Aleksandr Diachenko
Fellow 2024/2025
History/Archaeology
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv
Volkswagen Stiftung
oleksandr.diachenko@gmail.com
Bio
Aleksandr Diachenko is a senior researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, specializing in anthropological archaeology. His research focuses on modeling long-term cultural patterns, archaeological demography, spatial systems, and the Eneolithic period in Eastern Europe. A key aspect of his work involves developing space-time models to analyze human migration and social complexity, integrating traditional typochronological methods with computational and archaeometric approaches. His research fosters collaboration between scholars from Ukraine, the EU, the US, and the UK.
Born in Cherkasy, Ukraine, he graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1999 and obtained a Candidate of Science degree from the Institute of Archaeology, NAS of Ukraine in 2010. Since 2015, he has contributed to multiple international research projects as a Co-PI, consultant, and investigator. His international experience includes a Fulbright Scholar Academic Exchange Program (2010–2011), a Guest Research Fellowship at the Graduate School “Human Development in Landscapes,” CAU, Kiel, Germany (2016–2017), and a Fellowship at the Deutsche Archäologische Institut (2022).
He serves on the advisory board of the Journal of World Prehistory and the editorial boards of the Journal of Neolithic Archaeology (Kiel, Germany) and Revista Archeologică (Chișinău, Moldova). Since 2013, he has been an active member of the European Association of Archaeologists.
Revealing Patterns of Storage, Transmission and Use of Information in Prehistory from the Diversity of Archaeological Record
Alex Mesoudi, a renowned expert in the field, defines ‘culture’ broadly as “information acquired from others through social transmission mechanisms such as imitation, teaching, or language.” While debates continue regarding the ability to extract semantic information from archaeological data, the analysis of syntactic information is increasingly possible through information-theoretic approaches. These quantitative methods, which are rapidly developing across various scientific fields, are often employed in archaeology to assess assemblage diversities, revealing behavioral patterns across spatial and temporal scales. Thus, understanding the factors driving artifact and assemblage diversity is crucial for advancing both current and future methodologies in archaeology.
This proposed project seeks to establish an integrative methodological and theoretical framework to explain the complex interplay of social factors that shape the group-level storage, transmission, and use of information, leading to artifact and assemblage diversity in prehistory. Key theoretical focuses include the predictability and uncertainties of long-term cultural trends, as well as the correlation between social and cultural change. The explanatory potential of the developed framework will be tested through case studies from European prehistory, specifically sites from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture (c. 5000–2950 BCE) located between the Dniester and Dnipro rivers. These sites provide statistically significant datasets suitable for analyzing long-term cultural patterns.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project involves international collaboration, combining archaeological-specific quantitative approaches (in partnership with experts in theoretical physics) and cross-contextual data analysis (in collaboration with specialists in various archaeological cultures).
The findings of the study will be disseminated through articles published in high-ranking journals and presentations at international conferences.