Presented by Tsoni Tsonev
In track Posters

Traditionally in archaeological interpretation there have already been established causal relationships that explain the appearance of social outcomes as a result of social action. For example, the appearance of Alpine jade axes within the Alpine zone forms a spatial distribution that approximates a Gaussian one. This fact means directly that there is a causal relationship established between the presence of these artefacts and the appearance of social inequality. In other words the importance of the mean value that summarizes the meaning of the distances between the different occurrences of artefacts supports the idea of existence of direct causal relationship. Or it may be called the ‘first-order rule’ that is valid in this geographic region.
A. Giddens, however, defined the concept of unexpected social consequences. Some social actions that aim accomplishing definite social goas receive reactions in the form of unpredicted outcomes. Common sense requires admitting that in archaeology this kind of feedback will have effects on the spatial distribution of archaeological materials. For example, it was found out that the spatial distribution of Alpine jade axes in the eastern Balkans follows Binomial distribution rather than a normal one. In other words there are invisible rules that break down the otherwise clear-cut causal relations established in the Alpine zone. On the other hand by approaching the northwestern Black Sea coast the probability of occurrence of such artefacts increases significantly. Contrary to this the chances of finding Alpine jade artefacts in the delta of the Danube River or on the Aegean islands are very low. Thus the general rule that unites as a thread all these diverse presence/absence patterns is their unpredictability. So far the concept of ‘unpredictability’ has been avoided in archaeological interpretations but I will further elaborate on its usefulness especially in the area of defining the concept of a boundary between “archaeological cultures”. Thus the ‘unexpected’ or ‘unpredicted’ occurrences or absence of particular artefacts have the quality to break down the first-order rules which indicates that they obey higher-order meta-rules.
In my analyses I will try to show that meta-rules do not stay outside time and causality. I will present that part of their nature consists of following simple causal chains but their feedback under certain circumstances will follow complex behavior. Further I will draw these concepts from diverse archaeological examples of spatial distributions (presence/absence patterns) of particular artefacts some of which so far have been neglected but which I think played an important role in the successful adaptation of early farming communities in the eastern Balkans. Of particular interest will be the examples of human colors in prehistory, the distribution of flat bone figurines (amulets and probably elements of clothing) and some aspects of the spatial distribution of the Alpine jade axes. They will be considered in terms of communicative networks that will reveal their recurrent and relational nature.