EAA 2023: Abstract

Social inequality is often studied either on households or on graves. For Europe, there is a lack of quantitative studies that analyse the development of prehistoric social inequality on a larger scale with the help of established methods (Gini index). The Carpathian Basin offers the opportunity to study the development of social inequality between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age on a larger scale and on household and graves. The work presented here is an ongoing dissertation project that aims to examine the development of social inequality from the site to the local and regional levels and to discuss this development in relation to contemporary processes (settlement development, environmental changes, migration). The talk presents an analysis of two different types of wealth inequality, showing the development of material wealth inequality based on households and relational wealth inequality based on burials. In addition to a discussion of the changes in inequality and influencing processes over time, the talk will address the quantitative approach, its results and the consequences in dealing with often weak archaeological data sets.

Gini Index, Household, Burial, Wealth

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Fynn Wilkes¹