Early Complex Societies Research Articles

Use of Proteomics for Dietary Reconstruction: A Case Study Using Animal Teeth from Ancient Mesopotamia.

This research examines animal teeth from Early Dynastic (2900-2350 BCE) Mesopotamia (Southern Iraq) to assess animal management practices and identify consumption patterns in animal diets. The objective to answer larger questions about food management and environmental resilience in ancient early complex societies in the Near East was achieved by the use of mass spectrometry-based proteomics for dietary reconstruction. Dietary MS, a revolutionary new methodology applying proteomics techniques to archeological sample sets to reconstruct ancient animal diet. A developed protein extraction technique followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry allowed for the identification of the specific plant species consumed in order to highlight variable herd management strategies, resource optimization, for each taxon over time. It also provided information about overall health and indications of disease. This is the first study to apply a full suite of analyses to the region and provides the foundations of a necessary long-term view of human interaction within an environment, through both time and space.

Bone-artefact production in late Neolithic central China: evidence from Pingliangtai

As an important component of prehistoric subsistence, an understanding of bone-working is essential for interpreting the evolution of early complex societies, yet worked bones are rarely systematically collected in China. Here, the authors apply multiple analytical methods to worked bones from the Longshan site of Pingliangtai, in central China, showing that Neolithic bone-working in this area, with cervid as the main raw material, was mature but localised, household-based and self-sufficient. The introduction of cattle in the Late Neolithic precipitated a shift in bone-working traditions but it was only later, in the Bronze Age, that cattle bones were utilised in a specialised fashion and dedicated bone-working industries emerged in urban centres.

A typology of polished stone axes in the middle Yellow River and their impact on early complex societies

Polished stone axes have long been recognized as essential tools directly related to logging and wood processing in sedentary societies, playing a crucial role in prehistoric people's survival and social production. Their evolution as production tools has been a driving force behind the advancement of society's productive capacities. In this article, information and data on stone axes from the middle Yellow River region are systematically compiled, presenting a typology based on 640 stone axes from 153 sites spanning the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The main conclusions derived from the study are as follows: (1) Typological study reveals that stone axes can be classified into 7 types. By examining the evolution of these types and their combinations, four distinct phases in the development of stone axes are identified, reaching its peak during the middle stage of Phase 4. (2) The flourishing of the stone axe types originated in the Yangshao period in the Guanzhong Plain. With the development of social complexity and the establishment of the Xia and Shang dynasties after the Longshan period, the center of gravity of stone axe types and assemblages gradually shifted to the Central Plains and the Fen River Valley. Finally, the genealogy spread to the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains and declined. (3) The types of stone axes from the late Yangshao period and the middle and late Longshan periods exhibit a clear shift, highlighting their functional differentiation during these periods. (4) The production of stone axes can be categorized into two modes based on the raw stone material used: (a) and (b). The metallization of tools, even during the so-called Bronze Age, experienced significant delays, and it was only during the Yinxu era that bronze axes began to replace some of the stone axes produced in mode (b). (5) The functional differentiation of axes and the transformation of the mode of production have played a role in inducing the emergence of social complexity and expediting its development to some extent.

Diet, Status, and incipient social Inequality: Stable isotope data from three complex Fisher-Hunter-Gatherer sites in southern California

How different were the lives of elites and commoners in early complex societies? This paper examines this question using data from three fisher-hunter-gatherer sites in southern California. Using shell bead counts from burials as proxies for social status and previously published human stable isotope values as indicators of dietary practices, we examine the relationship between diet and status across a period of major sociopolitical change. Our results found no significant relationships between the quantity of beads and stable isotope values, indicating that differential access to foods was not a significant way in which status was manifested in these communities. Instead, we suggest that activities including ownership of sea-going canoes, access to imported goods, and the provisioning of community feasts were likely venues for elite status signaling.

Amelogenin peptide analyses reveal female leadership in Copper Age Iberia (c. 2900–2650 BC)

Given the absence of written records, the main source of information available to analyze gender inequalities in early complex societies is the human body itself. And yet, for decades, archaeologists have struggled with the sex estimation of poorly preserved human remains. Here we present an exceptional case study that shows how ground-breaking new scientific methods may address this problem. Through the analysis of sexually dimorphic amelogenin peptides in tooth enamel, we establish that the most socially prominent person of the Iberian Copper Age (c. 3200–2200 BC) was not male, as previously thought, but female. The analysis of this woman, discovered in 2008 at Valencina, Spain, reveals that she was a leading social figure at a time where no male attained a remotely comparable social position. Only other women buried a short time after in the Montelirio tholos, part of the same burial area, appear to have enjoyed a similarly high social position. Our results invite to reconsider established interpretations about the political role of women at the onset of early social complexity, and question traditionally held views of the past. Furthermore, this study anticipates the changes that newly developed scientific methods may bring to prehistoric archaeology and the study of human social evolution.

Marine shellfish exploitation as a means of reducing vulnerability to resource uncertainty in southern coastal Peru (200 BCE–150 CE)

The effects of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are notoriously hazardous for human populations of the hyperarid Peruvian coast. Yet, ENSO climate fluctuations are fundamental to the ecology of desert plant and animal resources that have been incorporated into human subsistence economies for millennia. We examine marine shellfish exploitation among early complex societies in southern coastal Peru at the end of the first millenium BCE to better understand the subsistence vulnerability of communities in arid environments with variable resource availability and productivity. We analyze new shellfish data from Jahuay, a shoreline fishing settlement in the Topará Quebrada occupied amidst new regional social hierarchies and intensifying inner-valley agriculture. We compare mollusk taxonomic diversity and taxa rank order with published assemblages from four near-contemporaneous sites to assess local and regional trends in resource exploitation. At Jahuay, a unique focus on foraging plentiful Donax obesulus clams resistant to ENSO effects may reflect a local buffering strategy to ensure a resource supply through interannual and decadal climate oscillations. Our comparative results suggest regional reliance on intertidal resource patches, especially rocky habitats, for consumable shellfish. The relative convenience of gathering sessile intertidal taxa that form dense settlements may partly explain their regional popularity. The potential to dry and exchange mollusk meat as a protein source likely enhanced diet diversification while supporting economic and social relationships between communities. Overall, our findings imply that mollusks and intertidal foraging landscapes were important within a broad-spectrum subsistence strategy suited to maintaining and coordinating food availability in a dynamic environment.

Household Rituals and Merchant Caravanners: The Phenomenon of Early Bronze Age Donkey Burials from Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

Simple SummaryThe goal of this study is to increase our understanding of the role of ritual in the domestic residences of commoners in early complex societies in the ancient Near East. Most archaeologists have concentrated their research on rituals taking place in the public and administrative areas of early cities (e.g., temples and palaces). However, the bulk of the population lived in simple domestic residences and were not involved in the public ritual displays except as onlookers. We present the results of our recent excavations at the Early Bronze Age site of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel. Our excavations at the site have uncovered the remains of early domestic donkeys and other goods that were buried as the neighbourhood was constructed and houses were renovated. These provide insight into the role of ritual in everyday life for most people in these early cities. As the donkey burials are very limited in their location in these early cities, we propose that such residences were inhabited by merchant families.Most studies of ritual and symbolism in early complex societies of the Near East have focused on elite and/or public behavioural domains. However, the vast bulk of the population would not have been able to fully participate in such public displays. This paper explores the zooarchaeological and associated archaeological evidence for household rituals in lower-stratum residences in the Early Bronze Age (EB) of the southern Levant. Data from the EB III (c. 2850–2550 BCE) deposits excavated at the site of Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, are illustrative of the difficulty in identifying the nature of household rituals. An integrated analytical approach to the architecture, figurines, foundation deposits, and domestic donkey burials found in lower-stratum domestic residences provides insights into the nature of household rituals. This integrated contextual perspective allows the sacred and symbolic role(s) of each to be understood and their importance for EB urban society to be evaluated.

Ancient Yersinia pestis and Salmonella enterica genomes from Bronze Age Crete

During the late 3rd millennium BCE, the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East witnessed societal changes in many regions, which are usually explained with a combination of social and climatic factors.1-4 However, recent archaeogenetic research forces us to rethink models regarding the role of infectious diseases in past societal trajectories.5 The plague bacterium Yersinia pestis, which was involved in some of the most destructive historical pandemics,5-8 circulated across Eurasia at least from the onset of the 3rd millennium BCE,9-13 but the challenging preservation of ancient DNA in warmer climates has restricted the identification of Y.pestis from this period to temperate climatic regions. As such, evidence from culturally prominent regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean is currently lacking. Here, we present genetic evidence for the presence of Y.pestis and Salmonella enterica, the causative agent of typhoid/enteric fever, from this period of transformation in Crete, detected at the cave site Hagios Charalambos. We reconstructed one Y.pestis genome that forms part of a now-extinct lineage of Y.pestis strains from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age that were likely not yet adapted for transmission via fleas. Furthermore, we reconstructed two ancient S.enterica genomes from the Para C lineage, which cluster with contemporary strains that were likely not yet fully host adapted to humans. The occurrence of these two virulent pathogens at the end of the Early Minoan period in Crete emphasizes the necessity to re-introduce infectious diseases as an additional factor possibly contributing to the transformation of early complex societies in the Aegean and beyond.

Women, residential patterns and early social complexity. From theory to practice in Copper Age Iberia

The relationship between residence, gender and mobility is central to the study of early social complexity. And yet, until recently, it was deemed as archaeologically intractable. The recent combination of strontium data and genomics with other methods has opened up entirely new possibilities for the archaeological study of human mobility, but these advances are not without problems. Theoretical framing, empirical accuracy and data interpretation remain controversial. In this paper we address the relationship between residence patterns, gender and mobility among early complex societies, combining both ethnographic and archaeological evidence. Our approach focuses on Chalcolithic Iberia, a period in which the stage for emerging social complexity was set. The possible existence of male-centered residential patterns and their possible connection with conflict, social complexity and gender inequalities is examined. The available data on strontium isotopes suggest women were more frequently buried in places different from those where they grew up, which can be linked to bilocality biased to patrilocality, especially in the so called ‘mega-sites’. While preliminary, this body of evidence opens up fresh lines of enquiry for the study of early complex societies, highlights the benefits of combining different kinds of evidence, and underlines the centrality of gender in the social analysis.

Crafting Idiosyncrasies. Early Social Complexity, Ivory and Identity-Making in Copper Age Iberia

As a raw material, ivory has been used to manufacture a wide range of objects, normally associated with sumptuous material culture. In this article we explore the role played by ivory and ivory artefacts among early complex societies, and particularly its importance in the definition of identities among emergent elites. To this end, we make a thorough examination of the evidence from Copper Age Iberia, focusing on the mega-site of Valencina, in southern Spain. This site has provided what to date is the largest assemblage of prehistoric ivory in western Europe, with an estimated total of 8.8 kg, including finely crafted artefacts of unrivalled beauty and sophistication. Our study looks carefully at the technological, morphological and contextual dimensions of Copper Age ivory. As a result, we contend that the broad morphological variability together with the technological uniformity of this assemblage suggest that, while belonging to a common technological tradition, objects were deliberately crafted as unique and unrepeatable so that they could be used to create and maintain socio-cultural idiosyncrasies and ideological legitimation.

Local economies and household spacing in early chiefdom communities.

Archaeological research has by now revealed a great deal of variation in the way early complex societies, or chiefdoms, developed. This variation is widely recognized, but our understanding of the forces that produced it remains relatively undeveloped. This paper takes aim at such understanding by exploring variation in the local economies of six early chiefdoms; it considers what implications this variation had for trajectories of chiefdom development, as well as the source of that variation. Economic exchange is a primary form of local interaction in all societies. Because of distance-interaction principles, closer household spacing within local communities facilitated more frequent interaction and thus encouraged productive differentiation, economic interdependence, and the development of well-integrated local economies. Well-integrated local economies, in turn, provided ready opportunities for aspiring leaders to accumulate wealth and fund political economies, and pursuit of these opportunities led to societies with leaders whose power had a direct economic base. Wider household spacing, on the other hand, impeded interaction and the development of well-integrated local economies. In such contexts, aspiring leaders were able to turn to ritual and religion as a base of social power. Even when well-integrated local economies offered opportunities for wealth accumulation and a ready source of funding for political economies, these opportunities were not always taken advantage of. That variation in the shapes of early chiefdoms can be traced back to patterns of household spacing highlights the importance of settlement and interaction in explaining not just chiefdom development, but societal change more generally.

Lingjiatan early complex societies and social organization in the Yuxi Valley, China

The social differentiation of the Lingjiatan site in middle Neolithic China has long been recognized by archaeologists based on discoveries of a plethora of exquisite jades and ceremonial works. The symbolic and ritual meanings of the elaborate jades have been the main focus of archaeological research, while the social organization and the natures of communities of Lingjiatan societies have received little attention. These aspects, however, provide an excellent context for understanding the various pathways taken by early complex societies. Analysis of a large sample of remains from a systematic complete-coverage survey in the Yuxi River valley of Anhui, China complements the current knowledge of the Lingjiatan site through reconstructing the trajectory of social changes and documenting patterns of social organization as well as the nature and population of communities at local and supra-local scales in this region from the middle Neolithic to historical Zhou (c. 5700–2500 BP). Results suggest that while ritual and ceremonial power seem to be the principal centripetal forces in creating a strong centralized Lingjiatan chiefly polity, the Yuxi survey region is characterized by numerous, relatively autonomous supra-local communities and lacked sociopolitical integration at the larger regional scale.

From adaptation to niche construction: Weather as a winter site selection factor in northern Mongolia, the Quebec Lower North Shore, and the southern Urals

The paper analyzes the settlement locations of three archaeological societies of the Northern Hemisphere above 48°N in terms of their exposure to winter winds. To explain settlement decision-making, we apply computational models to three archaeological societies to test whether residence location and architecture were chosen concerning the best heat preservation strategy. We conclude that the test societies represent a spectrum of strategies from the flexible adaptation to the combination of adaptation and niche construction. The flexible adaptation implied seasonal movements from the most to the least wind-exposed locations, while the niche construction combined with choosing the least-exposed location helped maintain the warmth while maintaining access to vital resources. This conclusion provides a possibility to explain the formation of social complexity in early complex societies due to cooperation rather than as a result of social conflict or aggrandizing behavior.

Killing the Priest-King: Addressing Egalitarianism in the Indus Civilization

The cities of the Indus civilization were expansive and planned with large-scale architecture and sophisticated Bronze Age technologies. Despite these hallmarks of social complexity, the Indus lacks clear evidence for elaborate tombs, individual-aggrandizing monuments, large temples, and palaces. Its first excavators suggested that the Indus civilization was far more egalitarian than other early complex societies, and after nearly a century of investigation, clear evidence for a ruling class of managerial elites has yet to materialize. The conspicuous lack of political and economic inequality noted by Mohenjo-daro’s initial excavators was basically correct. This is not because the Indus civilization was not a complex society, rather, it is because there are common assumptions about distributions of wealth, hierarchies of power, specialization, and urbanism in the past that are simply incorrect. The Indus civilization reveals that a ruling class is not a prerequisite for social complexity.

Study of the Stone Age in the Republic of Armenia (Part 1 – Lower Palaeolithic)

The area encompassing the modern Republic of Armenia lies within the Armenian highlands and is situated at the very core of a dynamic corridor between Africa and Eurasia. As such, Armenia proves critical for understanding the initial stages of human settlement and the formation of ancient civilisations in the Near East and beyond. Stone Age artefacts have been known to exist within the territory of Armenia since the end of the 19th century, and they indicate that the area attracted a variety of Stone Age populations, from early hominids to early complex societies of the Chalcolithic. Presented work is the first attempt to summarise the results and achievements of the Stone Age archaeology in Armenia which is counting its history more than a century.

Climate Change and Farming Response in a Temperate Oceanic Zone—the Exploitation of a Karstic Region in Western Ireland in the Third and Second Millennia BC

This article explores the start and end of a period of intensive farming in a karstic region on the west coast of Ireland in the late third and early second millennia BC in relation to episodes of climate change. Human responses to climate change in prehistory have been most frequently studied in regions prone to aridity and drought such as the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean where past climate shifts may have had more extreme effects and are likely to have left strong proxy signals. It is these same regions where early complex societies were located and the collapse or reorganization of these large complex societies can leave similarly strong traces in the archaeological record. In contrast, the present study is focused on the west coast of Ireland, an Atlantic island in a temperate oceanic climate region at a time when the societies living there are best described as small-scale segmentary societies. Geography therefore militated against the most extreme effects of climate change and there were no large complex societies to collapse; nevertheless there is evidence that climate change impacted these societies.

Puppies for the Ancestors: The many roles of Shang dogs

Current anthropological approaches to animals have noted that the contemporary Western categories of human and animal are historically particular ones, and that different ontologies can and do organize the categorical and practical relationships between beings in a variety of ways. The ritual use of dogs in ancient China illustrates this point well. At Anyang (ca. 1250–1050 BCE) dogs played a number of roles in the significant doings of both kings and commoners and occupied a unique position in the Shang web of being – patterning with humans in some practices and with other domestic animals in others. The surprising discovery that Anyang mortuary ritual dogs outnumber those found in other contexts and that they are almost exclusively juvenile individuals argues for both the development of the Shang ritual economy and at the same time its basis on more than just an equation of economic expenditure with status. Finally, an epigraphic and zooarchaeological contextualization of dog sacrifice reveals that the Chinese archaeological practice of equating sacrificial deposits with whole interments reveals only the tip of the iceberg and full understanding of animal sacrifice in the Shang and other early complex societies must consider the full range of zooarchaeological deposits and cultural practices involving animals.

Researching monumental spaces in late prehistoric societies: New perspectives for landscape research in the Russian Altai

In this article we present a preliminary study discussing new perspectives for future research and interpretation of the Bronze and Iron Age monuments and monumental landscapes in terms of their social dynamic in these early complex societies. Archaeological landscape research in the last decades is characterized by a significant paradigmatic separation, resulting in often one-dimensional treatments of landscapes. Using certain concepts developed by Henri Lefebvre and Martina Löw, we address social landscape as a three-dimensional social space, which enabled us to integrate multiple approaches. This triadic framework is discussed using a case study which focuses on data of the Karakol and Yustyd valley in the Russian Altai. Our study shows that the general transitions in the use and structure of monuments during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age can be variously interpreted. These interpretations are not necessarily exclusive but may each reflect a partial rendition of the triadic model of social space, or monumental space.

Between Marx and Locke: approaching early complex societies

I viewed this review project as an opportunity to assess the degree to which archaeologists have been able to transcend what Gary Feinman (Eurasia at the dawn of history, p. 146) refers to as “impenetrable academic silos and rigid adherence to entrenched ideas”. Happily, I found ample evidence of transcendence, with the exception of Modes of production and archaeology. Historians properly recognise Karl Marx as an important contributor to Western thought in a time of economic turmoil one and a half centuries ago. Especially, his efforts to motivate opposition to an exploitative economic system are highly regarded—I, for one, have made a pilgrimage to view his work-space in the British Museum reading room. And I agree that ideas influenced by Marx and Engels (considering the work of Childe, White, Wittfogel, Polanyi and the like) have been so thoroughly internalised that they amount to a kind of “disciplinary common sense” (in the introductory chapter by Robert Rosenswig and Jerimy Cunningham, p. 1), perhaps better characterised as ‘entrenched ideas’. From the perspective of contemporary anthropological theory, however, I find it difficult to understand why researchers might insist on bringing notions from Marx and Engels directly into today's archaeological thinking and practice, but this is exactly what most of the contributors to Modes of production and archaeology have done.

The 5.5 cal ka BP climate event, population growth, circumscription and the emergence of the earliest complex societies in China

The emergence of complex society is a milestone in the history of human society evolution. China is one of the few regions in the world where the earliest complex society appeared; however, its driving mechanisms remain unresolved. On the base of available evidence from both archaeology and Holocene climate, in combination with agency theory, this study attempts to address the driving mechanisms for the simultaneous emergence of complex societies in multiple areas of China around 5.5 cal ka BP. It is hypothesized that three factors, including climate change, population growth, and circumscription, jointly act and cause regional population-resource imbalance and trigger inter-group conflicts and wars. Such competitions provide the opportunity for some power-pursuing agents to break the restriction of social leveling mechanism and to become the centralized decision-making leaders, which further lead to the emergence of incipient large-scale complex societies. Increase in extreme climate events during 6.0–5.0 cal ka BP cooling period causes frequent occurrence of resource stress and increase in the frequency of inter-group competitions, which creates conditions for the legitimation, institutionalization, and persistence of centralized leadership, and finally leads to the formation of persistent institutionalized inequity. Our research result can explain not only the process and mechanism of complex society formation, but also two phenomena which cannot be reasonably explained by previous theories, that are, why the earliest complex societies in China emerge around 5.5 cal ka BP, and why they appear simultaneously in multiple regions.