Dominykas Barusevičius

This paper proposes that early Baltic computational practices emerged in action, through gesticulation with clay figurines of various shapes and sizes, and were possibly influenced by the Near Eastern token traditions. To substantiate this hypothesis, the phenomenon of counting in action is examined through considerations of ontological grounds and analysis of relevant archaeological evidence. This reveals that a hylomorphic ontology poses challenges to understanding the phe-nomenon of counting, as it requires reducing counting to an immanent faculty arising within intelligence. In contrast to this reduction, a relationalistic ontology is suggested, proposing that, despite limitations or contradictions imposed by the participants in the relationship, counting emerges in action through technical gesticulations with things. Building on this relationalistic perspective, the computational nature of the Baltic clay figurines is inferred from analogies with the Near Eastern material counting tokens, resulting in a typology that includes biconoids, concaves, discs, miniature vessels, spheres, tools, and miscellaneous items. This inference is supported by the important case of biconoid figurines from the Nevieriškės fortified settlement which serve as direct evidence of their potential computational nature. Additionally, if the Baltic clay figurines were indeed used as counting tools influenced by the Near Eastern token traditions, this supports the claim that Near Eastern computational prototechnologies could have spread beyond their geographical origins.

This paper raises the hypothesis that M. Bakhtin’s creative category of chronotope is within the dynamic of epistemology and socio-constructivism. To this end, two philosophical conceptions are analyzed: Bakhtin’s theory of chronotope as a formally constitutive category of literature and Kant’s transcendental aesthetics and transcendental schematism. This comparative analysis shows that chronotope surpasses its primary field of literary analysis and is interpretable not only as an epistemological category which determines the sense experience of the observer, but also as socio-constructivist category which provides reality with an image of a totality of symbolic social institutes. In this way, it is proposed to understand the concept of reality as the multidimensional image.