In a seminal article on archaeological network theories and applications, in 2015, the editor of the present volume referred to Gartner's hype cycle to explain how an innovation such as network theory was adopted and over-hyped in archaeology. After (too) quick an adoption of the innovation in Gartner's cycle follows a period of abandonment, due to disillusionment as to what the technology can achieve (or not), after which follows a more stable period of productive exploitation. The present volume firmly indicates that we have now arrived at the point at which network theory and its archaeological and historical uses are fully understood and productively exploited for a wide variety of case studies, and contributes to a more nuanced use and critical interpretation of the results.
In this thoughtfully composed volume, contributions reflect on the network structures that have historically allowed for complex innovations to take root. The contributions broadly focus on religious and cultic innovations and are grouped into three thematic sections: ‘Sanctuaries: the Places That Bind’; ‘Storytelling: the Stories That Bind’; and ‘Systems: the Structures That Bind’.
In the opening chapter Collar introduces the rationale behind the volume. Previous network thinking in archaeology and the historical sciences quickly adopted the concept of Small Worlds, first introduced by M. Granovetter in his celebrated paper ‘The Strength of Weak Ties’ (AJS 78 [1973]). Granovetter claimed that jobseekers more easily obtained useful information about jobs from outside their immediate network. The idea is that people who are already in close contact with each other share the same knowledge and thus new information best comes from outside this network.
Critical analysis of the Small World concept in sociology and the historical sciences has, however, proposed that complex ideas need more than a superficial and random connection to take root. Complex innovations, such as religious beliefs or cultic practices, need repeated contact and often a high degree of trust in order to be adopted and transmitted successfully. The contributions in the volume all engage with this idea of complex networks, strong versus weak ties, and include both formal network-theoretical approaches and more loose applications of network concepts and relational thinking to analyse various case studies of complex contagion and its consequences.
In the first case study M. Daniels productively applies network thinking to counter the outdated notion of orientalising culture in Greek antiquity. The adoption of various oriental features in Greek culture has long been seen as a simple and unilateral adoption from East to West, but Daniels argues instead that the adoption and adaptation was complex and multifaceted. She proposes to see sanctuaries as bridges of overlapping forms of mobility and practices of worship and dedication. Ties forged were synchronic, between different sanctuaries that tied together communities of (elite) practices, and diachronic, in terms of long-standing relations between the Aegean and the East, with shared concepts and iconographies such as the female nude.
One of the deeply transformative innovations in the Archaic Greek world was coinage. Controversy surrounds the mechanisms of the introduction and transmission of coins in Archaic Greek city states. Some cities and communities were early adopters (sixth century bce), while others were much later, without a seemingly obvious explanation. In the third contribution J. Mooring argues that occasions of gathering for Panhellenic festivals created the opportunity for the transmission of the concept of coinage. Sustained by weak and strong ties, forged by participants at the festivals, knowledge of the innovation spread, following the more superficial interaction of weak ties. These made people aware of the innovation. But Mooring convincingly argues that eventually strong ties were needed to create sufficient trust to adopt and implement this innovation successfully in their respective city-states.
The importance of cult as a setting for the transmission of behaviours is also evident when studying the phenomenon of what scholars call the Samothracian mysteries, a collective name assigned to cult practices, which required initiation and involved secret religious rites surrounding beliefs in chthonic deities, death and afterlife. Due to the secret nature, we lack detailed descriptions of the working of the cult. A corpus of inscriptions, however, provides geographical evidence of dedications, including details about actors and acts of piety. S. Blakely and J. Mundy use a formal network analysis to visualise and study the structure of the network evidenced through the inscriptions. The islands of Rhodes and Chios and the cities of Ephesus and, to a lesser extent, Rome prove to have been important nodes in the network structure. The authors rightfully point out that the image generated might be biased and rather highlights ancient epigraphic habits and survival than that it is necessarily a reflection of the importance of the cult in these locations.
The importance of ties generated by and in turn generating communities of cult also figures in the first chapter of Part 2, by C. Williamson. The Hellenistic period witnessed a rapid increase in cults and religious festivals, modelled along the examples of the large Panhellenic festivals of the Archaic and classical periods. How festivals can generate a linked community is explored in this chapter. Drawing on an underlying concept of networks, this paper outlines how ties are forged and how they can sustain a network of cult to exist successfully. It is proposed that a shared sense of time and thus communal identity and memory were generated through the festival, and interpersonal ties of (real or imagined) kinship and the sending of embassies were repeatedly activated and re-activated. The activities of participating in, witnessing and commemorating agones (‘competitions’) was an important part of Greek and Hellenistic cult, in addition to cult practices such as dedication and sacrifice. The kinds of network that these festivals and cults generated were complex and cannot be reduced to simple strong or weak ties, Williamson rightly argues. But future research should focus more on why the particular network structures took the shape they did.
Another enigmatic cult of antiquity is that of Mithras. While little written evidence is available, due to the secret nature of the cult, iconographic evidence is better known. Depictions of Mithras and the bull present differences and the underlying reasons are not well understood. K. Stoba successfully applies a formal network approach to gain a better understanding of the spread of these images, and thus the religious beliefs and practices that came with them. The catalogue of Mithras depictions is mapped as a network, based on the number of similarities they share. The analysis makes clear that there appear to be distinct geographical differences in the depiction of Mithras and the tauromachy, and it proposes that these most likely result from close interaction, an idea that provides a fresh interpretation of this enigmatic cult.
In the last chapter of this section N. Andrade studies the spread of early Christian traditions about the burial of Thomas the Apostle. Rivalling traditions about the burial location existed early in late antiquity, locating the burial in India, whereas alternative sources claimed that the Apostle's body had been brought to Edessa, in upper Mesopotamia. The sources appear to agree that the body was relocated, which needs to be seen as pointing to shared knowledge of the event. The contribution elaborates on the various networks of travel and trade that existed at the time, linking these regions, and which we can assume allowed for oral traditions such as those about the Apostle's burial place to be shared in different places. The contribution highlights the complexity of flows of goods, people and knowledge that travel along the same networks.
Part 3 comprises three papers that explore the importance of complex structures of religious practices, which bind people together. The outcomes of Christianity have been amply studied, but the exact processes underlying Christianisation have not, the first chapter of this section argues. R. Sweetman proposes that network concepts can help to conceptualise the transmission and acceptance of new Christian beliefs in antiquity. Various interpersonal networks, such as close social ties and trade links, existed between cities where Christianity was first adopted. These pre-existing ties also explain the different degree and rhythms of adoption, Sweetman suggests, an idea much in line with the previous chapter on traditions of the burial of the Apostle Thomas. However, the eventual building of churches created its own local network dynamics in local communities and bolstered the visibility and thus ensured the increasing success of Christianity as a religion.
K. Mallon looks at the sort of networks bishops tried to create in early Christianity (fourth–sixth centuries ce). The contribution is not an empirical analysis but instead a theoretical exploration, from a macro-perspective, of how a complex network structure would have functioned (under ideal circumstances) in order to successfully sustain ecclesiastical law, as it seemingly did. Mallon points out that the Church was unable to control all aspects of Church management, for example local finances; bishops were relatively free to make their own arrangements in this regard. In other aspects, however, a much tighter control was exercised, particularly in matters of dogma, and expulsion from the network was perceived as an effective punishment. Specific roles, such as deacons, appear to have functioned as bridges and explain the functioning of the complex network metaphor.
The analysis of heterodox Christian beliefs in fifteenth-century Bristol is studied by E. Lewis in the last chapter. Scholars disagree about the role of heretics in Bristol as well as the level of their organisation. Adopting a formal approach, Lewis studies evidence of orthodox documents of testaments for mentions of donations to pious institutions. Despite the fragmentary evidence, the analysis reveals that certain parishes and friaries were better furnished through donations than others. It seems that topography and (close) location to the donor were important factors in the selection of institutions that were considered with a donation. Existing religious ties might also explain how heterodox ideas were transmitted. The role of the burgess society, which the analysis highlights, has been ignored by previous research. Lewis furthermore suggests that piety might be a more productive focus for analysis, rather than the dichotomy between orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
The contributions clearly demonstrate the added value of network-theoretical concepts. They also highlight the strong explanatory power of formal network analysis. Following Gartner's hype cycle, the innovation of network analysis has become sufficiently integrated and understood for it to be productively applied in different circumstances. When carefully applied and accounting for lacunae in the data, a formal approach reveals patterns that would otherwise have remained hidden, as the different contributions to this volume convincingly argue. On the other hand, reflecting critically, using network metaphors, on the different structures that might have surrounded the transmission of ideas and innovations is also a useful approach, as various contributions demonstrate.
Scholars interested in network theory will be particularly drawn to Collar's extensive discussion in the first chapter, while other scholars will find the application of the concepts in various case studies useful. More generally, scholars in religious history will be interested by the new ideas and hypotheses that network theory brings to the field of religious and cult studies.
