This paper explores the potential for Assemblage Theory to contribute to current approaches in network thinking in Archaeology. I argue that Assemblage Theory offers improved explanatory models for understanding relationality and how social networks aggregate, change, and disassemble over time at multiple scales. In recent years, network approaches in Archaeology have encouraged the study of complex assemblages. To complement these studies, I argue for the productivity of broadening traditional definitions of assemblage to one that does not discriminate between assemblages of itinerant objects in dispersed networks and those situated within a self-contained site. Following Assemblage Theory, I therefore suggest that assemblage is best defined as a cluster of emergent, relational phenomena and that materials, human actants, forces, and other matter need not be confined to any one geographically delineated space in order to constitute an assemblage. To evaluate the possibilities for Assemblage Theory applications, I examine the movements of walrus ivory objects across the North Atlantic and continental Europe, ca. 800–1550 CE. A reconstruction of the extended network involved in these itinerant materials reveals patterns of material movements informed by economic behavior and political change. The application of Assemblage Theory to this model offers a valuable theoretical foundation to address the interconnected agency and relationality of network entities and components. This approach allows for greater complexity and specificity in identifying and explaining the material networks which generated economic change between medieval Europe and Africa.

本文探讨了组合理论为考古学网络思维的当前方法做出贡献的潜力。我认为，集合理论提供了改进的解释模型，用于理解关系以及随着时间的推移社交网络如何在多个规模上聚集，变化和分解。近年来，考古学中的网络方法鼓励了对复杂组合的研究。为了补充这些研究，我主张将传统的组合定义扩展到不区分分散网络中的巡回对象的组合和位于独立区域中的对象的组合的生产率。继集结号理论，因此，我建议组合最好将其定义为一系列新兴的，相关的现象，并且材料，人类行为者，部队和其他物质不必局限于任何一个地理上划定的空间即可构成一个集合。为了评估应用组合理论的可能性，我研究了海象牙对象在北大西洋和欧洲大陆的运动。公元800–1550年。对这些巡回材料中涉及的扩展网络的重建揭示了经济行为和政治变化所导致的物质运动模式。组合理论在该模型中的应用为解决网络实体和组件的相互关联的代理和关系提供了宝贵的理论基础。这种方法在识别和解释在中世纪欧洲和非洲之间产生经济变化的物质网络时，允许更大的复杂性和特殊性。