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

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

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File(s)
Passerini_cornellgrad_0058F_14266.pdf (13.66 MB)
No Access Until
2026-06-17
Permanent Link(s)
https://doi.org/10.7298/ncpm-ef59
https://hdl.handle.net/1813/115978
Collections
Cornell Theses and Dissertations
Author
Passerini, Annapaola
Abstract

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.

Description
528 pages
Date Issued
2024-05
Keywords
Bayesian modeling
•
Bronze Age
•
radiocarbon dating
•
South Caucasus
•
temporality
•
time
Committee Chair
Smith, Adam
Committee Member
Khatchadourian, Lori
Manning, Sturt
Degree Discipline
Anthropology
Degree Name
Ph. D., Anthropology
Degree Level
Doctor of Philosophy
Type
dissertation or thesis
Link(s) to Catalog Record
https://newcatalog.library.cornell.edu/catalog/16575586

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