The study by the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1266 at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel (CAU) recently published in the renowned journal Antiquity provides answers to this question. The results indicate lower social inequality in the mega-locations. Only after several generations did greater social differentiation emerge again, which could explain the subsequent abandonment of the megasites. “We assume that the novel social organization of the megasites enabled the population to actively participate in political decision-making processes,” explains Dr. Robert Hofmann from SFB 1266 and first author of the study. Such a reformist character may have been the catalyst for the enormous attractiveness of these settlements, as a result of which large numbers of people joined these communities.
House sizes provide answers
The wealth of households and the size of houses are interconnected in many societies, so house sizes represent an indicator of the economic status of households. The sizes of around 7,000 houses from 38 Trypillia locations served as the data basis for the study. The houses date to the period between 4,800 and 3,000 BC and come from three regions – today’s Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. The data was evaluated using the Gini coefficient, a statistical measure of the unequal distribution within a group. “We used the variability of house sizes in 38 Trypilia settlements to use the Gini coefficient to calculate how the level of inequality in the three geographical regions has changed over 2,000 years,” explains Dr. Nils Müller-Scheeßel from the Institute for Prehistory and Protohistory at the CAU. The results of the calculations show little variability in house sizes between 4,300 and 3,800 BC. This suggests that there was low social inequality in the Trypillia mega-settlements during this period. It is only in the late phase of the mega-settlements that social inequality increases again and reaches its peak after the decline of the settlements around 3,600 BC.
Equality ensured social stability
“This development suggests that there must have been effective mechanisms to avoid social inequality in the Trypillia communities,” says Professor Dr. Johannes Müller, spokesman for the SFB 1266 and head of the study. This may have included mechanisms for balancing interests and redistributing surpluses. The development of differences in house sizes and political institutions suggests that the opportunities to participate in political decision-making processes worsened over time and that the original egalitarian principles of the settlement founders were gradually abandoned. This resulted in increasing social differentiation and differences in wealth. “In our opinion, this was a decisive factor in the subsequent gradual disappearance of the large mega-settlements,” says Dr. Robert Hofmann and concludes: “The phenomenon of megasites is one of a number of historical examples that show that an increase in the complexity of societies is not necessarily accompanied by an increase in vertical social differentiation. Rather, the emergence and decay rested on democratic political decisions made by the individuals and communities who lived in these vast settlements and ultimately decided to leave them.