Challenging theories on social hierarchies in prehistory

The global distribution of wealth is currently the subject of a controversial debate. In this context, the social sciences, the humanities and the economy intensely study how social hierarchies occur in human communities and where these processes come. A theory widely organized to date is that the introduction of agriculture in Europe at the start of the Neolithic period, about 8,000 years ago, inevitably led to socially unequal communities. The introduction of the plow and the associated hereditary transfer of agricultural capital have still intensified this process.

Now a study published in Scientific advances Questions this theory using the example of the Carpatian basin.

“We show that social inequalities have not increased during the five thousand years following the introduction of agriculture in southeast Europe, and that the introduction of the plow quickly favored neither the extent nor the permanence of inequality,” explains the main author of the study, archaeologist Dr Paul R. Duffy from the excellence of the Kiel Excellence Group.

The study is based on several years of research on the prehistory of the Carpathian Basin, led by researchers in the root underclusive “roots of inequalities”, as well as colleagues from the United States, the Carpathian basin is particularly well suited to this question because it represents a springboard for the spread of early agriculture of the Middle East via anatolics and the Balkans for the center of Europe.

“In recent decades, there have been a large number of excavations in the region. This richness of archaeological data also makes the Basin des carpathes ideal to seek the development of socio-economic inequalities in prehistory,” said Dr. Duffy.

As an indicator of inequality, researchers have used – among other things – the archaeologically quantifiable size of houses. Their construction is expensive and they represent a tangible and heritable wealth.

The results of the study show, however, that social inequality based on the size of houses has not changed significantly between the beginning of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

The researchers also collected data on other aspects of prehistoric companies, including the size of the establishments, their duration and the extent to which people collaborated on earthworks and the construction of trenches.

They found that people had dug ditches for defensive or ceremonial purposes shortly after the arrival of farmers in southeast Europe until the least the first millennium before our era, but it was only at the late Bronze Age, around 1400 BCE, that these ditches increased considerably.

The duration of the regulation also shows clear trends: the colonies prior to the Neolithic course lasted much longer than mega-fortunes and other colonies of the Bronze Age.

“These results suggest that the ability of companies to organize for collective action has increased during prehistoric times. However, these changes have not automatically led to measurable inequalities in material wealth. Only subsequent groups show a larger range of inequalities,” said the co-author, Dr Fynn Wilkes, currently a postdoctural researcher roots of excellence.

At the same time, archaeological data such as the shorter occupation period of bronze age establishments suggest that people have left the colonies where the first hierarchies were formed.

“Apparently, they were able to vote with their feet, undergoing the ability of ambitious leaders to impose their will on the first communities,” said Dr. Duffy.

The data therefore does not show a necessary link between the introduction of agriculture and the increase in inequalities. By using a detailed regional example, the study confirms previous global studies which also question the long -term automatic development of social inequalities from the Neolithic period.

“More detailed studies on well -documented regions are certainly necessary to better understand the mechanisms that lead or prevent inequalities,” concludes Dr. Duffy.