Abstract
While network techniques are now used with some frequency in archaeology for tackling questions of connectivity and mobility at regional and inter-regional scales, they are still somewhat underexploited for more local scales. The considerable potential for multiscalar analysis has recently seen some progress, however, wedded to the idea of communities of practice. In this paper, I consider how this multiscalar approach could aid in the study of ancient globalizations, with the particular case of Minoanization from the Aegean Bronze Age. Although this specific problem has seen some network applications, they have mostly not been multiscalar in nature. I address some of the reasons for this state of affairs, using a distinction between “theory” and “data” models—and suggest some possible outcomes of a more explicitly multiscalar approach to Minoanization.
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Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to Valentine Roux for inviting me to take part in the workshop ‘Diffusion of Innovations: Social Boundaries and Networks,’ at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in June 2016; and for her thoughtful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Sylviane Déderix kindly produced Fig. 2. My sincere thanks also go to Barbara Mills and Anna Collar, who both provided feedback on an earlier version, as did four anonymous reviewers.
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Knappett, C. From Network Connectivity to Human Mobility: Models for Minoanization. J Archaeol Method Theory 25, 974–995 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9396-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-018-9396-9