Social Inequality Before Farming?

McDONALD INSTITUTE CONVERSATIONS

Social inequality before farming?

Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of social organization in prehistoric and ethnographic hunter-gatherer-fisher societies

Edited by Luc Moreau Social inequality before farming?

McDONALD INSTITUTE CONVERSATIONS

Social inequality before farming? Multidisciplinary approaches to the study of social organization in prehistoric and ethnographic hunter- gatherer-fisher societies

Edited by Luc Moreau

with contributions from Hervé Bocherens, Alberto Buela, Andrea Czermak, Christophe Darmangeat, William Davies, Mark Dyble, Kate Ellis-Davies, Ben Fitzhugh, Douglas P. Fry, Mietje Germonpré, Matt Grove, Emmanuel Guy, Brian D. Hayden, Rowena Henderson, Emmanuelle Honoré, Joe L. Jeffery, Charles A. Keith, Marta Mirazón Lahr, Noa Lavi, Robert H. Layton, Martina Lázničková- Galetová, Julia Lee-Thorp, Sheina Lew-Levy, Paul Pettitt, Rachel Reckin, Paul Roscoe, Mikhail V. Sablin, Rick J. Schulting, Patrik Söderberg, Duncan N.E. Stibbard-Hawkes, Ilga Zagorska, Gunita Zarina

Published by: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research University of Cambridge Downing Street Cambridge, UK CB2 3ER (0)(1223) 339327 [email protected] www.mcdonald.cam.ac.uk

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2020

© 2020 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Social inequality before farming? is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 (International) Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

ISBN: 978-1-913344-00-9

On the cover: Rock art depictions at Wadi Sūra II rockshelter in Eastern Sahara, Egypt (photo Emmanuelle Honoré).

Cover design by Dora Kemp and Ben Plumridge. Typesetting and layout by Ben Plumridge.

Edited for the Institute by James Barrett Series( Editor). Contents

Contributors vii Figures ix Tables x Preface xi

Introduction Social inequality without farming: what we can learn from how foraging societies shape(d) social inequality? 1 Luc Moreau

Part I Social inequality and egalitarianism in extant hunter-gatherer-fisher societies Chapter 1 Social inequality among New Guinea forager communities 21 Paul Roscoe

Chapter 2 Mobility, autonomy and learning: could the transition from egalitarian to non-egalitarian social structures start with children? 33 Rachel Reckin, Sheina Lew-Levy, Noa Lavi & Kate Ellis-Davies

Chapter 3 The impact of equality in residential decision making on group composition, cooperation and cultural exchange 51 Mark Dyble

Chapter 4 Surplus, storage and the emergence of wealth: pits and pitfalls 59 Christophe Darmangeat

Chapter 5 Leadership and inequality among the Iñupiat: a case of transegalitarian hunter-gatherers 71 Alberto Buela

Chapter 6 Egalitarianism and democratized access to lethal weaponry: a neglected approach 83 Duncan N.E. Stibbard-Hawkes

Chapter 7 Adaptation and cumulative processes in human prehistory 103 Robert H. Layton

Part II Social inequality in Upper Palaeolithic Europe Chapter 8 Did secret societies create inequalities in the Upper Palaeolithic? 117 Brian D. Hayden

Chapter 9 Responses of Upper Palaeolithic humans to spatio-temporal variations in resources: inequality, storage and mobility 131 William Davies

Chapter 10 A comparative perspective on the origins of inequality 167 Matt Grove

Chapter 11 Could incipient dogs have enhanced differential access to resources among Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe? 179 Mietje Germonpré, Martina Lázničková-Galetová, Mikhail V. Sablin & Hervé Bocherens

v Chapter 12 Social ecology of the Upper Palaeolithic: exploring inequality through the art of Lascaux 201 Paul Pettitt

Chapter 13 Naturalism: a marker of Upper Palaeolithic social inequalities? 223 Emmanuel Guy

Part III Social inequality in prehistoric Holocene hunter-gatherer-fisher societies Chapter 14 Reciprocity and asymmetry in social networks: dependency and hierarchy in a North Pacific comparative perspective 233 Ben Fitzhugh

Chapter 15 Exploring fisher-forager complexity in an African context 255 Joe L. Jeffery & Marta Mirazón Lahr

Chapter 16 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories 279 Rick J. Schulting, Rowena Henderson, Andrea Czermak, Gunita Zarina, Ilga Zagorska & Julia Lee-Thorp

Chapter 17 Did prehistoric people consider themselves as equals or unequals? A testimony from the last hunter-gatherers of the Eastern Sahara 293 Emmanuelle Honoré

Chapter 18 Social complexity, inequality and war before farming: congruence of comparative forager and archaeological data 303 Douglas P. Fry, Charles A. Keith & Patrik Söderberg

Appendices to Chapter 9 321 (online edition only)

vi Contributors

Hervé Bocherens Matt Grove Department of Geosciences and Senckenberg Centre Department of Archaeology, Classics and for Human Evolution Palaeoenvironment (HEP), Egyptology, University of Liverpool, UK University of Tübingen, Germany Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Emmanuel Guy Alberto Buela Independent researcher, Paris, France Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Email: [email protected] University of Vienna, Austria Email: [email protected] Brian D. Hayden Department of Anthropology, University of British Andrea Czermak Columbia, Canada School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Rowena Henderson Christophe Darmangeat School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Department of Economy, UFR GHES, Email: [email protected] University of Paris, Paris, France Email: [email protected] Emmanuelle Honoré Centre d’Anthropologie Culturelle, William Davies Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Department of Archaeology, University of Email: [email protected] Southampton, UK Email: [email protected] Joe L. Jeffery Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Mark Dyble Studies, Department of Archaeology, University Department of Anthropology, University College of Cambridge, UK London, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Charles A. Keith Kate Ellis-Davies Department of Anthropology, University of Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent Alabama at Birmingham, USA University, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Noa Lavi Ben Fitzhugh Department of Anthropology, University of Haifa, Quaternary Research Center, University of Israel Washington, Seattle, USA Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Robert H. Layton Douglas P. Fry Department of Anthropology, University of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, Durham, UK University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Martina Lázničková-Galetová Mietje Germonpré Moravian Museum Anthropos Institute, Brno, Operational Direction ‘Earth and History of Life’, Czech Republic Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Email: [email protected] Belgium Email: [email protected]

vii Julia Lee-Thorp Mikhail V. Sablin School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Email: [email protected] Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia Email: [email protected] Sheina Lew-Levy Department of Psychology, King’s College, Rick J. Schulting University of Cambridge, UK School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

Marta Mirazón Lahr Patrik Söderberg Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Faculty of Education and Welfare Studies, Åbo Studies, Department of Archaeology, University Akademi University, Finland of Cambridge, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Duncan N.E. Stibbard-Hawkes Paul Pettitt Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Ilga Zagorska Rachel Reckin Institute of Latvian History, University of Latvia, Department of Archaeology, St John’s College, Latvia University of Cambridge, UK Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Gunita Zarina Paul Roscoe Institute of Latvian History, University of Latvia, Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Latvia USA Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

viii Figures

1.1. Nearest neighbour travel time against population density. 25 2.1. BaYaka playgroups tend to consist of a broad range of ages and genders. 38 2.2. Flowchart of potential relationships in egalitarian or non-egalitarian social structures. 41 2.3. Flowchart of potential relationships in egalitarian or non-egalitarian social structures. 43 3.1. Illustrative example of the possible effect of mixed-sibling co-residence on the relatedness of groups. 54 3.2. Number of camps in which the average household is permitted to live. 55 5.1. Composition and kinship relationships of five hunting crews in Wales. 77 6.1. A Hadza man whittling a bow. 88 6.2. A map of the distribution of hand spears and spearthrowers throughout Australia. 89 6.3. A map of the recent historic distribution of blowdart use throughout the Old World. 90 6.4. A map of the recent historic distribution of blowdart use throughout the Americas. 91 7.1. Delayed return as a composite category. 106 8.1. A sketch of an Elk secret society dancer among the Ogalala Sioux on the American Plains. 120 8.2. Bone flutes used to represent the voices of spirits in Californian secret society rituals. 121 8.3. The interior of an Egbo ritual house of the Ekoi tribe in Nigeria. 122 8.4. The interior of an Egbo ritual house at Akangba, Nigeria. 122 8.5. The ‘Sorcerer’ from Les Trois Frères Cave in France. 124 8.6. Small dolmen containing the skull of a high-ranking member of a secret society on Vanuatu. 126 8.7. One of the skull cups recovered from the Solutrean deposits in Le Placard. 126 9.1. Net Primary Productivity and Effective Temperature conditions for extant fisher-hunter-gatherers. 138–9 9.2. Spatio-temporal distributions of NPP and ET in Upper Palaeolithic Europe. 140–1 9.3. Number of days per year with (growing) temperatures above 0°C, 5°C and 10°C. 142–3 9.4. Reconstructed population densities. 147 9.5. The influence of resource predictability and abundance. 148 10.1. Four species share a common ancestor at A. 168 11.1. Lateral view of the Pleistocene wolf skull from ‘Trou des Nutons’ cave, Belgium. 181 11.2. Palaeolithic dog skull from the Gravettian site Předmostí, Czech Republic. 181 12.1. The Abbé Glory’s drawing of the engraved horses in the Axial Passage, Lascaux. 214 12.2. The Abbé Glory’s drawing of the painted Frieze of Ibex in the Nave, Lascaux. 215 12.3. Drawing of the engravings of the left side of the Nave’s Panel of the Black Cow, Lascaux. 215 12.4. Drawing of the engraved horses and ibex of the east wall of the Axial Passage, Lascaux. 216 13.1. Drawing of a bison, Salon noir, Cave of Niaux. 224 13.2. Interior of a chief’s house, Chilkat, Alaska. 227 13.3. Same stylistic conventions shared in Western Europe around the twentieth millennium. 228 13.4. Parpalló cave: apprentice exercises? 228 14.1. Map of North Pacific. 235 14.2. Map of part of the Kodiak Archipelago depicting redundant ecological zones. 240 14.3. Archaeological house area comparisons from Kachemak and Koniag period. 242 14.4. Plan view of surface features on a representative ‘Developed Koniag’ village site. 244 14.5. Map of the Kuril Archipelago, depicting different ecological characteristics. 247 14.6. House size variation from Late Jōmon, Epi-Jōmon, Okhotsk and Ainu structures. 248 15.1. A comparison of forager representation across six continents by number of populations per landmass area and in three cross-cultural forager datasets. 257 15.2. Fisher-foragers from Binford’s (2001) dataset. 258 15.3. Harpoon-bearing sites of northern Africa, divided by region. 267 15.4. Plot of complexity scores for Aqualithic sites over time. 270 15.5. Plot of complexity scores for Aqualithic sites by latitude. 271 15.6. Plot of complexity scores for Aqualithic sites by longitude. 272 16.1. Zvejnieki site plan. 282 16.2. Zvejnieki burial 170, Mesolithic adult male; Zvejnieki burial 226, Middle Neolithic child aged 2–4. 283 16.3. Summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates. 285 16.4. Human bone collagen δ15N values for graves at Zvejnieki. 285 ix 16.5. Human bone collagen and post-weaning M1 dentine δ15N values for graves at Zvejnieki. 287 17.1. Location and setting of the rock art site of Wadi Sūra II. 294 17.2. Main panel of rock art depictions on the left of Wadi Sūra II walls. 296 17.3. A scene on Wadi Sūra II walls showing a composite beast. 297 17.4. Graphs of the average number of individuals per scene. 298 17.5. View of rock art depictions on the right of Wadi Sūra II walls. 299

Tables

1.1. Classification of forager communities mentioned in the text. 22 2.1. Studies included in a meta-ethnography on learning subsistence and learning social skills. 34 6.1. Body weight dimorphism in Hominoidea and fossil hominins. 94 7.1. Are there secret societies in Aboriginal Australia? 108 7.2. Chronology of the transition to inequality on the Northwest Coast and Kodiak Island. 111 9.1. Defining key terms of reference. 132 9.2. Characteristics of ‘Generalized’ (egalitarian) and ‘Complex’ (transegalitarian) hunter-gatherers. 133 9.3. Information transmission types compared to demographic and spatial attributes from forager societies. 149 11.1. Comparison of dog roles based on the ethnographic and archaeozoological (Upper Palaeolithic) record. 184 12.1. Social inequalities among hunter-gatherer groups of the present and recent past. 207 15.1. Variables from Binford’s dataset that are discussed in-text and used in statistical analyses. 260 15.2. Hierarchical linear regression models using percentage aquatic resource-dependence. 262 15.3. Hierarchical binary logistic regression models using percentage aquatic resource-dependence. 263 15.4. Indications of complexity identified at Aqualithic sites. 268 15.5. Proxies for the importance of aquatic resources at Aqualithic sites by region and date period. 269 15.6. Mean complexity scores at Aqualithic sites by region and date period. 269 16.1. Summary of bone/bulk tooth dentine and sequential collagen results from Zvejnieki. 284 18.1. The forager societies represented in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, excluding equestrian hunters. 306 18.2. Means and standard variations for the whole sample and sub-samples defined by settlement and class. 308 18.3. Correlations among demographic and social features. 309 18.4. Correlations of demographic, settlement, social variables with types of lethal aggression. 310 18.5. The origin of war on Kodiak Island in the North Pacific. 313 18.6. The origins of war in eastern North America. 314 18.7. The origin of war in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. 314 18.8. Skeletal evidence for lethal violence and the origin of war in Japan. 314

x Preface

I write this preface from the state of Wyoming in what was really going on: exploitation, oppression, the US, a state where COVID-19 has not (yet) struck slavery… inequality in all its manifestations. Finally, as hard as it has struck other parts of the world, but I think, we have reached the point, through analyses where we nonetheless have been under stay-at-home of archaeological and ethnological data, that we might orders. Those orders have given me plenty of time to actually understand inequality. think about where we went wrong, which in the case We’ve passed a Rubicon. And this really matters. of the US is a long list. Coincidentally, I also recently The calamity that is COVID-19 has pulled back the re-read Machiavelli’s sixteenth-century book, The curtain on modern society, exposing the weaknesses Prince, a manual of how to ruthlessly crush opponents of its structure, laying bare the inequality between and while administering (apparent) generosity to acquire within countries that Machiavellian leaders exploit the ‘love’ of the masses. and exacerbate for personal gain. Doing something It was in this context that I read the papers in this about inequality is the challenge that will remain after volume. In doing so, I was struck by two facts. First, COVID-19 dissipates. inequality’s origin, development and operation are These papers help by seeking the origin of difficult to understand and yet the actions that lead inequality in a kind of society, that of nomadic hunter- to inequality are easy to implement. This shouldn’t gatherers, that we once considered ‘the original affluent surprise us: no American baseball player mathemati- society’, a classless society, or ‘primitive communists’. cally calculates the arc of a fly ball, but he’s still able to Some argue that inequality must be there (as Marxist position himself in the right place to catch it. You can be analysts argued in the 1980s) since it is present in our utterly uneducated and still know how to manipulate closest primate relatives, and therefore is in humanity’s a system to maintain exert, and abuse power. Many genetic foundation. Some see evidence of social and/ world leaders today are proof. or political inequality among Palaeolithic hunters, in Second, I think that the papers in this volume the evidence for secret societies and in the violence of could be some of the most valuable published in cave art. I am not convinced by this ‘grimdark’ vision of anthropology in many years. Philosophers and social Palaeolithic society, and see an enormous gap between thinkers have tried to understand inequality for a difference and inequality, between a situation where century; indeed, efforts to understand it precede one person has more than another who nonetheless Machiavelli. We bemoan its existence, and yet we have has enough and one in which society gives a person felt unable to grasp it, and, unable to grasp it, unable permission to enslave another. to do something about it. We muddled through the Nonetheless, these chapters remind us that useless ramblings of nineteenth- and early twentieth- hunter-gatherers are not angels, and the same self- century evolutionists, who, reflecting their colonial interest that guides an Iñupiaq man to become a umialik, environment, often thought that inequality was a good or that gave privilege to those men allowed to gather thing, and, if not good, an inevitable thing. Marx tried in the torch-lit gallery of Lascaux, guides Machiavelli’s to shake them out of that complacency, but his bril- anonymous prince. People have different skills, and liance was largely wasted during his ‘second coming’ in for some, those skills are political. Under the right the second half of the twentieth century with so much conditions, those individuals can consolidate power, hand-wringing about how a theory intended to explain convince others to go to battle, and make their personal early capitalism should also apply to hunter-gatherers aggrandizement seem reasonable to the people paying (because, it must… right?), and so much politically its price. Palaeolithic society had its Hitlers and Stalins, correct posturing that led to no action – and all but its Caesars and Trumps. disappeared when the Berlin Wall (thankfully) came But it didn’t have imperialism, or empires, or pal- down and the Soviet Union collapsed. ‘Intensifica- aces, or wealth hidden in tax havens. So other chapters tion’ and ‘complexity’, words that should be stricken here look for the conditions under which those ‘selfish’ from anthropology’s vocabulary for their uselessness individuals can gain power. High population density (and that are thankfully rare in this volume), masked (pressure), localized and hence controllable resources, xi Preface

the ability to build a coalition, which requires a suffi- displays of potential force – multi-billion-dollar aircraft cient concentration of population and social institutions carriers, atomic weapons, a Space Force – signal a that are conducive to creating coalitions, lack of trust lack of trust in non-violent institutions to resolve the in institutions, including sharing networks, to provide inevitable disputes that arise when people, or countries, in times of stress – these are the conditions that permit pursue their self-interests with little regard for others. those with political skills to pursue self-interest through Building trust in institutions – in the UN, in voting, in the manipulation of others. the media, in government itself! – is an integral part These conditions are as relevant to understanding of stopping and even reversing the arms race before the world of today as they are to an understanding of the it drives the world to the poor house. Palaeolithic world. Today, however, conditions can be Inequality is an old story, and one that we under- manipulated, for example ‘localized’ in off-shore bank stand much better due to the efforts of anthropologists accounts. Population pressure is high and will become and archaeologists. It hasn’t been easy to arrive at this worse as the world approaches the projected population point. But the really hard work – implementing our of 11 billion by 2100. And competition is worsened by knowledge – still lies ahead for us. This volume, and a capitalist economy that encourages ever-increasing our prehistoric hunting and gathering ancestors tell us amounts of consumption and conversion of needed what needs to be done. And it is the most important resources, such as food, into higher profit margin items work anyone could be doing in the world today. such as crisps and alcoholic beverages. Information is a resource, and technology makes information more Robert L. Kelly available but less trustworthy. Unbelievably expensive University of Wyoming

xii Chapter 16

Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

Rick J. Schulting, Rowena Henderson, Andrea Czermak, Gunita Zarina, Ilga Zagorska & Julia Lee-Thorp

The origins of social inequality have been identified as at the Mesolithic/‘Neolithic’ site of Zvejnieki, Latvia, one of the key ‘grand challenges’ facing archaeology to link treatment in death with long-term dietary dif- and indeed the social sciences more generally (Kintigh ferences in life. While presenting a strong new line of et al. 2014). The question is one to which archaeology evidence, this is also open to ambiguity in interpreta- should be very well-placed to make an important tion: the simple identification of difference need not contribution, given the discipline’s unique access to equate with socioeconomic inequality. We explore this long-term sociocultural trajectories, long prior to the connection further through high-resolution sequential impact of the colonial enterprise that problematizes stable isotope measurements on tooth dentine, enabling many ethnographic accounts of small-scale societies a shift from long-term averaged adult diet to short- (cf. Ferguson & Whitehead 1992). To realize this poten- term diets through infancy and childhood. While not tial, however, it is essential to have a set of tools with completely resolving the matter, the results do seem which to measure social inequality in a robust way. to point to a persistent element of vertical social dif- This is far from straightforward, particularly in earlier ferentiation, but one that was stable and did not lead prehistory, which is of course precisely one of the key to increasing inequality over time. contexts within which the origins of inequality are to be sought (Bowles et al. 2010; Hayden 1994, 1995, Mortuary archaeology and the post-processual 1996; Smith et al. 2010). The search has often focused challenge on early farming societies, with their supposed inher- ent capacity for surplus production (see discussion in One of the foundational tenants of the ‘New Archaeol- Bowles et al. 2010), yet, given the right conditions, it is ogy’ that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s was clear that a considerable degree of inequality can and that aspects of past social organization were retriev- does emerge among what have been termed ‘complex’ able from the archaeological record, and especially the hunter-gatherers, epitomized by the Northwest Coast funerary record. Treatment in death reflected – albeit of North America (Ames 1994; Hayden 1995; Schulting through ‘a glass darkly’ – aspects of the deceased’s 2014). A further challenge to this enterprise is the post- position in life. The more elaborate this treatment, the processual critique that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, greater importance the individual was held to have had calling into question the interpretation of the mortuary in life, such that their death was a more momentous record – one of the most common means of address- occasion for the community or wider region than that of ing inequality in prehistoric small-scale societies – as other individuals (Binford 1971; Tainter 1978). Thus, the directly reflecting the position of the deceased in life greater the differentiation found in the funerary record (Hodder 1982). In this paper, we briefly review pro- – beyond that based entirely on age and sex, seen as cessual and post-processual approaches to mortuary universal dimensions of difference in human societies analysis, before turning to attempts to trace socioeco- – the greater the social inequality present in the living nomic inequality in the funerary record of Mesolithic social system. While this tenet was widely accepted, Europe, noting the difficulties encountered by this the details of exactly how to operationalize it were endeavour, leading to ambiguous conclusions often another matter, one widely debated even within early open to alternative interpretations. We then explore processual archaeology. For example, Tainter (1978) the use of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis called into question the widespread use of grave goods 279 Chapter 16

as a marker of wealth and/or status, noting that other deceased, or, in the case of a child, mark a position forms of what he termed ‘energy expenditure’ were or role that the deceased would have been expected much more strongly correlated with social standing in to attain had they survived. This does not make the a cross-cultural study of ethnographically documented associations any less ‘real’. societies. The problem with this is that many aspects A more nuanced position was taken by Dereven- of energy expenditure, such as the number of guests ski (2000), who documented the complex interplay attending the funerary rites and the length of time between grave offerings, age and sex (gender) in the they are supported by the hosts, would be difficult if Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic cemetery at Tiszapol- not impossible to recognize archaeologically in most gar-Basatanya in Hungary. Focusing on metalwork, circumstances. One response is that redundancy built she noted that this and other classes of grave goods into the system, which essentially can be seen as social came and went as individuals progressed through signalling, would to a degree circumvent such issues their life course, arguing that they were being used (O’Shea 1984). in the performance of changing age/gender identities. A more fundamental challenge to the processual At the same time, Derevenski acknowledged that mortuary programme emerged with post-processual- status considerations could very well be involved ism, which called into question the idea that material in how these identities were materialized. Although culture, including grave goods, reflected real social not addressed in her study, the advent of first copper relationships in any straightforward way (Hodder and then bronze metallurgy in prehistoric Europe 1982; Pader 1982; Parker Pearson 1982). Instead, it was raises another important issue, that of changes in proposed that material culture was used by the living the availability and hence ‘cost’ of items of material to make ideological statements about the dead, which culture, particularly those, such as metals, well suited may or may not be related to their ‘real’ position in life. to making social distinctions in the vertical dimen- Supposedly well-defined social roles were contrasted sion. In some circumstances the availability of exotic with more fluid notions of social practice creating and materials can fluctuate sharply even over short time manipulating those roles (Parker Pearson 1999). But scales, potentially creating a misleading impression it is easy to exaggerate this difference: social practice of the degree of inequality represented in a cemetery does not operate within a vacuum, and social roles are or region unless there is very tight chronological con- always in a process of being enacted, so that the two trol. Instead, variations in the presence and quantity approaches are perhaps better seen as mutually con- of such objects may relate to fluctuations in their stitutive. If, as both approaches would accept, material availability. culture plays a central role, then the implication is that those with access to certain kinds and/or quantities of Linking burials rites and individual life histories material culture will be in a privileged position, no matter whether reflecting, creating, undermining or One powerful response to the legitimate questions otherwise manipulating ‘reality’. raised regarding the ‘truth’ of the funerary rite in a Following along these lines, and of particular rel- given context is to link the life history of the interred evance to the case study presented below, the attempt individual with their mortuary treatment (e.g., Knud- to identify ascribed status from ‘rich’ child burials – a son & Stojanowski 2008; Robb et al. 2001). There are cornerstone of the processual mortuary programme two approaches to this, employing osteological and for some – has also been called into question, with biomolecular methods. Osteological investigations alternative interpretations focusing on the need of in this context have often focused on a comparison of the mourners to mark the emotional bereavement social status (e.g., as marked by grave goods) and skel- felt particularly strongly at the untimely death of a etal health indicators, such as linear enamel hypoplasia child (cf. Brück 2004; Pader 1982). The problem with and adult stature (Larsen 1997, 2002). Body modifica- this view is that it fails to take into account the fact tions affecting the skeleton (e.g., cranial modification; that while it may be felt by all families, the ability to dental ablation, filing or inlays) are especially difficult mark out grief with exotic and high-value objects (as to ‘fake’ and often refer to horizontal and/or verti- determined by the labour and/or distant social connec- cal social identities (e.g., Sharapova & Razhev 2011; tions required to acquire and/or manufacture them) Temple et al. 2011). Skeletal activity markers can also would not be available to everyone in the community. be used to infer particular behaviours. A particularly The objects in a grave can mark the social position interesting example is the demonstration that higher of an individual without necessarily being their per- status graves, many weapon-bearing, in the Iron Age sonal belongings. They may, for example, symbolize of Central Italy exhibit greater humeral asymmetry the bonds of allegiance that the living held with the than lower status graves, suggesting the restriction 280 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

of martial training with swords from a young age to good classes (e.g., shell beads, tooth pendants, boar/red the elite (Sparacello et al. 2015). deer mandibles microliths, flint blades, red ochre, etc.) The potential of biomolecular approaches to than those without such structures. Similarly, graves investigate status differences has long been recognized. with bone pins and flint blades were also ‘richer’ in Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis has fea- other artefact categories than those lacking these items, tured strongly in this approach, linking the long-term independent of age or sex (Schulting 1996). But how diets (10+ years in adults) reflected in bone collagen is this to be interpreted? None of the objects are made and bioapatite to differential mortuary treatment. The of materials that would be very difficult to acquire, most successful case studies have usually derived from nor would they be laborious to make. The abundant chiefdom or state-level societies with distinct social shell beads are dominated by simply perforated, but classes (e.g., Ambrose et al. 2003; Knipper et al. 2015; otherwise unmodified and locally available cowries Privat et al. 2002; Ubelaker et al. 1995), wherein dietary (Trivia sp.) and whelks (Littorina sp.), and the lithic distinctions might be expected to play a greater role and bone tools appear to be mostly functional. Of than in less hierarchical societies (cf. Goody 1982). But course it is possible that these artefacts still do reflect there are also a number of examples from the European differences in social standing. The placement of antler Neolithic. Using strontium isotope analysis, Bentley structures in graves would be very visible to onlookers and colleagues (2002, 2012) found that males interred at the time of the interment, and the bone pins appear with shoe-last adzes in the Linearbandkeramik of to have served to fasten garments (David 2016), and Central Europe were more likely to have been born so may have signalled that these individuals were locally than males without such adzes, suggesting that somehow more important than others. But this could these marked a privileged status relating to residential be open to other interpretations, and so it is difficult priority. A number of recent stable carbon and nitrogen to infer meaningful differences in life from their treat- isotope studies have identified differences in the Neo- ment at death. lithic based on burial location or type within restricted regions of the Iberian Peninsula (Fernández-Crespo & Tooth pendants and diet at Zvejnieki Schulting 2017; Le Bras-Goude et al. 2013; Waterman Social signalling is more likely to be found in non- et al. 2016). Among these is a study in the Middle functional items, or in elaborated versions of ostensibly Ebro valley of north-central Spain, in which small but functional items. In the former case, items of dress and statistically significant differences in13 δ C were identi- ‘ornamentation’ are prime candidates for creating a fied between contemporaneous Late Neolithic/Early visual impression of distinction that would be easily Chalcolithic burials in dolmens in the valley and those recognized both within and beyond the community (cf. in caves and rockshelters in the nearby foothills, with Hansen 2004; Stig Sørensen 1997). A number of large the sites often being intervisible (Fernández-Crespo Mesolithic cemeteries in northeast Europe contain & Schulting 2017). The interpretation of these results, burials with numerous animal tooth pendants that however, is again ambiguous. They could refer to a appear to have been attached to clothing as well as territorial division of the landscape by adjacent commu- worn as necklaces and bracelets, etc. One such site is nities with different subsistence practices, rather than Zvejnieki on the shores of Lake Burtnieks in northern to socioeconomic inequality within a single society. Latvia, where over 330 burials were recovered, spanning the Middle Mesolithic to Late Neolithic, c. 7000 Social inequality in Mesolithic Europe to 2500 cal. bc (Larsson & Zagorska 2006; Zagorskis Much of the above discussion has referred to later 2004) (Fig. 16.1). It should be emphasized that ‘Neo- prehistory or to the proto/historical period. Identify- lithic’ in this context refers to the presence of pottery ing social inequality in earlier periods presents even rather than to the presence of domesticated plants or greater challenges in terms of operationalization and animals, other than the dog (Loze 1993; Piličiauskas interpretation. Summarizing the burial data available et al. 2017). Thus, the Early Neolithic Narva culture at the time, Clark & Neeley (1987) argued that there (from c. 5300 cal. bc) at Zvejnieki can be thought of as was evidence for both horizontal and vertical social comparable to the Late Mesolithic Ertebølle culture of differentiation in the European Mesolithic. But the pat- southern Scandinavia. The few Late Neolithic Corded terns identified were ambiguous, and this has remained Ware graves (from c. 3200 cal. bc), on the other hand, the case in more recent studies. For example, there is are contemporary with the introduction of domestic a statistically significant tendency at the Breton Late crops and animals in the eastern Baltic (Kriiska 2003) Mesolithic cemeteries of Téviec and Hoëdic for those and are isotopically distinct from the earlier periods, individuals interred with red deer antler structures showing markedly less evidence for the use of aquatic to have a higher than average number of other grave resources (Eriksson et al. 2003; Meadows et al. 2018; 281 Chapter 16

Mesolithic Early Neolithic Middle Neolithic Late Neolithic Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age undated prehistoric 190 with pendants gravel pit 261 without pendants

1 10 m 62 92 N 83

121 123

153 154 162 164 170

173

190 Olenii ostrov 189

Zvejnieki Skateholm

Téviec & Hoëdic

178-82

261

201 226 206-8

Figure 16.1. Zvejnieki site plan (after Zagorska 2006, fi g. 11). 282 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

Figure 16.2. a) Zvejnieki burial 170, Mesolithic adult male (photo F. Zagorskis); b) Zvejnieki burial 226, Middle Neolithic child aged 2–4 (photo F. Zagorskis).

Henderson et al. in prep.). These are omitted from the analysis presented below, which hence refers entirely to the fisher-hunter-gatherer communities making use of Zvejnieki for burial over a period extending over two-and-a-half millennia (c. 7000–3500 cal. bc). Also omitted are Early Neolithic burials 178–182, interred in a single contemporaneous mass grave with evidence for a violent death on at least one individual, with the inference being that all may have died violently in a single episode (Meadows et al. 2016). Thus, these individuals may have been accorded a different burial treatment reflecting their manner of death (cf. Binford 1971). Many of the graves at Zvejnieki were richly provisioned with animal tooth pendants, predominantly of boar, red deer, elk, bear, wild horse and wolf/dog, totalling over 2400 teeth (Fig. 16.2). Other grave goods include various bone and flint implements, carved figurines, copper rings, and amber discs placed over the eyes (Larsson & Zagorska 2006; Zagorskis 2004). Importantly, there is abundant evidence for the wearing of the tooth pendants in life, as seen in the redrilling of suspension holes and reworking of grooves worn through by use (Larsson 2006). Thus, they formed 283 Chapter 16

Table 16.1. Summary of bone/bulk tooth dentine and sequential collagen results from Zvejnieki (data from Eriksson 2006; Eriksson et al. 2003; Henderson 2015; Henderson et al. in prep.; Meadows et al. 2018). Calibration of the radiocarbon dates is complicated by a freshwater reservoir effect (Meadows et al. 2018), taken into account in the broad ranges considered here. Note that the Mesolithic results exclude the M1 from Grave 170 as an outlier, and that the Early Neolithic results exclude individuals from a mass grave. Bone/bulk dentine M1 dentine δ13C ‰ δ15N ‰ δ13C ‰ δ15N ‰ Period x¯ SD x¯ SD n x¯ SD x¯ SD n Mesolithic (7000–5200 cal. bc) with pendants -22.7 1.0 11.8 0.6 10 -22.3 1.0 10.8 0.1 2 without pendants -23.4 1.4 13.2 1.3 6 -23.8 0.1 13.6 0.9 2 Early–Middle Neolithic (5200–3500 cal. bc) with pendants -22.6 1.4 11.6 1.0 10 -22.8 0.4 11.7 0.3 5 without pendants -23.0 1.0 12.6 0.6 6 -23.3 1.1 13.1 1.5 3 Mesolithic–Neolithic (7000–3500 cal. bc) with pendants -22.7 1.3 11.7 0.9 20 -22.6 0.6 11.3 0.5 7 without pendants -23.2 1.2 12.9 1.0 12 -23.5 0.8 13.3 1.2 5 large herbivores -23.0 1.0 5.4 0.9 18 wild boar -23.5 0.6 6.3 1.3 9 brown bear -21.2 1.4 7.3 1.2 4 fish -24.7 3.4 9.3 3.0 5 part of an individual’s attire, which is crucial to the in graves, which could otherwise confound the analysis notion that they were used for social signalling. The (i.e., informing on diet change over time rather than pendants, then, in addition to being ornaments in variability at any given time) (Fig. 16.3). In absolute themselves, also serve as a proxy for a wider range numbers, the graves with tooth pendants that have of associated dress in organic materials that have not been analysed isotopically contained between 1 and survived. Moreover, O’Shea & Zvelebil (1984) argued 339 pendants, with a mean of 69 per grave (median that animal tooth pendants in graves marked the = 27). The Mesolithic graves with pendants average greater prestige and ‘wealth’ accorded to hunters at the 11.8 ± 0.6‰ in δ15N (n = 10), whereas those without large Mesolithic cemetery of Olenii ostrov in Karelia, pendants average 13.2 ± 1.3‰ (n = 6). For the Early and northwest Russia, a site in many ways comparable to Middle ‘Neolithic’, these figures are 11.6 ± 1.0‰ (n = Zvejnieki (Fig. 16.1). Again emphasizing difficulties in 10) and 12.6 ± 0.6‰ (n = 6), respectively. The combined interpretation, the link between hunting and prestige Mesolithic-Neolithic samples average 11.7 ± 0.9‰ for was subsequently challenged by Jacobs (1995), who the burials with pendants (n = 20), and 12.9 ± 1.0‰ found no pattern linking treatment in death with life (n = 12) for those without (Table 16.1). The data are histories, as indicated by long-bone robusticity and normally distributed (Shapiro-Wilks, p > 0.05) and the trace element analysis. difference is statistically significant (Student’s t-test, Previous studies have reported δ13C and δ15N t = 3.58, p = 0.001) (Fig. 16.4). Thus, it can be inferred results for bone and bulk tooth collagen at Zvejnieki that those interred with pendants, irrespective of their (Eriksson 2006; Eriksson et al. 2003; Meadows et al. absolute number, had long-term diets that made greater 2018). These have been considered in terms of age use of lower-trophic-level sources of protein. In the and sex, but not status or identity as indicated by context of the Lake Burtnieks, this is most plausibly grave goods. The graves analysed include those both interpreted as a greater reliance on terrestrial rather with and without tooth pendants. As these form by than aquatic fauna (plant foods are unlikely to have far the most ubiquitous artefact class, they can be contributed significantly in terms of protein at this used to explore the possibility of long-term dietary latitude, and it is only the protein component of the differences related to their presence or absence. While diet that is measured by δ15N). This is supported by the preferred species from which the pendants were isotopic measurements on fauna from the site itself made changed over time (Larsson 2006), the avail- (Eriksson 2006; Eriksson et al. 2003). able radiocarbon dates do not otherwise suggest any No comparable trend can be supported statistically chronological trend in the practice of placing pendants for δ13C, although values are in the expected direction, 284 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

OxCal v4.3.2 Bronk Ramsey (2017); r:5 IntCal13 atmospheric curve (Reimer et al 2013)

no pendants (n = 12)

pendants (n = 17)

8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000

Modelled date (BC)

Figure 16.3. Summed probability distributions of radiocarbon dates for those buried with and without tooth pendants, taking into account estimated freshwater reservoir corrections (data from Meadows et al. 2018). i.e., lower in the group lacking pendants, given that the either vertical or horizontal social differentiation. few lake fish that have been measured from the lake are It may be, for example, that individuals within the slightly 13C-depleted compared to terrestrial herbivores community chose to specialize either on fishing or on (Table 16.1). That the difference is not more marked is hunting, with the hunters consequently having greater likely due to the high variability in δ13C values of aquatic access to animal tooth pendants for themselves and species from Lake Burtnieks, which in addition could their kin. Alternatively, the cemetery may have been include migratory waterfowl and anadromous salmon, used by distinct communities practicing complemen- both of which were recovered at the site. The δ13C value tary subsistence strategies, with one focused more on for a single mallard duck, for example, is much higher the lake and its resources, and the other more on the at -17.6‰ than most fish from the lake (although a surrounding terrestrial habitat. Their use of a shared fish bone not identified to species measured -18.6‰). burial ground (while there is a shift in the location Salmon would be expected to have values at least as of burials within the cemetery over time – see Fig. high, even given the 13C-depleted waters of the eastern 16.1 – there is no discernible chronological difference Baltic compared to those of the North Sea. in the radiocarbon dates for those with and without While the identified pattern appears robust, its pendants – see Fig. 16.3) could imply that the two interpretation is another matter, as it may be reflecting economies were integrated at some level, suggesting

12 N ‰ (AIR) 15 δ 11

Mesolithic Mesolithic ‘Neolithic’ ‘Neolithic’ Meso-Neo Meso-Neo w+ pendants w- pendants w+ pendants w- pendants w+ pendants w- pendants

Figure 16.4. Human bone collagen δ15N values for Mesolithic and Early/Middle Neolithic graves at Zvejnieki with and without animal tooth pendants. 285 Chapter 16

that food exchanges likely took place, but not to the (n = 5). Given the smaller numbers involved, we have extent that obscured overall dietary differences. The not analysed the Mesolithic and ‘Neolithic’ individu- distinct identities of the two communities would be als separately, but the two periods are represented in marked by the use of tooth pendants and associated both groups (Table 16.1). The δ15N dentine results are dress by the more terrestrially oriented group. Both statistically indistinguishable from those on bone col- scenarios might be seen as rather surprising in a lagen so that again those with and without pendants hunter-gatherer context, since even when a degree of differ significantly (heteroscedastic Student’s t-test, t economic specialization exists, based on individual = 3.35, p = 0.020) (as with the bulk collagen, there is skills and propensities, the high degree of food shar- no significant difference in13 δ C values) (Fig. 16.5). The ing that is often seen as a hallmark of hunter-gatherers same pattern persists if we consider only the dentine (Bird-David 1990; Cashdan 1985; Gurven 2004; Kelly samples referring to ages 3–4. Since children of this age 2013; Woodburn 1982, 1998) would be expected to cannot have been engaged in subsistence pursuits in obviate dietary differences over the long term. On any serious way, the implication is that they were being the other hand, this characterization applies mainly provisioned by their parents, and hence that economic to hunter-gatherers at the ‘simple’ forager end of the specialization was held and passed down either within spectrum. Sharing may be rather less ubiquitous among families, or within communities if, following the above ‘complex’ hunter-gatherers, who are often more reliant discussion, the site served as the burial place for dif- on aquatic resources and exhibit greater sedentism, ferent communities. Either way, it is striking that this reliance on storage, and higher population densities pattern appears to have persisted over two-and-a-half (Binford 2001; Hayden 1994, 1995, 1996; Kelly 2013; millennia (Fig. 16.3). It should be emphasized that we Schulting 2014). are not suggesting on the basis of the isotopic data that One means of taking the analysis at Zvejnieki either group lacked sufficient food for adequate health, further is through sequential sampling of tooth dentine, though whether they experienced differences in the which allows a relatively high-resolution examination levels or timing of physiological stress is certainly an of diet through infancy and childhood (Beaumont et avenue worth exploring. al. 2012). This addresses the question of when during the life course of an individual isotopic/dietary differ- Social inequality at Zvejnieki? ences first appeared. The method has predominantly The association between the presence of tooth pendants been used to investigate weaning age (e.g., Eerkens and significantly lower δ15N values from early child- et al. 2011; Henderson et al. 2014; Fernández-Crespo hood continuing into adulthood at Mesolithic-Neolithic et al. 2018), and indeed a comparison of weaning age Zvejnieki presents an unexpected relationship, one in hunter-gatherers and later societies was one of the not previously observed for Mesolithic Europe as far original aims of the sequential sampling study con- as we are aware (interestingly, Scharlotta et al. (2016) ducted on first permanent molars from a subset of the noted a relationship between the presence of animal same skeletons from Zvejnieki for which bulk stable tooth pendants and higher δ15N values at the large Early isotope results were already available (Henderson Neolithic hunter-fisher gatherer cemetery of Shamanka 2015). The roots of first molars develop from approxi- II on the shores of Lake Baikal, i.e., the opposite trend mately ages 0 to 8 years (AlQahtani et al. 2010). Here, to that seen at Zvejnieki). But is this social inequality? we compare the average post-weaning isotopic values We have identified difference, and demonstrated that for ages 3 (by which age weaning appears to have been treatment in death can be related systematically to a complete) to 8. For most individuals measurements on meaningful divergence in the foodways and hence life 4–5 sequential samples have been combined; for one experiences of individuals interred with and without (Grave 123) only two measurements are available as tooth pendants. This is an important finding, but to the tooth roots were not yet complete. Full details of suggest that it can be equated with social inequality the analysis are presented in Henderson (2015) and requires additional support. As noted above, the pat- Henderson et al. (in prep.). tern could just as easily be explained by horizontal Excluding one outlier (Middle Mesolithic Grave social differentiation as by vertical status distinctions 170, with an anomalously high δ15N value of 15.7‰, – which is not to intimate that the former is inher- nearly five standard deviations above the mean value ently less interesting or less worthy of study. Tracing for other individuals with pendants, and with a much its existence back into early childhood, while adding lower adult bone collagen value of 11.8‰), there is significantly to our understanding, does not resolve again a clear difference in the isotopic results for those this fundamental issue. with pendants, averaging 11.3 ± 0.5‰ (n = 7), compared While over half the graves at Zvejnieki contained to those without pendants, averaging 13.3 ± 1.2‰ no grave goods (or at least none made of non-perishable 286 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

12 N ‰ (AIR) 15 δ 11

9 Mesolithic-Neolithic Mesolithic-Neolithic Mesolithic-Neolithic Mesolithic-Neolithic w+ pendants w- pendants M1, w+ pendants M1, w- pendants

Figure 16.5. Human (left) bone collagen and (right) post-weaning M1 dentine δ15N values for Mesolithic and Early/ Middle Neolithic graves at Zvejnieki with and without animal tooth pendants. materials) (Zagorskis 2004: 51), very few of these have or on which they would have been worn. As noted been included in the individuals selected for stable above, clothing and its associated ornamentation can isotope analysis, so that at present it is not possible act as a highly visible marker of social distinction, to compare results for those with and without grave and this extends to ethnographically documented goods. Obviously this would be of great interest for hunter-gatherers. Among the Thompson Indians of a future study. Three of the analysed graves lacking the Interior Plateau of British Columbia, for example, tooth pendants included amber, as did a number with tailored deerskin clothing was limited to the wealthier pendants. Whether amber should be understood as a members of society, and served to distinguish them high value item is perhaps debatable in the context from those of lower socioeconomic standing (Hayden of the Baltic, where it is relatively common, though & Schulting 1997; Teit 1900). A series of late nineteenth certainly its placement over the eyes of the deceased and early twentieth century photographs show Plateau in some cases suggests that it was perceived as special. individuals wearing such clothing, often elaborated Mesolithic graves 86, 93 and 122 with tooth pendants with other materials including shell beads, animal teeth also had stone settings but little else (e.g., a bird bone and feathers (Tepper 1987). Hunting was a source of in one case), whereas graves 39 and 154 had stone prestige among those Plateau groups, including the settings but no non-perishable grave goods. Overall, Thompson, that were heavily reliant on anadromous then, there is little sense that those graves with tooth salmon. Salmon served as a staple food, especially pendants are ‘richer’ in terms of other objects. Indeed, during the winter, when people depended on stored more recent excavations at Zvejnieki recovered one of fish taken in the large autumn runs. While hunting was the richest graves at the site, dating to the Middle Neo- considered a skilled activity, it was if anything even lithic and containing an adult female and an adult male more important to have the aid of spirit helpers. Not skeleton, with the former accompanied by two large everyone had such spirit helpers, while some individu- amber rings, 113 perforated amber beads, as well as a als had many. This conferred a spiritual and moral number of beads made from mammal and bird bone, superiority that became the explanation for greater but lacking tooth pendants (Nilsson Stutz et al. 2013). hunting success, as well as success in other activities, This brings us back to the pendants themselves, whether overtly economic or otherwise (Schulting and, perhaps more importantly, to the clothing with 1995: 50–2; see also Watanabe 1983). Thus, in Plateau 287 Chapter 16

culture as well as elsewhere, there was often no clear collagen δ15N values average 11.7 ± 0.5‰, much closer division between the economic sphere and those of to the Neolithic group with pendants than to those ritual and power. without pendants. If these individuals were indeed Obviously this is a distant comparison in both killed violently, it may be that they were a group of space and time, but nevertheless the parallels are worth hunters who trespassed in some way, whether physi- considering. In both cases we see a considerable reli- cally or socially. ance on fishing as a staple part of the diet, as well as the importance of hunting, both for subsistence and Conclusions possibly also for prestige. The common link between hunting and prestige (cf. Gurven & von Rueden 2006) One of the main tasks of archaeologists is pattern recog- is one that receives further support from a considera- nition. In this paper we have focused on one particular tion of the ecology of terrestrial and aquatic resources. case study, the prehistoric hunter-gatherer cemetery Where they occur and the technology exists to capture of Zvejnieki in northeastern Europe (Henderson et them, large mammals are invariably the highest ranked al. in prep.). A very striking and persistent pattern resource (cf. Hawkes et al. 1982). Thus, the implication was highlighted, linking the presence or absence is that, even if marking a primarily horizontal divi- of animal tooth pendants in graves with long-term sion into families (and clans?) specializing on aquatic dietary histories, over millennia of use of the site. But resources and those focusing more on large game, this recognizing a pattern is relatively straightforward; distinction would likely lead to their differential rank- the real challenge lies in its interpretation, including ing, one recognized in the society itself. This is often a full and honest consideration of the possible alterna- the case with horizontal differentiation into groups of tive explanations. We have presented a plausible case ostensibly equal standing (Blau 1977). But against this for early socioeconomic inequality before farming in interpretation of two distinct communities is the fact prehistoric Europe. It is not definitive, but the implica- that there is no clear spatial clustering of graves with tions are nevertheless worth pursuing. One of these and without tooth pendants at Zvejnieki, such as might is that we are likely seeing only the proverbial tip of be expected with a clan-based social organization (cf. the iceberg. This is partly because isotopic studies of Binford 1971; Kingsley 1985; O’Shea 1984; O’Shea & prehistoric hunter-gatherers have generally been con- Zvelebil 1984). This suggests that an element of vertical cerned with characterizing a group’s overall diet, or at status differentiation may indeed be involved. most with comparing age and sex (for an exception see The observed link between diet and tooth pen- Scharlotta et al. 2016). But probably a more important dants seems to have been maintained in a similar way issue is that, even if they exist, many dietary distinc- over more than two millennia, without leading to more tions will not be visible isotopically, since they involve overt status differences. To some extent the system foods with similar isotopic signatures (e.g., different may have been self-regulating, since large mammals cuts of meat). This makes cases like Zvejnieki all the do not respond well to increased hunting pressure. more important, as it is unlikely that this was a unique At the same time, internal checks on overhunting situation. There are a number of large cemeteries in would have maintained the activity’s prestige value. the European Mesolithic, with a strong tendency to A not unrelated means of achieving this end would be situated on the coast, lakes, and major rivers with be through levelling mechanisms, by which those access to aquatic resources. individuals making what are seen as excessive claims Finally, it is worth commenting on the apparent over economic and/or social resources are kept in resilience of the social-ecological system at Zvejnieki check by the rest of the community (Wiessner 1996). (cf. Folke 2006). This was maintained (e.g., there is little This may take the form of public ridicule, refusal to evidence for high hunting pressure on large game) in share, or ‘voting with one’s feet’. The latter option, a way that suggests that it was very stable, and appar- however, becomes less viable with more spatially ently did not lead to attempts by those of putatively restricted resources such as those obtained from Lake higher status to expand their control, or, if it did, then Burtnieks. More extreme cases may see a resort to they were unsuccessful. Exploring the reasons for this violence. This recalls the Early Neolithic mass grave falls outside the scope of this paper, but are likely to at Zvejnieki containing four adult males and one inde- relate to the ecological restrictions on intensifying terminate adult. One of the males has an arrowhead hunting, as well as to social levelling mechanisms. embedded in a thoracic vertebra, and it is possible Social inequality always implies a tension between that the others were also killed and interred in a single competing interests, one that in the case of Zvejnieki event (Meadows et al. 2016). While this group lacks seems to have reached a long-lasting, stable balance grave offerings, it is interesting to note that their bone that did not lead to escalating inequality. 288 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

Acknowledgements David, É., 2016. The bone pins from Téviec (Morbhian, France) illuminate Mesolithic social organisation, in Mesolithic Many thanks to Luc Moreau and the other organizers Burials – Rites, Symbols and Social Organisation of Early for the invitation to speak at the conference at which Postglacial Communities, eds. J.M. Grünberg, B. Gramsch, L. Larsson, J. Orschiedt & H. Meller. Halle: Tagungen this paper was first presented. des Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle, 609–28. Derevenski, J.S., 2000. Rings of life: the role of early met- References alwork in mediating the gendered life course. World Archaeology 31, 389–406. AlQahtani, S.J., M.P. Hector & H.M. Liversidge, 2010. The Lon- Eerkens, J.W., A.G. Berget & E.J. Bartelink, 2011. Estimating don atlas of human tooth development and eruption. weaning and early childhood diet from serial micro- American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142, 481–90. samples of dentin collagen. Journal of Archaeological Ambrose, S.H., J. Buikstra & H.W. Krueger, 2003. Status Science 38, 3101–11. and gender differences in diet at Mound 72, Cahokia, Eriksson, G., 2006. Stable isotope analysis of human and revealed by isotopic analysis of bone. Journal of Anthro- faunal remains from Zvejnieki, in Back to the Origin. pological Archaeology 22, 217–26. New Research in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Zvejnieki Cem- Ames, K., 1994. The Northwest Coast: complex hunter- etery and Environment, Northern Latvia, eds. L. Larsson gatherers, ecology, and social evolution. Annual Review & I. Zagorska. Lund: Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, of Anthropology 23, 209–29. Series 8, No. 52, 183–215. Beaumont, J., A. Gledhill, J.A. Lee-Thorp & J. Montgomery, Eriksson, G., L. Lóugas & I. Zagorska, 2003. Stone Age 2012. Childhood diet: a closer examination of the hunter-fisher-gatherers at Zvejnieki, northern Latvia: evidence from dental tissues using stable isotope radiocarbon, stable isotope and archaeozoology data. incremental analysis of human dentine. Archaeometry Before Farming 1/2: 1–25. 55, 277–95. Ferguson, R.B., & N.L. Whitehead (eds.), 1992. War in the Bentley, R.A., P. Bickle, L. Fibiger, G.M. Nowell, C.W. Dale, Tribal Zone: Expanding States and Indigenous Warfare. R.E.M. Hedges, J. Hamilton, J. Wahl, M. Francken, G. Sante Fe: School of American Research Press. Grupe, E. Lenneis, M. Teschler-Nicola, R.-M. Arbogast, Fernández-Crespo, T., A. Czermak, J.A. Lee-Thorp & R.J. D. Hofmann & A. Whittle, 2012. Community differ- Schulting, 2018. Infant and childhood diet at the pas- entiation and kinship among Europe’s first farmers. sage tomb of Alto de la Huesera (north-central Iberia) Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA from bone collagen and sequential dentine isotope 109(24), 9326–30. composition. International Journal of Osteoarcaheology Bentley, R.A., T.D. Price, J. Lüning, D. Gronenborn, J. Wahl 28, 542–51. & P.D. Fullagar, 2002. Prehistoric migration in Europe: Fernández-Crespo, T., & R.J. Schulting, 2017. Living different strontium isotope analysis of Early Neolithic skeletons. lives: early social differentiation identified through link- Current Anthropology 43, 799–804. ing mortuary and isotopic variability in Late Neolithic/ Binford, L.R., 1971. Mortuary practices: their study and Early Chalcolithic north-central Spain. PloS ONE 12, their potential, in Approaches to the Social Dimensions of e0177881. Mortuary Practices, ed. J.A. Brown. New York: Memoirs Folke, C., 2006. Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for of the Society for American Archaeology, no. 25, 6–29. social-ecological systems analyses. Global Environmental Binford, L.R., 2001. Constructing Frames of Reference. Berkeley: Change 16, 253–67. University of California Press. Goody, J., 1982. Cooking, Cuisine and Class: A Study in Compara- Bird-David, N., 1990. The giving environment: another per- tive Sociology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. spective on the economic system of hunter-gatherers. Gurven, M., 2004. To give and to give not: the behavioral Current Anthropology 31, 183–96. ecology of human food transfers. Behavioral and Brain Blau, P.M., 1977. Inequality and Heterogeneity: A Primitive Sciences 27, 543–83. Theory of Social Structure. New York: The Free Press. Gurven, M., & C. von Rueden, 2006. Hunting, social status Bowles, S., E.A. Smith & M. Borgerhoff Mulder, 2010. The and biological fitness. Social Biology 53, 81–99. emergence and persistence of inequality in pre-modern Hansen, K.T., 2004. The world in dress: anthropological societies: introduction. Current Anthropology 51, 7–17. perspectives on clothing, fashion, and culture. Annual Brück, J., 2004. Material metaphors: the relational construction Review of Anthropology 33, 369–92. of identity in Early Bronze Age burials in Ireland and Hawkes, K., K. Hill & J.F. O’Connell, 1982. Why hunters Britain. Journal of Social Archaeology 4, 307–33. gather: optimal foraging and the Aché of eastern Cashdan, E., 1985. Coping with risk: reciprocity among the Paraguay. American Ethnologist 9, 379–98. Basarwa of northern Botswana. Man (N.S.) 20, 454–74. Hayden, B., 1994. Competition, labor, and complex hunter- Clark, G.A., & M. Neeley, 1987. Social differentiation in gatherers, in Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, European Mesolithic burial data, in Mesolithic North eds. E.S. Burch, Jr. & L.J. Ellana. Oxford: Berg, 223–39. West Europe: Recent Trends, eds. P. Rowley-Conwy, Hayden, B., 1995. Pathways to power: principles for creating M. Zvelebil & H. Blankholm. Sheffield: Department socioeconomic inequalities, in The Foundations of Social of Archaeology and Prehistory, Sheffield University, Inequality, eds. T.D. Price & G. Feinman. New York: 121–7. Plenum Press, 15–86. 289 Chapter 16

Hayden, B., 1996. Thresholds of power in emergent complex Le Bras-Goude, G., E. Herrscher & J. Vaquer, 2013. Funeral societies, in Emergent Social Complexity, ed. J. Arnold. practices and foodstuff behaviour: what does eat meat Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory. mean? Stable isotope analysis of Middle Neolithic Hayden, B., & R.J. Schulting, 1997. The Plateau Interaction populations in the Languedoc region (France). Journal Sphere and late prehistoric cultural complexity. American of Anthropological Archaeology 32, 280–7. Antiquity 62, 51–85. Loze, I., 1993. The Early Neolithic in Latvia: the Narva Henderson, R.C., 2015. Early Life Histories: A Study of Past Culture. Acta Archaeologica 63, 119–40. Childhood Diet and Health Using Stable Isotopes and Meadows, J., V. Bērziņš, U. Brinker, H. Lübke, U. Schmöl- Enamel Hypoplasia. Unpublished DPhil thesis, School cke, A. Staude, I. Zagorska & G. Zariņa, 2016. Dietary of Archaeology, University of Oxford. freshwater reservoir effects and the radiocarbon ages Henderson, R.C., J. Lee-Thorp & L. Loe, 2014. Early life his- of prehistoric human bones from Zvejnieki, Latvia. tories of the London poor using δ13C and δ15N stable Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 6, 678–89. isotope incremental dentine sampling. American Journal Meadows, J., V. Berzinš, D. Legzdina, H. Lübke, U. of Physical Anthropology 154, 585–93. Schmölcke, I. Zagorska & G. Zarina, 2018. Stone-age Hodder, I., 1982. Symbols in Action. Cambridge: Cambridge subsistence strategies at Lake Burtnieks, Latvia. Journal University Press. of Archaeological Science: Reports 17, 992–1006. Jacobs, K., 1995. Returning to Oleni’ ostrov: social, economic, Nilsson Stutz, L., L. Larsson & I. Zagorska, 2013. The per- and skeletal dimensions of a boreal forest Mesolithic sistent presence of the dead: recent excavations at cemetery. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 14, the hunter-gatherer cemetery at Zvejnieki (Latvia). 359–403. Antiquity 87, 1016–29 Kelly, R.L., 2013. The Foraging Spectrum: Diversity in Hunter- O’Shea, J.M., 1984. Mortuary Variability: An Archaeological Gatherer Lifeways. Cambridge: Cambridge University Investigation. Orlando: Academic Press. Press. O’Shea, J., & M. Zvelebil, 1984. Oleneostrovski mogilnik: Kingsley, R.G., 1985. Kin Groups and Mortuary Practices: reconstructing the social and economic organisation Ethnographic Implications for Archaeology. Unpubl. of prehistoric foragers in northern Russia. Journal of Ph.D. Thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, Michigan State Anthropological Archaeology 3, 1–40. University. Pader, E.J., 1982. Symbolism, Social Relations, and the Kintigh, K.W., J.H. Altschul, M.C. Beaudry, R.D. Drennan, Interpretation of Mortuary Remains. Oxford: British A.P. Kinzig, T.A. Kohler, W.F. Limp, H.D.G. Maschner, Archaeological Reports International Series, 130. W.K. Michener, T.R. Pauketat, P. Peregrine, J.A. Sabloff, Parker Pearson, M., 1982. Mortuary practices, society and T.J. Wilkinson, H.T. Wright & M.A. Zeder, 2014. Grand ideology: an ethnoarchaeological study, in Symbolic challenges for archaeology. Proceedings of the National and Structural Archaeology, ed. I. Hodder. Cambridge: Academy of Sciences (USA) 111, 879–80. Cambridge University Press, 99–113. Knipper, C., P. Held, M. Fecher, N. Nicklisch, C. Meyer, H. Parker Pearson, M., 1999. The Archaeology of Death and Burial. Schreiber, B. Zich, C. Metzner-Nebelsick, V. Hubensack, Stroud: Sutton. et al., 2015. Superior in life – superior in death: dietary Piličiauskas, G., D. Kisieliene & G. Piličiauskienė, 2017. distinction of central European prehistoric and medieval Deconstructing the concept of Subneolithic farm- elites. Current Anthropology 56(4): 579–89. ing in the southeastern Baltic. Vegetation History and Knudson, K.J., & C.M. Stojanowski, 2008. New directions in Archaeobotany 26(2), 183–93. bioarchaeology: recent contributions to the study of Privat, K.L., T.C. O’Connell & M.P. Richards, 2002. Stable human social identities. Journal of Archaeological Research isotope analysis of human and faunal remains from 16, 397–432. the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Berinsfield, Oxfordshire: Kriiska, A., 2003. From hunter-fisher-gatherer to farmer – dietary and social implications. Journal of Archaeological Changes in the Neolithic economy and settlement on Science 29, 779–90. Estonian territory. Archaeologia Lituana 4, 11–26. Robb, J., R. Bigazzi, L. Lazzarini, C. Scarsini & F. Sonego, Larsen, C.S., 1997. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from 2001. Social ‘status’ and biological ‘status’: A com- the Human Skeleton. Cambridge: Cambridge University parison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Press. Pontecagnano. American Journal of Physical Anthropol- Larsen, C.S., 2002. Bioarchaeology: the lives and lifestyles of ogy 115, 213–22. past people. Journal of Archaeological Research 10, 119–66. Scharlotta, I., V. Bazaliiskii & A.W. Weber, 2016. Social con- Larsson, L., 2006. Tooth for a tooth for a grave. Tooth orna- sequences of increased reliance on fishing in middle ments from the graves at the cemetery of Zvejnieki, in Holocene Cis-Baikal: relating fishing gear, axes, and Back to the Origin. New Research in the Mesolithic-Neolithic social status at the Shamanka II cemetery, Lake Baikal, Zvejnieki Cemetery and Environment, Northern Latvia, eds. Siberia. Quaternary International 419, 99–132. L. Larsson & I. Zagorska. Lund: Acta Archaeologica Schulting, R.J., 1995. Mortuary Variability and Status Dif- Lundensia, Series 8, No. 52, 253–87. ferentiation on the Columbia-Fraser Plateau. Burnaby: Larsson, L., & I. Zagorska (eds.), 2006. Back to the Origin. New Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University. Research in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Zvejnieki Cemetery and Schulting, R.J., 1996. Antlers, bone pins and flint blades: the Environment, Northern Latvia. Lund: Acta Archaeologica Mesolithic cemeteries of Téviec and Hoëdic, Brittany. Lundensia, Series 8, No. 52. Antiquity 70, 335–50. 290 Unequal in death and in life? Linking burial rites with individual life histories

Schulting, R.J., 2014. Hunter-gatherer diet, subsistence and Tepper, L.H., 1987. The Interior Salish Tribes of British Columbia: foodways, in Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and A Photographic Collection. Ottawa: National Museums Anthropology of Hunter‐Gatherers, eds. V. Cummings, of Canada. (Canadian Museum of Civilization, Mer- P. Jordan & M. Zvelebil. Oxford: Oxford University cury Series, Canadian Ethnology Service, No. 111. Press, 1266–87. Ubelaker, D.H., M.A. Katzenberg & L.G. Doyon, 1995. Status Sharapova, S., & D. Razhev, 2011. Skull deformation during and diet in precontact highland Ecuador. American the Iron Age in the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia, Journal of Physical Anthropology 97, 403–11. in The Bioarchaeology of the Human Head: Decapita- Watanabe, H., 1983. Occupational differentiation and social tion, Decoration, and Deformation, ed. M. Bonogofsky. stratification: The case of Northern Pacific maritime Gainesville: University of Florida Press. food-gatherers. Current Anthropology 24(2), 217–19. Smith, E.A., K. Hill, F.W. Marlowe, D. Nolin, P. Wiessner, M. Waterman, A.J., R.H. Tykot & A.M. Silva, 2016. Stable iso- Gurven, S. Bowles, M. Borgerhoff Mulder, T. Hertz & A. tope analysis of diet-based social differentiation at Bell 2010. Wealth transmission and inequality among Late Prehistoric collective burials in south-western hunter‐gatherers. Current Anthropology 51, 19–34. Portugal. Archaeometry 58, 131–51. Sparacello, V.S., V. d’Ercole & A. Coppa, 2015. A bioarchaeo- Wiessner, P., 1996. Levelling the hunter: constraints on the logical approach to the reconstruction of changes in status quest in foraging societies, in Food and the Status military organization among Iron Age Samnites (Ves- Quest: An Interdisciplinary Perspective, eds. P. Wiessner tini) From Abruzzo, Central Italy. American Journal of & W. Schiefenhövel. Providence: Berghahn, 171–91. Physical Anthropology 156, 305–16. Woodburn, J., 1982. Egalitarian societies. Man 17, 431–51. Stig Sørensen, M.L., 1997. Reading dress: the construction of Woodburn, J., 1998. ‘Sharing is not a form of exchange’: social categories and identities in Bronze Age Europe. an analysis of property-sharing in immediate-return Journal of European Archaeology 5, 93–114. hunter-gatherer societies, in Property Relations: Renew- Tainter, J.A., 1978. Mortuary practices and the study of ing the Anthropological Tradition, ed. C.M. Hann. prehistoric social systems. Advances in Archaeological Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 48–63. Method and Theory, 1, 105–41. Zagorska, I. 2006. Radiocarbon chronology of the Zvejnieki Teit, J.A., 1900. The Thompson Indians of British Columbia. burials, in Back to the Origin. New Research in the Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History 2, Mesolithic-Neolithic Zvejnieki Cemetery and Environ- 163–392. ment, Northern Latvia, eds. L. Larsson & I. Zagorska. Temple, D.H., S. Kusaka, S. and P.W. Sciulli, 2011. Patterns Lund: Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, Series 8, No. of social identity in relation to tooth ablation among 52, 91–113. prehistoric Jomon foragers from the Yoshigo site, Aichi Zagorskis, F., 2004. Zvejnieki (Northern Latvia) Stone Age prefecture, Japan. International Journal of Osteoarchaeol- Cemetery. Oxford: Archaeopress, British Archaeologi- ogy 21(3), 323–35. cal Reports International Series 1292.

291

Social inequality before farming?

Archaeological investigations over the past 50 years have challenged the importance of domestication and food production in the emergence of institutionalized social inequality. Social inequality in the prehistoric human past developed through multiple historical processes that operate on a number of different scales of variability (e.g. social, economic, demographic, and environmental). However, in the theoretical and linguistic landscape of social inequality, there is no clear definition of what social inequality is. The lifeways of hunter-gatherer- fisher societies open a crucial intellectual space and challenge to find meaningfulays w of using archaeological and ethnographic data to understand what social inequality exactly is with regard to variously negotiated or enforced cultural norms or ethoses of individual autonomy. This interdisciplinary edited volume gathers together researchers working in the fields of prehistoric archaeology and cultural and evolutionary anthropology. Spanning terminal Pleistocene to Holocene archaeological and ethnographic contexts from across the globe, the nineteen chapters in this volume cover a variety of topics organized around three major themes, which structure the book: 1) social inequality and egalitarianism in extant hunter-gatherer societies; 2) social inequality in Upper Palaeolithic Europe (c. 45,000–11,500 years ago); 3) social inequality in prehistoric Holocene hunter-gatherer-fisher societies globally. Most chapters in this volume provide empirical content with considerations of subsistence ecology, demography, mobility, social networks, technology, children’s enculturation, ritual practice, rock art, dogs, warfare, lethal weaponry, and mortuary behaviour. In addition to providing new data from multiple contexts through space and time, and exploring social diversity and evolution from novel perspectives, the collection of essays in this volume will have a considerable impact on how archaeologists define and theorize pathways both towards and away from inequality within diverse social contexts.

Editor: Luc Moreau is a research affiliate and immediate-past Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the study of Upper Palaeolithic behavioural variability and adaptations towards the Last Glacial Maximum. His publications deal with various aspects including stone tool technology and human mobility based on sites from Northwestern, Central and Eastern Europe. He is an affiliate member of the French Unité Mixte de Recherches (UMR) 7041 ‘Archéologies et Sciences de l’Antiquité’ based in Paris/Nanterre, and Secretary of the International Society for Hunter Gatherer Research (ISHGR).

Published by the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3ER, UK.

The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research exists to further research by Cambridge archaeologists and their collaborators into all aspects of the human past, across time and space. It supports archaeological fieldwork, archaeological science, material culture studies, and archaeological theory in an interdisciplinary framework. The Institute is committed to supporting new perspectives and ground-breaking research in archaeology and publishes peer-reviewed books of the highest quality across a range of subjects in the form of fieldwork monographs and thematic edited volumes.

Cover design by Dora Kemp and Ben Plumridge.

ISBN 978-1-913344-00-9 ISBN: 978-1-913344-00-9

9 781913 344009