This paper examines the concept of resilience as one of
the central analytical frameworks in contemporary thinking about
change, crisis, and adaptation, and offers a critical reassessment
of its use in archaeological theory. Originally situated within
cybernetics and complex systems theory, the concept of resilience
has often been adopted in archaeology without sufficient reflection
on its epistemological and political assumptions. We argue that
the abstract application of systemic resilience tends to bypass
crucial questions of materiality, agency, and the historicity of the
archaeological record. Instead, we propose a shift of focus towards
material resilience, understood as a relational phenomenon that
emerges through concrete interactions between material entities.
Drawing on conceptual tools from assemblage theory, relational
ontology, and the notion of the event, the paper seeks to expand our
understanding of change and disintegration in the archaeological
record. Particular emphasis is placed on the event as a test of
resilience and reorganisation, and we critically explore the multi-temporal rhythms and spatial dimensions through which resilience is manifested. In doing so, the paper offers a new conceptual
framework for archaeological analysis of change—one that moves
beyond the binary logic of stability and collapse and allows for a
more open-ended, political, and materially sensitive interpretation
of the archaeological past.
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