TY - JOUR

T1 - No gentry but grave-makers

T2 - inequality beyond property accumulation at Neolithic Çatalhöyük

AU - Kay, Kevin

AU - Haddow, Scott

AU - Knüsel, Christopher

AU - Mazzucato, Camilla

AU - Milella, Marco

AU - Veropoulidou, Rena

AU - Twiss, Katheryn C.

N1 - Funding Information: The work was supported by the Leverhulme Trust [ECF-2021-330]. All authors contributed data and analysis, and shaped the conclusions–which does not mean that all authors agree wholeheartedly. KK wrote the initial draft; all authors refined the text. KT and KK produced the graphs and tables. The larger working group from which this study derives is led by KT. We accumulated wisdom through discussions among the Çatalhöyük Research Project; at the SAA Annual Meeting in 2018; in our home institutions; through the editors and two anonymous reviewers. Thank you. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Archaeologists have adopted the Gini coefficient to evaluate unequal accumulations of material, supporting narratives modelled on modern inequality discourse. Proxies are defined for wealth and the household, to render 21st century-style economic tensions perceptible in the past. This ‘property paradigm’ treats material culture as a generic rather than substantive factor in unequal pasts. We question this framing while suggesting that the Gini coefficient can prompt a deeper exploration of value. Our study grows from multi-material evaluation of inequality at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Here we use the Gini coefficient to scrutinise distributions of burial practices among houses. To the expectations of the property paradigm, the result is unintuitive–becoming slightly more equal despite rising social complexity. We explore possible explanations for this result, each pointing to a more substantive link between past futures and differentiated lives as a framework for archaeologies of inequality.

AB - Archaeologists have adopted the Gini coefficient to evaluate unequal accumulations of material, supporting narratives modelled on modern inequality discourse. Proxies are defined for wealth and the household, to render 21st century-style economic tensions perceptible in the past. This ‘property paradigm’ treats material culture as a generic rather than substantive factor in unequal pasts. We question this framing while suggesting that the Gini coefficient can prompt a deeper exploration of value. Our study grows from multi-material evaluation of inequality at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Here we use the Gini coefficient to scrutinise distributions of burial practices among houses. To the expectations of the property paradigm, the result is unintuitive–becoming slightly more equal despite rising social complexity. We explore possible explanations for this result, each pointing to a more substantive link between past futures and differentiated lives as a framework for archaeologies of inequality.

KW - funerary

KW - Gini coefficient

KW - Inequality

KW - Neolithic

KW - value

KW - Çatalhöyük

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153521698&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/00438243.2023.2196956

DO - 10.1080/00438243.2023.2196956

M3 - Journal article

VL - 54

SP - 584

EP - 601

JO - World Archaeology

JF - World Archaeology

SN - 0043-8243

IS - 4

ER -