From order to narrative: assembling eventfulness through Bayesian chronologies. A view from the Early Bronze Age (3500-2500 BCE) South Caucasus

This dissertation addresses the impasse between absolute time and lived temporalities through a radiocarbon-based approach. I harness Bayesian chronological modeling as a theoretical and methodological intervention to reconstitute “eventfulness” from the ground up. Instead of exploring change as solely described by chrono-typological paradigms, I look at the intersection of multiple dimensions of organic and inorganic time as they materialize in the archaeological record. In doing so, I effectively weave narratives that adhere to the lived experience of social agents while relating them to material practices. I explore these themes in the context of the Kura-Araxes culture (3500-2500 BCE), a pressing “chronological case” for the archaeology of the South Caucasus and Southwest Asia. In this dissertation, I challenge the notion of “events” as extraordinary happenings in favor of pervasive “eventfulness”, extended to the repeating events that maintain organic and inorganic temporal cycles. Within this framework, I advocate for the reconceptualization of radiocarbon dates as materialized lived events, enabling insights into absolute, seasonal, and generational time, as well as the ruptures resulting from their reconfiguration. Empirically, I investigate these temporalities through their material correlates within the Kura-Araxes horizon, ranging from ceramic productions to burial episodes and spatial relocation. Methodologically, I apply chronometric hygiene to assemble radiocarbon datasets that adhere to eventful assemblages. I then compile the data into site-specific Bayesian models, producing contextual date estimates. The results describe a much more fragmented and diverse temporal scenario for the development of the Kura-Araxes culture. Site-specific date estimates demonstrate that most of the sites formerly assumed to be coeval were not contemporary, breaking down the notion of the Kura-Araxes as a unitary cultural phenomenon. The adherence of these Bayesian chronologies to a multitemporal framework highlights how changes in absolute, seasonal, and generational time reverberated across the Kura-Araxes world. The results also call for a reflection on the power of temporal labels in creating archaeological subjects. Ultimately, this dissertation develops a critique of archaeology’s epistemology of time, examining the theories and methods that the discipline traditionally employs to create both narratives of the past and meaning in the present.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D., Anthropology

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Anthropology

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Passerini, Annapaola

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Khatchadourian, Lori
• Manning, Sturt

• Bayesian modeling
• Bronze Age
• radiocarbon dating
• South Caucasus
• temporality
• time

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7298/ncpm-ef59

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 14266
ProQuest Publication ID: 31242389

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/115978