Towards a Cyclical Genesis of Enactive Signification: The Case of Eastern Baltic Early Material Signs

Abstract

This paper develops a theoretical framework for semiogenesis by integrating cognitive archaeology, philosophy, and Eastern Baltic archaeology. The study considers similar material artefacts used for counting in two regions: early clay figurines from the Eastern Baltic and tokens from the Near East. Although similar semiotic counting practices were employed in both regions, they underwent different semiogenetic processes: the Baltic tradition ceased, while Near Eastern tokens evolved into novel symbolic types and writing. I argue that linear models of becoming, particularly those corresponding to hylomorphic ontology, cannot account for these differences; instead, I propose an enactive, genetic, and archaeologically grounded framework that conceptualises signification as a dynamic and cyclical process. Drawing on Lambros Malafouris and Gilbert Simondon, this approach explains how significations and thus material signs emerge and transform through interactions between mind and materiality, while developing through phases of anticipation, perception, memory, and invention; it is proposed that each signification, depending on the milieu, may transform in different directions, thus enabling the variety of material sign changes.