Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Tempi of Change: When Soloists don’t play Together. Arrhythmia in ‘Continuous’ Change

  • Published:
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This contribution is centered on the question of tempi of change and the possibility of defining ternary scales of changes in a long archaeological sequence, which could match F. Braudel’s interpretative framework. Although I had recently considered a ternary scale of change to be a satisfactory framework even for a single category of artifacts, further analyses for this volume, on a longer time scale, revealed it as an intellectual construct that entirely depends on the choice of criteria. In addition, observed arrhythmia in change between two sets of data from the Franchthi Cave (Greece), chipped stone assemblages and ornaments, demonstrate the difficulty of defining global phases of change within a continuous sequence. In turn, this raises the fundamental problem of the choice of proxies used to define the prehistoric cultural entities whose transformations we seek to understand.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The Paralia refers to the open-air Neolithic settlement below the cave’s opening.

  2. CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Université de Bordeaux.

  3. CNRS UMR 6130, CEPAM, Université de Nice.

  4. CNRS, UMR 7055, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense.

  5. It is by pure chance that the two specialists happen to be the same person, but this at least should limit the risk of individual variations in the perception of timescales and importance of changes.

  6. I did not in fact interpret all discontinuities in terms of demic replacement in my initial work the Franchthi lithics, but also explored the potential factors in several instances of what I considered as continuous change (e.g., Perlès 1990, 1992). But a case by case discussion would be beyond the scope of the present contribution.

References

  • Bailey, G. N. (1981). Concepts, time scales and explanation in economic prehistory. In A. Sheridan & G. N. Bailey (Eds.), Economic archaeology: towards an integration of ecological and social approaches (pp. 97–117). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, S96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, G. N. (1983). Concepts of time in quaternary prehistory. Annual Review of Anthropology, 12, 165–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, G. N. (2007). Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 26, 198–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef, O. (1998). On the nature of the Transition: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic revolution. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8, 141–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Yosef, O., & Belfer-Cohen, A. (1992). From foraging to farming in the mediterranean Levant. In A. B. Gebauer & T. D. Price (Eds.), Transitions to Agriculture in Prehistory (pp. 21–48). Madison: Prehistory Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bintliff, J. (1991). The Annales School and Archaeology. London: Leicester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bintliff, J. (1997). Catastrophe, chaos and complexity: the death, decay and rebirth of towns from antiquity to today. Journal of European Archaeology, 5(2), 67–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bon, F. (2009). Préhistoire. La fabrique de l’Homme. Paris: Le Seuil.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdier, C. (2010). Le Magdalénien moyen en Poitou-Charentes. Une expression symbolique propre ? In J. Buisson-Catil & J. Primault (Eds.), Préhistoire entre Vienne et Charente (pp. 363–382). Paris: Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braudel, F. (1979). La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II (4th ed., Vol. 2). Paris: Armand Colin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chazan, M. (1995). Conceptions of time and the development of Paleolithic chronology. American Anthropologist, 97(3), 457–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collard, M., & Shennan, S. J. (2000). Processes of culture change in Prehistory: a case study from the European Neolithic. In C. Renfrew & K. Boyle (Eds.), Archaeogenetics: DNA and the population prehistory of Europe (pp. 89–97). Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collard, M., Shennan, S. J., & Tehrani, J. (2006). Branching, blending, and the evolution of cultural similarities and differences among human populations. Evolution and Human Behaviour, 27(3), 169–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demoule, J.-P., & Perlès, C. (1993). The Greek Neolithic: a new review. Journal of World Prehistory, 7(4), 355–416.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Demoule, J.-P., Gallis, K., Manolakakis, L. (1988). Transition entre les cultures néolithiques de Sesklo et de Dimini: les catégories céramiques. Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, CXII (I), 1–58.

  • Douka, K., Perlès, C., Valladas, H., Vanhaeren, M., & Higham, T. (2011). Franchthi Cave revisited: the dating of the Aurignacian in SE Europe. Antiquity, 85, 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eldredge, N. (1985). Time frames. The evolution of punctuated equilibria. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farrand, W. R. (1993). Discontinuity in the stratigraphic record: snapshots from Franchthi Cave. In P. Goldberg, D. T. Nash, & M. D. Petraglia (Eds.), Formation Processes in Archaeological Context (pp. 85–96). Madison: Prehistory Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelbert, A. (2003). Traditions céramiques et emprunts techniques dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Éditions Épistèmes.

  • Gosselain, O. (1998). Social and technical identity in a clay cristal ball. In M. T. Stark (Ed.), The Archaeology of Social Boundaries (pp. 79–106). Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goutas, N., Klaric, L. (2010). Discussion sur la pertinence des sériations chrono-culturelles actuelles du Gravettien français: croisement des données de l’industrie lithique et de l’industrie osseuse. Séminaire du Laboratoire Préhistoire et Technologie, 22 mars 2010.

  • Guillomet-Malmassari, V. (2009). Continuité, discontinuité: l’approche des transitions en Préhistoire. Thèse de Doctorat, Université Paris X - Nanterre.

  • Jacobsen, T. W., Farrand, W. R. (1987). Franchthi Cave and Paralia. Maps, Plans and Sections. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, fasc. 1. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

  • Johnson, M. (1996). Water, animals and agricultural technology: a study of settlement patterns and economic change in Neolithic Southern Greece. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 15(3), 267–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp, A. B. (1992). Archaeology, Annales, and Ethnohistory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mazière, G., & Buret, C. (2010). Les incisives de cheval gravées de La Marche (Lussac-les-Châteaux, Vienne). In J. Buisson-Catil & J. Primault (Eds.), Préhistoire entre Vienne et Charente (pp. 397–405). Paris: Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milojčić, V. (1949). Chronologie der jüngeren Steinzeit Mittel-und Südosteuropa. Berlin: Gebrüder Mann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell, R. R., Kielman, D., Constandse-Westermann, T. S., van der Sanden, W. A., & van Glijn, A. (1990). An inquiry into the ethnic resolution of Mesolithic regional groups. Leiden: University of Leiden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1987). Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce). Tome I: Présentation générale et industries paléolithiques, Excavations at Franchthi Cave, fasc. 3. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1990). Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce). Tome II: Les Industries du Mésolithique et du Néolithique initial, Excavations at Franchthi Cave, fasc. 5. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1992). In search of lithic strategies: a cognitive approach to chipped stone industries. In J.-C. Gardin & C. Peebles (Eds.), Representations in Archaeology (pp. 223–247). Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (1998). Conceptions du temps et changement culturel en préhistoire. In Le Temps, actes du Colloque interdisciplinaire, Nantes 12 et 13 mars 1998 (pp. 17–22). Paris: Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la recherche et de la technologie, Institut Universitaire de France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (2001). The Early Neolithic in Greece. The First Farming Communities in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (2004). Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce). Tome III: Du Néolithique ancien au Néolithique final, Excavations at Franchthi Cave, fasc. 13. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (2010a). Is the Dryas the culprit? Socio-economic changes during the Final Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Franchthi Cave (Greece). Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society, 40, 113–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C. (2010b). Grèce et Balkans: deux voies de pénétration distinctes du Néolithique en Europe? In J.-P. Demoule (Ed.), La révolution néolithique dans le monde (pp. 263–281). Paris: CNRS Éditions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perlès, C., & Vanhaeren, M. (2010). Black Cyclope neritea marine shell ornaments in the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Franchthi (Argolid, Greece): arguments for an intentional heat treatment. Journal of Field Archaeology, 35(3), 298–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pétrequin, A.-M., & Pétrequin, P. (1990). Flèches de chasse, flèches de guerre. Le cas des Dani d’Irian Jaya (Indonésie). Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française, 87(10–12), 484–511.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renfrew, C. (1972). The Emergence of Civilization: the Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium B.C. London: Methuen.

  • Runnels, C. N. (1995). Review of Aegean Prehistory IV: The Stone Age of Greece from the Palaeolithic to the advent of the Neolithic. American Journal of Archaeology, 99, 699–728.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Runnels, C. N. (2003). The origins of the Greek Neolithic. A personal view. In A. J. Ammerman & P. Biagi (Eds.), The widening harvest: looking back, looking forward (pp. 121–132). Boston: Archaeological Institut of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Runnels, C. N., & van Andel, T. (1987). The evolution of settlement in the southern Argolid, Greece. An economic explanation. Hesperia, 56(3), 303–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M. E. (1992). Braudel’s temporal rhythms and chronology theory in archaeology. In A. B. Knapp (Ed.), Archaeology, Annales, and Ethnohistory (pp. 51–74). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • St Gould, J., & Eldredge, N. (1977). Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology, 3, 115–151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stahl, A. (1993). Concepts of time and approaches to analogical reasoning. American Antiquity, 58(2), 235–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C. (1999). Palaeolithic mollusc exploitation at Riparo Mochi (Balzi Rossi, Italy): food and ornaments from the Aurignacian through Epigravettian. Antiquity, 73, 735–754.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C. (2010). Shell ornaments from the Upper Palaeolithic through Mesolithic layers of Klissoura Cave 1 by Prosymna, Greece. Eurasian Prehistory, 7(2), 287–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiner, M. C., & Munro, N. (2011). On the evolution of diet and landscape during the Upper Palaeolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi Cave (Peloponnese, Greece). Journal of Human Evolution, 60, 618–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van der Leeuw, S., & McGlade, J. (Eds.). (1997). Time, process and structured transformation in Archaeology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vanhaeren, M., & d’Errico, F. (2006). Aurignacian ethno-linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal ornaments. Journal of Archaeological Science, 33(8), 1105–1128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vitelli, K. D. (1993). Franchthi Neolithic pottery. Vol. 1: Classification and ceramic phases 1 and 2. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, fasc. 8. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vitelli, K. D. (1999). Franchthi Neolithic pottery. Vol. 2: The later Neolithic Ceramic phases 3 to 5. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece, fasc. 10. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the editors of this volume for their invitation, which gave me the opportunity to go back to one of my favorite themes, and to discover new ramifications to this fascinating problem. Work on the Franchthi ornaments was funded by grants from the Instap (2006–2010), which is sincerely thanked, and by a grant from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-06-Blan-0273). My thanks also to two anonymous reviewers who helped me clarify some difficult points and made very valuable suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 7055, “Préhistoire et Technologie”, 21 avenue de l’Université, 92023, Nanterre Cedex, France

    Catherine Perlès

  2. University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, UMR 7055, Nanterre, France

    Catherine Perlès

Authors
  1. Catherine Perlès
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Catherine Perlès.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Perlès, C. Tempi of Change: When Soloists don’t play Together. Arrhythmia in ‘Continuous’ Change. J Archaeol Method Theory 20, 281–299 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9164-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-012-9164-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation