayesian method to infer the dynamics of cultural traits in a diachronic dataset. Our method called Evoked-Transmitted Cultural model (ETC) relies on fitting a latent-state model where a cultural trait is a latent variable which guides the production of the cultural artifacts observed in the database. The dynamics of this cultural trait may depend on the value of the cultural traits present in previous generations and in adjacent populations (transmitted culture) and/or on ecological factors (evoked culture). We show how ETC models can be fitted to quantitative diachronic or synchronic datasets, using the Expectation-Maximization algorithm, enabling estimating the relative contribution of vertical transmission, horizontal transmission and evoked component in shaping cultural traits. The method also allows to reconstruct the dynamics of cultural traits in different regions. We tested the performance of the method on synthetic data for two variants of the method (for binary or continuous traits). We found that both variants allow reliable estimates of parameters guiding cultural evolution. Overall, our method opens new possibilities to reconstruct how culture is shaped from quantitative data, with possible application in cultural history, cultural anthropology, archaeology, historical linguistics and behavioral ecology.

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Wiring the Past: A Network Science Perspective on the Challenge of Archeological Similarity Networks

Cited by 19 publications

References 48 publications

Reconstructing mesolithic social networks in the Iberian Peninsula using ornaments

Reconstructing mesolithic social networks in the Iberian Peninsula using ornaments

Linking Theories, Past Practices, and Archaeological Remains of Movement through Ontological Reasoning

Evoked and Transmitted Culture models: Using bayesian methods to infer the evolution of cultural traits in history

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