Project description
Unearthing the roots of inequality
Archaeological data from Cyprus provide clues about how social inequalities were consolidated in prehistory. Around 4000 BCE, differences in house sizes suggest the emergence of temporary hierarchies. By 2500 BCE, however, inequality became more established in society, as evidenced in graves and imagery. How can we explain this shift from short-lived inequalities to lasting social divides? The ERC-funded InequalCyprus project investigates both everyday life and ritual practices from 4000 to 1700 BCE. It will combine quantitative and qualitative methods to reconstruct how people negotiated and transmitted inequalities. The findings will shed light on how social hierarchies became entrenched, a crucial step in the emergence of complex societies.
Objective
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
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
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