InequalCyprus · Negotiating Social Inequalities in Late Prehistoric Cyprus

The consolidation of social inequalities, postulated to have occurred during the Bronze Age in West Asia, is of crucial importance in the rise of complex societies, yet remains poorly understood. This research project will apply an innovative mixed methods approach to datasets from late prehistoric Cyprus (4000-1700 BCE) to better investigate this key development in global history.Recent archaeological research into social inequalities has either used quantitative methods to demonstrate their emergence (Kohler et al. 2018; Basri and Lawrence 2020) or questioned their existence in early complex societies (Graeber and Wengrow 2021), leaving the question of how social inequalities were first consolidated open. To move this topic forward we need an approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis, to assess the significance and durability of social inequalities in prehistoric societies (Klinkenberg and Düring 2023). Late prehistoric Cyprus provides an exceptional possibility to research this topic. Decades of research have produced rich datasets from settlements and cemeteries, that suggest clear transformations in the articulation of social inequalities. In the Chalcolithic (4000-2500 BCE) we have evidence for short-lived social inequalities, especially in house sizes. By contrast, in the Prehistoric Bronze Age (2500-1700 BCE), social inequalities appear more consolidated, for example in graves. This project will investigate social inequalities in everyday life (houses, objects, mobility, and diet), and in performed settings (burials, feasts, and figurative objects), to reconstruct how social inequalities featured in these social arenas. The aim is to both quantify evidence for social inequalities, and study how inequalities were culturally negotiated. The results will shed light on how and why social inequalities were consolidated in late prehistoric societies in Cyprus and contribute to broader discussions on the emergence of social inequalities