Our starting point is summed up by the following three observations: (1)

Relational concepts are commonly used in the study of the past. However,
more formal network perspectives are not necessarily the best approach in
every research context. (2) Network perspectives are distinct from other
research perspectives and have the potential to make a unique contribution
to archaeology and history. (3) In order for this potential to be achieved a
number of challenges need to be addressed. ( p.4)

To argue that network perspectives have the potential to make a unique

contribution to archaeology and history implies that we believe network
perspectives are a different and discrete category of research approaches… p.6

All three examples explore complex past phenomena defined by multiple

interacting entities (e.g. the geographical arrangements, trade routes, and
cultural diffusions between Crete, Egypt, and Sumer; the spatial arrangements
of regions, villages, and individual buildings; and the symbolic parallels and
analogies between houses, ovens, and people)

To argue that network perspectives have the potential to make a unique

contribution to archaeology and history implies that we believe network
perspectives are a different and discrete category of research approaches.
However, network perspectives are by no means a unified body of theories
and methods. Network perspectives range from the highly quantitative to the
highly qualitative; from those appropriate to the local social scale to those
functioning best on the macro geographical or temporal scale; from scientific
to philosophical; and from applications in contemporary groups to those
focusing on past behaviour; and indeed every conceivable combination of
the above.

Archaeologists and historians aim to understand past phenomena, whether

they are past networks of some sort that are hypothesized to have existed (e.g.
a road network) or aspects of human behaviour that translate less straightforwardly
into network concepts (e.g. trade)

Network perspectives, therefore, can never take place in an

‘interpretative vacuum’: all network techniques involve the formulation of
theoretical dependence assumptions. P. 10