Event: Friday Seminar: "The Synthesis of Archaeology and World Systems Analysis and its Application to the Region of Southern Caucasia"

Speaker: Dr. Pavel Avetisyan, Director, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia

This talk is dedicated to the investigation of the main concepts in World-system analysis such as border, border-line, frontier, and contact zone. Taking in to account the privileges of World-system analysis in archaeological investigations, this contribution, through demonstration of concrete cases, argues the idea of formation of “Near Eastern World-system” during the mid phase of Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPNB) as a result of Agricultural Revolution. This oldest World-system was disintegrated during the first half of the 7th millennium BC with the establishment of new historical systems of regional significance: the result of these developments was the appearance in historical arena of Bronze Age World-systems.