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 Überschuss ohne Staat
Politische Formen in der Vorgeschichte
Surplus without the State
Political Forms in Prehistory

1o. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag

vom 19. bis 21. Oktober 2o17 in Halle (Saale)
Herausgeber Harald Meller, Detlef Gronenborn und Roberto Risch

18 2018 TAGUNGEN DES L ANDESMUSEUMS FÜR VORGESCHICHTE HALLE

 Tagungen des
Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle
Band 18 | 2018

Überschuss ohne Staat –

Politische Formen in der Vorgeschichte
Surplus without the State –
Political Forms in Prehistory
1o. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag
vom 19. bis 21. Oktober 2o17 in Halle (Saale)
1oth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany
October 19–21, 2o17 in Halle (Saale)

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 1 20.09.18 11:18

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 2 20.09.18 11:18
 Tagungen des
Landesmuseums für Vorgeschichte Halle
Band 18 | 2018

Überschuss ohne Staat –

Politische Formen in der Vorgeschichte
Surplus without the State –
Political Forms in Prehistory
1o. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag
vom 19. bis 21. Oktober 2o17 in Halle (Saale)
1oth Archaeological Conference of Central Germany
October 19–21, 2o17 in Halle (Saale)

herausgegeben von
Harald Meller,
Detlef Gronenborn,
und Roberto Risch

Halle (Saale)
2o18

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 3 20.09.18 11:18

 Die Beiträge dieses Bandes wurden einem Peer-Review-Verfahren unterzogen.
Die Gutachtertätigkeit übernahmen folgende Fachkollegen: Prof. Dr. François Bertemes,
Dr. Richard J. Chacon, Dr. Walter Gauß, Dr. Hermann Genz, Prof. Dr. Detlef Gronenborn,
Prof. Dr. Anthony Harding, Prof. Dr. Barbara Helwing, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Daniela Hofmann,
Dr. José Lull García, Dr. Carlos Magnavita, Dr. Sonja Magnavita, Prof. Dr. Randall McGuire,
Dr. George R. Milner, Prof. Dr. Peter Mitchell, Prof. Dr. Susan Pollock, Prof. Dr. Roberto
Risch, Dr. Bernhard F. Steinmann, Prof. Dr. David Wengrow, Dr. Andrea Zeeb-Lanz

Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen
Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet
über http://portal.dnb.de abrufbar.

isbn 978-3-9445o7-83-5
issn 1867-44o2

Redaktion Holger Dietl, Anne Gottstein, Nele Lüttmann, Manuela Schwarz, David Tucker
Redaktion und Übersetzung Sandy Hämmerle • Galway (Irland), Isabel Aitken • Peebles (Schottland), David Tucker •
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Technische Bearbeitung Thomas Blankenburg, Anne Gottstein, Birte Janzen
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© Fotos P. Breunig und S. Rühl; © Metropolitan Museum of Art, Paddle Doll
Sektionstrenner Gestaltung Anne Gottstein; S. 21 © Foto M. Börner, © OREA FWF Projekt P27159;
S.79 © Foto K. Xenikakis; S. 199 © Miguel Ángel Blanco de la Rubia, Courtesy of the
research group ATLAS, University of Sevilla; S. 335 © Fotos S. Rühl; S. 447 © Fotos
K. M. Ervin
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© Foto R. Ceccacci, MAIAO
Für den Inhalt der Arbeiten sind die Autoren eigenverantwortlich.

© 2o18 by Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt – Landesmuseum

für Vorgeschichte Halle (Saale). Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrecht-
lich geschützt. Jede Verwertung außerhalb der engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist
ohne Zustimmung des Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt
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Satzschrift FF Celeste, News Gothic
Konzept und Gestaltung Carolyn Steinbeck • Berlin
Layout, Satz und Produktion Anne Gottstein, Birte Janzen
Druck und Bindung Grafisches Centrum Cuno GmbH & Co. KG

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 4 20.09.18 11:18

 Inhalt/Contents

9 Vorwort der Herausgeber/Preface of the editors

Sektion Theorie/
Section Theory

23 Hermann Amborn
Auskömmliches Leben für alle. Sicherung von Herrschaftsfreiheit und Wohlstand in poly-
kephalen Gemeinschaften des Osthorns von Afrika

45 Roberto Risch
Affluent societies of later prehistory

67 François Bertemes
Überschuss, beginnende gesellschaftliche Komplexität und frühe Sakralbauten

Sektion Östlicher Mittelmeerraum und Vorderasien/

Section Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

81 Marcella Frangipane
Different forms of surplus production and use and the economic foundations of early state
societies in the Mesopotamian world

103 Massimo Vidale, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, and François Desset

The late prehistory of the northern Iranian Central Plateau (c. 6ooo–3ooo BC): growth and
collapse of decentralised networks

147 Anna Gómez Bach, Walter Cruells, and Miquel Molist

Halaf phenomena: surplus, homeland, and identity in Upper Mesopotamia (62oo–53oo cal BC)

167 Marisa Marthari

Architecture, seals and aspects of social organisation in the peak period of the Early Bronze Age
Cyclades: the evidence from the major settlement at Skarkos on the island of Ios

Sektion Europa/
Section Europe

201 Detlef Gronenborn, Hans-Christoph Strien, Rolf van Dick, and Peter Turchin
Social diversity, social identity, and the emergence of surplus in the western central
European Neolithic

221 Svend Hansen

Arbeitsteilung, soziale Ungleichheit und Surplus in der Kupferzeit an der Unteren
Donau 46oo–43oo v. Chr.

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 5 20.09.18 11:18

 247 Johannes Müller, Robert Hofmann, René Ohlrau, and Mila Shatilo
The social constitution and political organisation of Tripolye mega-sites: hierarchy and balance

263 Michael Geschwinde

Die jungneolithischen Erdwerke zwischen Rhein und Elbe

287 Jean-Paul Demoule

Soziale Komplexität im französischen Neolithikum

311 Leonardo García Sanjuán, Marta Cintas-Peña, Martin Bartelheim, and Miriam Luciañez Triviño
Defining the »elites«: a comparative analysis of social ranking in Copper Age Iberia

Sektion Afrika/
Section Africa

337 Juan Carlos Moreno García

State building and diverging political paths in the Nile Valley: trade, power, and
wealth 4ooo–175o BC

373 Susan Keech McIntosh

Surplus and complexity in the Inland Niger Delta, Mali: the invisibility conundrum

387 Peter Breunig

Die Skulpturen der Nok-Kultur Nigerias. Ein Beispiel für hoch spezialisiertes Handwerk
einer vor-staatlichen Gesellschaft

407 Plan Shenjere-Nyabezi

Pastoralism and socio-political structure in pre-colonial Zimbabwe

431 Shadreck Chirikure

Early metallurgy and surplus without states in Africa south of the Sahara

Sektion Amerika/
Section America

449 Markus Reindel and Hermann Gorbahn

The rise of monumentality and complex societies in the Central Andes, Peru

467 Rubén G. Mendoza

Mining the »Mountain of Sustenance« – Resource circumscription and the evolution of
highland-lowland interaction in Formative Mesoamerica

517 Tristram R. Kidder and Kelly M. Ervin

Hunter-gatherer surplus accumulation and monumental construction at Poverty Point,
Mississippi Valley

TB18_Buch_satz.indb 6 20.09.18 11:18

 Affluent societies of later prehistory
Roberto Risch

Zusammenfassung Summary

Überschussgesellschaften der Vorgeschichte Most a-cephalic societies identified by anthropology are

described as being poor in absolute (material) terms, but
Die meisten der anthropologisch dokumentierten akephalen rich in time for leisure or other activities. Affluence is gener-
Gesellschaften werden in Hinblick auf materiellen Reichtum ally understood as a situation where material needs remain
als arm beschrieben, dafür aber als reich an frei verfügbarer limited and where the idea of necessity governs economic
Zeit für alle Arten sozialer Aktivitäten. Wohlstand wird hier als production. In this stoic understanding of human existence,
Situation definiert, in der materielle Bedürfnisse bescheiden social equality is inevitably linked to limited economic wealth
bleiben und in der das Konzept der Notwendigkeit über dem and, hence, to hunter-gatherer societies. According to this
der wirtschaftlichen Produktion steht. Aus diesem stoischen logic, the development of individual needs not only requires
Verständnis des menschlichen Daseins wird soziale Gleichheit a greater input of labour, but also leads to social inequality,
zwangsläufig mit geringem wirtschaftlichem Wohlstand und political institutions, etc. This dominant civilisational nar-
daher mit Jäger-Sammler-Gesellschaften gleichgesetzt. In Folge rative is being challenged by archaeology, as increasing evi-
dieser Überlegungen erfordert die Erweiterung der individuel- dence is provided of prehistoric societies with an exceptional
len Bedürfnisse nicht nur mehr Arbeitsaufwand, sondern führt demographic and economic development, including a high
zwangsweise auch zu sozialer Ungleichheit, zur Bildung poli- level of specialisation and coordination, but where no or few
tischer Institutionen etc. Dieser bisher dominante zivilisato- signs of political centralisation can be identified. These soci-
rische Erklärungsansatz wird in den letzten Jahren durch die eties engaged in substantial joint enterprises, extended over
archäologische Forschung kritisch hinterfragt, da sich Belege large territories, organised large-scale distribution networks,
für prähistorische Gesellschaften mit außergewöhnlichen demo- and developed exceptional technical skills. No convincing
grafischen und wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen häufen. Diese interpretative framework has yet been developed for these
Gesellschaften verfügen zwar über ein hohes Maß an Speziali- archaeological complexes, which evade the conventional
sierung und Koordination, jedoch können keine oder bloß ver- labels of chiefdom, state, social complexity, etc. The various
einzelt Hinweise auf politische Zentralisierung identifiziert wer- spatial and material expressions used in archaeology to iden-
den. Sie bewältigten gemeinschaftlich Großprojekte, erstreckten tify political institutions, centralised power, or social hierar-
sich über weite Territorien, unterhielten weiträumige Austausch- chies remain elusive in these cases. Although settlement areas
netzwerke und entwickelten bemerkenswerte technologischen may have reached considerable sizes, they did not develop
Fertigkeiten. Bisher wurde noch kein überzeugender Interpre- into urban centres.
tationsrahmen für diese archäologisch dokumentierten Gesell- The production of substantial surplus is the common fea-
schaften vorgeschlagen, der die konventionelle Klassifizierung ture of these groups. This production was utilised in very dif-
als beispielsweise Häuptlingstum, Staat oder soziale Komplexi- ferent social, ideological, or political realms, but was not
tät überwindet. Die verschiedenen in der archäologischen For- transformed into private property. Consequently, we can
schung herangezogenen materiellen und territorialen Belege speak here of cooperative affluent societies, where substan-
für politische Institutionen, zentralisierte Macht und Sozialhie- tial material benefits were shared and enjoyed collectively. In
rarchien bleiben in diesen Gruppen schwer fassbar. Obwohl die our presentation, examples of several archaeological case
Siedlungsgebiete zum Teil relativ groß waren, entwickelten sich studies, ranging from the Middle East to the western Medi-
dort dennoch keine städtischen Zentren. terranean, will be used to discuss the strategies adopted by
Den Gruppen gemein war die Produktion signifikanter these societies in relation to surplus production and oblitera-
Überschüsse. Diese wurden gemeinschaftlich in sozialen, tion, as well as their political forms. Ultimately, this will also
ideologischen oder politischen Kontexten verwertet, jedoch allow us to understand why it proves difficult to find equiva-
nicht in Privatbesitz überführt. Daher stehen wir hier vor lences in the ethnographic record.
kooperativen Überschussgesellschaften, in denen beträchtli-
che materielle Gewinne geteilt und gemeinsam genossen wur-
den. In diesem Beitrag werden diverse archäologische Fallstu-
dien vom Nahen Osten bis zum westlichen Mittelmeergebiet
diskutiert. Im Fokus stehen dabei die verschiedenen Strate-
gien mit den erzielten Überschüssen umzugehen und diese zu
konsumieren. Diese Beispiele lassen uns letztlich verstehen,
warum es schwierig ist, in ethnografischen Quellen ähnliche
Phänomene zu finden.

TA G U N G E N D E S L A N D E S M U S E U M S F Ü R V O R G E S C H I C H T E H A L L E • B A N D 18 • 2 018

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 46 ROBERTO RISCH
Primitive societies or state-rejecting strategies?
Few of western societies’ historical convictions have been
more profoundly rooted, since at least the time of the
Enlightenment philosophers and economists, than the
notion that social equality and individual freedom, in so far
as they exist at all, are a trait of so-called primitive societies.
As their economies are understood to be ruled by a general-
ised scarcity of goods, it is assumed that their population
size, technological development, and the division of work
must remain limited. If no surplus is produced, it cannot be
accumulated by some at the expense of others; hence, no
political control is necessary. Violence may occur, but does
not aim to subjugate the enemy in order to exploit its work-
force. At the opposite end of the scale, in terms of social
equality and individual freedom, are state societies, their
emergence, in this historical understanding, being the inevi-
table result of the process of civilisation. As larger communi-
ties start interacting, specialisation, and, hence, technologi-
cal progress become feasible, leading to an increase in
wealth production. However, as competition and self-inter-
est drive this process, by virtue of supposedly innate aspects
of human nature, social inequality becomes inevitable. Vio-
lence is essential to the state, either to avoid endemic social
conflict (Hobbes 198o [1651]), or to keep the exploited class
down and out of the sight of the rich (Lenin 1917). These
hazards are perceived as the more or less inevitable costs of
civilisation, so that, today, society accepts the infamous fact
that thousands of men, women, and children unnecessarily
die each year crossing the Mediterranean, trying to flee
from the poverty and violence our most civilised govern-
ments continue to foster.
In the 197os this state-centric narrative started to be chal-
lenged by some anthropologists. R. B. Lee (1979) and M. Sah-
lins (1972) were able to show that primitive hunter-gatherer
societies, such as the Bushmen or Khoisan of the Kalahari in
southern Africa, had little wealth but abundant time to
engage in other social practices or just to rest, leading to the
notion of primitive affluent societies. P. Clastres (1974) went
even further, questioning whether the state or any other
form of political domination was perceived by most a-ceph-
alic societies as a desirable, let alone superior form of social
organisation. Rather, Clastres provided multiple examples
from the Americas of the diverse strategies used to avoid the
concentration and, more importantly, the perpetuation and
institutionalisation of power in the hands of a few. In order
to evade exploitation, many groups even chose to adopt a
hunter-gatherer way of life, which allowed them to be much
more mobile and flexible and thus escape European domina-
tion.
Challenged by this paradigmatic shift, critical anthropo-
logical research started to ask if what we call primitive soci-
eties are in fact highly elaborate forms of socio-economic
organisation, designed to prevent or to resist exploitation by
the state. The Bushmen, usually considered by evolutionary
anthropology as the simplest type of hunter-gatherers, are
perfectly aware that surplus and its appropriation are the
cause of serious social troubles and enforce complex social
rules to prevent them (Suzman 2o17). Exceptionally skilled
hunters and their hunting success, for example, are down-
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 46
played, whilst the meat obtained by them is fairly distributed,
taking account of the different needs of the young, adults,
and the old. Possibly, this rejection of material wealth is also
a reaction to external threats. Groups with a limited produc-
tive capacity are usually of little interest to the economically
and politically more aggressive societies occupying southern
Africa since the Bantu expansion. Even if some Bushmen
groups have recently seen a slight improvement in their
living conditions, they remain deeply troubled and dissatis-
fied, unable to conceive how the enormous differences in
wealth and privileges ruling the modern world can be tolera-
ted by present-day society (Suzman 2o17, 184–185). Anyone
who has read the elaborate tales of the Bushmen (e. g., de
Prada 2oo1) will beware of labelling the judgments and decis-
ion making of these people as primitive. There can be no
doubt that the maintenance of social equality requires the
deployment of specific economic and political strategies just
as much as does inequality (e. g., Trigger 2oo3; Risch 2o16).
How easily we have mistaken resistance to political domi-
nation and economic exploitation for primitivism has
recently also been discussed in relation to the so-called com-
plex hunter-gatherers of Pacific North America (Wengrow/
Graeber 2o18). Here, two neighbouring societies have devel-
oped markedly different political forms, though sharing
similar subsistence resources and technologies. While the
Indians on the north-west Coast were known for their slave
economy and ostentatious wealth, the indigenous societies
of northern California are usually seen as having a much
more primitive economy. A closer look, however, reveals that
the different attitude to resources, work, and political power
among the Californian foraging communities may have
been a conscious reaction to the external threats posed by
their northern neighbours as slave raiders, as well as to inter-
nal ones arising out of the rejection of the development of
exploitative socio-political structures. State-repelling strate-
gies are also known from agro-pastoral contexts, as J. C. Scott
discusses in his challenging book The art of not being gover-
ned (Scott 2oo9). For centuries, upland south-east Asia has
been peopled by communities fleeing from the padi states
dominating the fertile valleys. Instead of being retarded or
marginal, these populations – approx. 8o –1oo million per-
sons spread across a territory roughly the size of Europe
named Zomia – developed specific settlement patterns, agri-
cultural techniques, and social practices that allowed them
to evade or minimise state domination and taxation, at the
same time as interacting with the valley societies, when con-
sidered beneficial. Consequently, economic and political
forms which, in historical narratives, are usually placed at a
lower level in the above-mentioned civilisational process,
appear instead to represent a step beyond the state. While at
the start of the 21st century one might have been tempted to
assume that the whole world was divided into states, the
new wars, usually initiated by some of the most civilised of
them, have lead a growing number of communities in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, etc. to search for
alternative forms of organisation, suggesting that the zenith
of statehood may have passed (von Trotha 2o11).
This raises the question of political forms in non-state
societies, particularly in those cases where economic exploi-
tation and political domination are rejected or limited.
TA G U N G E N D E S L A N D E S M U S E U M S F Ü R V O R G E S C H I C H T E H A L L E • B A N D 18 • 2 018
20.09.18 11:19

H. Amborn has recently addressed this issue in his inspiring
book Recht als Hort der Anarchie (Amborn 2o16; see also
Amborn in this volume). This detailed analysis of the anar-
chic or poly-cephalic societies of eastern Africa shows how a
specific understanding of social and economic equality is
enforced in a community by the active engagement of its
members in the establishment of values, rights, and norms.
Their essential political practice is public discussion between
autonomous and equally responsible individuals embedded
in the community. The political locus of this discussion and
communication is the assembly, which can be convened at
different social levels (kinship groups, settlement, region).
The law resulting from this practice is ruled by a collective
search for truth and by the recognition of guilt by the
accused person or group, once consensus is reached. The ulti-
mate goal of this collective system of law, as opposed to State
law, has much less to do with punishment than with the
keeping and reinforcement of communal ties and responsibil-
ities (for upland south-east Asia, see also Stringham/Miles
2o12). Such political and judicial practice can only arise from
specific economic norms, which prevent anyone from being
driven into a situation of economic dependence. The main
principles are a rejection of slavery and a refusal to engage in
wage labour for owners of means of production who remain
inactive (Amborn 2o16, 125–126).
Understanding affluent societies before the state
All the previous approaches to non-state or state-preventing
societies coincide in pointing out that a-cephalic or poly-
cephalic communities are not very powerful, either in demo-
graphic or economic terms. Surplus production may exist
but is constantly limited, in order to prevent the accumula-
tion of wealth, or removed, for example through collective
feasting. M. Fortes and E. Evans-Pritchard (194o) noted that
decentralised political systems in Africa did not exceed
45 ooo members, though admitting that demographic den-
sity could be high. In political terms, Amborn (2o16, 158)
mentions that up to 3ooo attendees can meet in the largest
assemblies of the Borana in East Africa. Scott (2oo9) does
not provide information on the exact size of the political
entities in Zomia, but, rather, insists on the fission and
dispersion of communities when signs of domination and
exploitation surface. Another common trait of these state-
preventing societies that is usually underlined is their aver-
sion to conspicuous consumption and the ostentation of
individual wealth, or political position, often combined with
the attachment of high value to productive work, as opposed
to wage labour. One strategy for avoiding inequality is obvi-
ously to curtail economic production and the accumulation
of goods. A. Testart (2oo5) defined groups which chose this
strategy as a-crematic. He and his team also noticed that
these societies were reluctant to embrace social obligations,
such as bride price or bridewealth, suggesting that these
practices would lead to the beginning of economic asym-
metries in a community (Testart et al. 2oo2).
One might be tempted to conclude that equality is not
compatible with material affluence, were not the suspicion
to arise that Western anthropologists are somehow looking
TA G U N G E N D E S L A N D E S M U S E U M S F Ü R V O R G E S C H I C H T E H A L L E • B A N D 18 • 2 018
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 47
A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 47
at these amiable – from a state-critical position – societies
through the lens of M. Weber’s Die protestantische Ethik und
der Geist des Kapitalismus (Weber 19o4–19o5). Present day
critical thinking is often inclined to look for and defend
such positions, in view of today’s economic excesses, envi-
ronmental destruction, and the steadily growing distance
between the world’s haves and have-nots. There is a certain
irony in the fact that during and since the last decade-long
economic crisis of Capitalism (2oo8–2o17), governments
and the long-established political class have been vehe-
mently defending – and violently imposing – a similar
notion of austerity in the realm of the state, including the
European Union (EU), as well as in private households. Still
today, the hegemonic economic thinking continues to be
that curtailing the state budget devoted to social services (as
opposed to military spending) and the private deprivation
of the classes with less or no income is the only viable
economic practice in this world, despite the fact that neither
the existing financial resources nor the productive forces,
including technology, support such a conclusion, even remo-
tely (e. g., Hart 2o18). Nothing suggests that the majority of
human beings, particularly in the third world, are seduced
by the theories and policies of deprivation and consumptive
curtailment emanating from the opulent North. More agree-
ment probably exists, in an increasingly globalised world,
on exposing the blatantly unequal distribution of economic
resources and access to education and political decision-
making. In this sense, K. Marx’s (1968 [1844], 517; Marx 1961
[1894], 873–874) understanding that freedom starts where
physical needs end still remains a radical and liberating pro-
posal within critical thought.
While it is generally the case that the humanities have
prioritised the investigation of states, fundamentally
because »the larger the pile of rubble you leave behind, the
larger your place in the historical record« (Scott 2oo9,
33–34), prehistoric archaeology is producing abundant evi-
dence that the binary thinking which opposes scarcity,
equality, and freedom to wealth, exploitation and domina-
tion can no longer be sustained. As the papers included in
the this volume show, more and more contexts have been
discovered, during the last decades of intense archaeological
research, where abundant evidence of wealth consumption
is visible but there are no clear signs of political centralisa-
tion, nor of social divisions along economic lines. In these
cases, an exceptional development of the forces of produc-
tion seems to have benefited communities, often allowing
their rapid demographic growth, the construction of monu-
mental sites, the creation of outstanding craft works, or the
spreading of extensive social networks. Unlike the escape
communities increasingly identified in anthropology, these
prehistoric entities did not form in opposition to or in symbi-
osis with states, or at the margins of economically more
powerful groups.
The increasing number and quality of archaeological
sources has led to the notion of communal societies, for
example in the case of the Pueblo Indians in the south-west
of the United States (McGuire/Saitta 1996; Saitta 1997). In
this model, the means of production belong to the social
group and surplus appropriation is collective, since the
beneficiaries of surplus work are simultaneously the produ-
20.09.18 11:19
 48 ROBERTO RISCH
cers. Moreover, the exceptional signs of creative vigour and
social vitality in these societies, in combination with the
marked social division of tasks evident in certain prehistoric
groups, express the intensity and quality of the cooperation
achieved, not only in the realm of production but, crucially,
in that of distribution and exchange. Communal property
rights alone cannot explain this economic strength, while
technological changes leading to an increase in productivity
could still have led to labour exploitation. Only through
cooperative networks and decision-making could these con-
ditions and forces of production have achieved an economic
breakthrough without causing social disruptions. Probably,
the phenomena we are beginning to recognise in the
archaeological record represent domination-rejecting soci-
eties living in material affluence or, simply, cooperative afflu-
ent societies. Their merit, it seems, was to have succeeded
setting a surplus economy into motion through a combina-
tion of individual creativity, cooperative work, and collec-
tive decision-making, which benefitted the community as a
whole. Such an achievement challenges the socio-economic
situation of our own world, were most wealth is produced
through exploitation of wage, servile, or even slave labour.
The degree of scepticism a reader may feel about such a pos-
sibility is an expression of his/her own confidence in the
civilisational narrative and in the state as the ultimate histo-
rical success. Hence, acknowledging the possibility that
cooperative affluent societies existed requires us, in the first
place, to change the lenses through which we analyse so-
called people without history (Wolf 1982), and, we also need
to add, without anthropology.
In order to approach these prehistoric communities,
three theoretical lenses need to be changed. The first is the
one through which we perceive the surplus production and
exchange and access to skills and information that resulted
in the outstanding economic achievements we observe in
the archaeological record. The second is the lens through
which we perceive political forms. As it would have been
crucial for political decision-making to be decentralised,
and probably also ubiquitous, in these societies, in order to
prevent the emergence of a political class or ruler, any
archaeological evidence of political practice will tend to
remain elusive. Since politics was intermingled and entang-
led with other social realms, distinctive political spaces and
artefacts would have been dispensable. The third lens
which needs to be changed is the one through which we
perceive the role played by and the handling of conflict and
physical violence in affluent societies. While one of the
main traits of the state is its monopoly over the means of
violence (Weber 1972 [1921]), all other societies are faced
with the issue of how to use, confront, and settle violence,
and with the need to find alternative ways to impose parti-
cular or general goals.
Before analysing the economic foundations of coopera-
tive affluent societies, we must clarify the concept of surplus,
because it is central to the exploitation of work. As discussed
elsewhere (Risch 2oo2, 24–28; Risch 2o16), a fundamental
conceptual distinction must be drawn between surplus gain,
an increase of production, and communal wealth which is
not achieved through surplus labour and surplus profit or
added value, which is the share of production which does
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 48
not revert in any form to the group or individual that has
generated it. The second always implies an unequal, indivi-
dual appropriation of parts of the social production, and,
consequently, it transcends the strictly economic realm.
Other languages allow a clearer distinction between the two
meanings of surplus than English does; for instance Über-
schuss in contrast to Mehrwert in German, or excédent in
contrast to plus-value in French. The confusion between
these two understandings of surplus goes back to the wri-
tings of K. Marx and F. Engels. While the former clearly dis-
tinguished between an increase in wealth (Überschuss) and
surplus labour, surplus product, and surplus value (e. g.
Marx 1961[1894], 872–873), Engels was more prone to use
the two concepts interchangeably, probably for the sake of
simplicity in an attempt to make his and Marx’s ideas more
accessible to a wider audience (e. g., Engels 1919 [1878], 168).
Because surplus production depends primarily on
human work, a theory of surplus profit or surplus value is
always also a theory of economic exploitation and of
individual alienation (Medio 1972). Many anthropologists
have tried to overlook this social significance of surplus, for
example by limiting its meaning to a »surplus above subsis-
tence« (Harris 1959). However, neither wealth nor exploita-
tion necessarily arise only out of food production but can
surface in any productive-consumptive relationship.
H. W. Pearson (1957) argued, instead, that no economy pro-
duces an absolute, quantifiable surplus over and above
mere subsistence needs, because human society cannot be
reduced to basic biological needs. This sound observation,
however, does not help us to understand the substantial dif-
ferences in production and wealth detected between soci-
eties, even in situations where natural resources and techno-
logical means are similar. The heuristic value of Pearson’s
argument gains strength when reversed: societies are per-
fectly aware 1. that production is always a process with a
degree of unpredictability, given environmental, social,
political, and personal uncertainties, and 2. that production
can be increased through a greater input of labour or
through an improvement of productivity. Hence, most eco-
nomic cycles, particularly in societies with a developed
division of tasks, will end up regularly with a variable
quantity of surplus gain or material abundance, something
which P. Halstead (1989) has named normal surplus, though
referring again to subsistence production alone.
The crucial challenge any society faces is not production,
which is its existential precondition, but the disposal, curtail-
ing, distribution, or centralisation of the variable but regular
extra supplies provided by production. Archaeological and
anthropological evidence allows us to recognise at least six
different socio-economic strategies for dealing with such sur-
plus gains (Risch 2o16). Four strategies can be deployed to
prevent the centralisation of resources and power:
1. curtailing the production of wealth (thereby, in
Testart’s terms, imposing an a-crematic economy);
2. direct collective consumption of surplus gains (e. g.,
through feasting);
3. indirect collective consumption (e. g., through invest-
ment in the construction of monuments or infrastruc-
tures); and
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4. development of craft production and circulation of
symbolically charged goods, which foster social com-
munication and prevent or cancel debt.
In contrast, at least two strategies allow collectively pro-
duced wealth to be converted into surplus value:
5. obtaining private profits through the control of
exchange. This was already labelled »un-natural com-
merce« by Aristotle (Política 197o, 16); and
6. the more or less direct subjugation and exploitation
of labour, whereby members of the community are
forced to become slaves, servants, or labourers.
The enquiry into the political forms of cooperative affluent
societies requires a critical reflection on the dominant idea
of politics itself. In the classical definition of M. Weber (1972
[1921]), political action is the exercise of power and domina-
tion at a communal level, principally by the state. Politics
is thus an arena of conflict, a more or less violent fight to
impose certain types of conduct, values, and beliefs upon
social groups and individuals. Such a conflict-driven defi-
nition practically excludes the possibility of political deci-
sion-making in societies where no personalisation or insti-
tutionalisation of power and domination exists. In the logic
of the above-mentioned civilisational narrative, so-called
primitive societies are expected to regulate communal
affairs and individual behaviours through lineage and kin-
ship relations (e. g., Fortes/Evans-Pritchard 194o). Yet, as
anthropology and, above all, the appearance of post-state or
so-called failed-state entities lay bare (e. g., Akude et al. 2o11),
such a definition of »politics« is certainly flawed.
From a conflict-neutral perspective, political praxis may
have originated from (and might return to) the very logic of
economy1. It is one of Marx’s merits (1857–1861) to have
recognised the fundamental contradiction emerging in all
human societies between the moment of the production of
goods, as an inevitably collective enterprise, and the moment
of consumption, where each member of the community can
express different needs, preferences, and desires. The biologi-
cal and social differences between the agents participating
in both moments and the time lapse between them are
bridged and resolved in each historical context through spe-
cific relations of distribution and exchange. These relations
mediate between a socially organised production and indivi-
dual consumption: »Distribution determines the relation in
which products fall to individuals« (Marx 1973 [1857–1861],
89). But unnoticed by those critics who take Marx’s approach
to be economic determinism is his observation that »before
distribution can be distribution of products, it is: 1. the distri-
bution of the instruments of production, and 2. »…, the distri-
bution of the members of the society among the different
kinds of production (subsumption of the individuals under
specific relations of production)« (Marx 1973 [1857–1861],
96). This distribution is a collective affair, or »social accident«
(Marx 1973 [1857–1861], 89), where the social value of each
1 The political theory proposed here has been
discussed with C. Rihuete Herrada, V. Lull
and R. Micó over recent years and presented
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A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 49
economic factor (raw materials; primarily land, tools, and
tasks) is set. In other words, in the realm of distribution, soci-
ety needs to clarify which members of the community
engage in which productive task, with what means, over
what period of time, to achieve what goals, and, most impor-
tantly, who will benefit from all this. The social value
– understood as the relation between the costs of production
(or exchange value in a commodified economy) and the use
value (Risch 2oo2) – attached to the different tasks, means,
and resulting products, will generate or prevent social asym-
metries along lines of sex, age, kinship, ethnicity, nationality,
class, or any other social fault line. The most consequential
political decisions inevitably concern the property rights
ruling any community. This led Marx (1973 [1857–1861]) ini-
tially to classify human societies according to their forms of
property, rather than in terms of modes of production. Ulti-
mately, political praxis establishes the rights, rules, and
values which determine the relations between the members
of a group or community with regard to production and con-
sumption, and, hence, the limits of the social entity itself, be
it a household, a clan, a state, a nation, etc. While distribution
demands a political praxis at the community level, exchange
requires, in the first place, a political regulation of economic
relations with the outside world.
Such an understanding of the political field does not pre-
suppose the exercise of power, violence or domination. As
already mentioned, political decision-making in a-cephalic
or poly-cephalic societies usually depends on consensus
reached in assemblies and boards, where large parts of
the communities are present or represented (e. g., Akude
2o11; Amborn 2o16). Neither does it imply that political
praxis stands above production; rather, it emerges out of
and is required by the structural and temporal differences
between production and consumption. The distribution – as
well as the curtailing and disposal – of surplus is a political
praxis, which can either take account of the social and bio-
logical differences inside the community by pooling, level-
ling, and sharing economic efforts and benefits, or pursue
the subjugation and domination of smaller or larger parts of
society through power and violence.
Clarifying the opposed meanings of surplus, on the one
hand, and of political praxis, on the other, and the relation
between the two, makes it more feasible to approach the eco-
nomic organisation and political forms of cooperative afflu-
ent societies from a less state-centred perspective. Only then
might we have a chance of understanding how certain soci-
eties reached exceptional levels of material wealth and social
wellbeing without resorting to economic exploitation and
political centralisation. The role of violence in such societies
needs to be addressed empirically, rather than theoretically.
Affluent societies of the Mediterranean Neolithic
At least three archaeological complexes (Fig. 1) stand out in
the Mediterranean Neolithic for their staggering economic
on different occasions (Lull/Micó 2o11;
Lull et al. forthcoming).
20.09.18 11:19
 50 ROBERTO RISCH
N
0 500 km
Fig. 1 Affluent societies of the Mediterranean discussed in this paper.
Abb. 1 Die in diesem Beitrag diskutierten wohlhabenden Gesellschaften des Mittelmeerraumes.
and social achievements: the so-called Halaf group in the east
(c. 62oo –53oo BC), the Middle and Late phases of Neolithic
Greece (c. 68oo/66oo –45oo BC), and the Late Neolithic/Chal-
colithic world of south Iberia in the west (c. 33oo –22oo BC).
Despite the distance in time and space between these enti-
ties, surprising resemblances exist between them, such as
a dense settlement organisation, a diversified subsistence
production, and an exceptional development of crafts and
communicative praxis, including wealth circulation. Above
all, there is an absence of unequivocal evidence of social
distinctions and economic exploitation, such as outstand-
ing private residences, centralisation of wealth, elite burials
containing recognisable insignia of domination, specialised
weapons, or hoards. Although public spaces can be identi-
fied in the archaeological record of the three regions, ascer-
taining their arenas of political praxis and their political
leaders is much more complicated.
Halaf
During the excavations at Tell Halaf (Syria) between 1911
and 1913, M. von Oppenheim and his team discovered a
finely manufactured and decorated pottery, which has given
its name to an archaeological phenomenon of the Middle
Eastern Neolithic (Akkermans 1993; see also Gómez Bach
et al. in this volume). Today, this pottery style has been iden-
tified over large parts of Mesopotamia and south-east Anato-
lia, reaching the coastal areas of the northern Levant. In this
vast area, settlements, ranging from small hamlets to large
sites of 4 ha, and even, rarely, over 1o ha (Tell Halula, Syria),
2 See mainly Saña et al. 2oo1; Saña 2oo2;
Gaulon 2oo6; Grossman/Hinman 2o13.
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 50
Halaf, c. 6200–5300 BC
core region
regions influenced by Halaf
Neolithic Greece, c. 6800/6600–4500 BC
area with highest settlement density
Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic of southern Iberia,
c. 3300–2200 BC
core region
secondary distribution of ditched enclosures
and fortified settlements
are found in diverse topographic locations, though access to
good rain-fed agricultural land seems to have been a priority
(Gaulon 2o1o). Settlement density was high in many regions
and community size would have ranged from a few dozen to
up to 15oo persons. The botanical and faunal records are
characterised by an important range of species and high
regional variability. Wild fauna (mainly gazelle and onager)
can represent from around 3 % (Tell Amarna, Syria) to over
5o % (Tell Zeidan, Syria). The preference for wild over
domestic animals correlates neither with settlement size,
nor, apparently, with ecological factors2.
Habitation sites consisted of a loosely constructed space,
of which more than half remained unroofed (Pollock 2o13).
Freestanding circular and dome-shaped buildings, also
known as tholoi, provided limited interior living spaces, usu-
ally ranging between 12 and 3o m 2. Square structures, as
well as more complex constructions, consisting of clusters of
small rooms, have also been found. Differences in size and
the tools found inside the buildings point to a certain divi-
sion of tasks, but it is often unclear whether these construc-
tions, made of wattle and daub or mud brick walls, represen-
ted domestic units, storage structures, workshops, or
something different altogether. This ambiguity is seen, for
example, in tholoi structure 137 at Yarim Tepe III (Iraq).
With an internal diameter of 6 m, it is the largest building
found in this approximately 4 ha settlement (Merpert/Mun-
chaev 1993). A hearth was situated next to the entrance and
four built-in storage units were positioned symmetrically
along the inner wall. Domestic remains, such as faunal
remains, bone and stone tools, spindle whorls, and cooking
pots, appeared in its successive occupation layers and in the
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storage structures, but grinding stones and complete mor-
tars – indispensable for domestic food processing – were
missing. Moreover, a considerable number of animal and
human figurines and decorated clay rings underline the
symbolic value of the building and the practices carried out
in it. Finally, hundreds of clay sling bullets hint at a supra-
domestic purpose, possibly the organisation of the defence
of the community.
The open space had a similar economic and social impor-
tance in the settlements. Hearths, the majority of the storage
structures, and other auxiliary elements were placed out-
side the buildings. Complex storage buildings with multiple
rooms have also been found (Sabi Abyad, Syria), but noth-
ing suggests that they were under private control.
Another remarkable aspect of the Halaf communities,
probably linked to social communication and economic
organisation, was the increasing use of seals and cretulae
made of clay and chalk. The large variety of geometric deco-
rative motifs and the less frequent animal depictions on the
seals makes it difficult to distinguish them from each other
and, consequently, would have made it difficult to identify
specific individuals as their owners. It has been proposed
that these communicative items could represent certain
groups sharing some kind of social or political bond (Frangi-
pane 2oo7). However, the fact that many small seals are per-
forated suggests that they could have been used as pendants.
Such personal items decorated with shared symbols might
have helped to visualise and politically regulate the relation
between individual possession of goods and communal
property.
But the most outstanding aspect of the Halaf complex,
perhaps the single aspect distinguishing it from both ear-
lier and later periods, is its high-quality pottery production
(Gómez Bach 2o11; Gómez Bach et al. 2o12; Cruells et al.
2o17). Its characteristic traits are:
1. the use of very well prepared, fine clays, with no large
temper inclusions,
2. the skilful construction of a considerable variety of
thin-walled shapes,
3. a very elegant decoration composed of geometric, ani-
mal, and sometimes human motifs, painted initially in
black or red monochrome but later also in bi- or poly-
chrome, including white; and,
4. perfect firing in large, complex kilns.
Some of these kilns measured over 1 m in diameter and
were two-story constructions, with a lower combustion
chamber and an upper firing area. Production areas with
two or more kilns, for instance in Arpachiyah, Iraq, confirm
that pottery production was a highly specialised craft, sup-
plying wider regions rather than individual settlements.
Most staggering of all, however, is the volume of production
achieved in the vast Halaf territory. Contrary to what one
would expect, and in contrast, for example, to the much
debated but relatively rare Bell Beaker pottery of western
Europe (c. 27oo –2ooo cal BC), the fine Halaf pottery cannot
be considered a luxury item, since it appears in all types of
settlement, regardless of size, duration, or location, and in
most buildings, as well as in open spaces. Between 59oo and
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A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 51
53oo BC, fine ware regularly represented around 8o % of the
pottery produced, circulated and used by Halaf communi-
ties. Around half of it tends to be profusely painted.
Although a standard set of motifs and compositions form
scenes on the pottery surfaces, singularity and individuality
nevertheless seem to prevail over mass production in the
execution of the decoration (Wengrow 2oo1).
Certain contexts seem to feature a greater quantity of
highly decorated pottery, or vessels with specific motifs,
than others; they tend to be spaces with collective access,
such as the 3o m long ditch found in Domuztepe, south-east
Turkey (Campbell 2o1o). The social rather than domestic
character of this pottery, the possibility that it was used to
serve and consume food among larger groups, is also sug-
gested by the preponderance of open over closed forms and
of fine ware over cooking pots (Fig. 2).
Given the density of sites and population in northern
Mesopotamia and south-east Anatolia, the manufacturing of
pottery probably represented a full-time activity, demanding
a long apprenticeship from a young age. The participation of
women is difficult to ascertain but can be expected, not least
in the creation and execution of the decorative motifs. More
important seems to have been the relevance of women in
basketry and textile production, which could have provided
the source of inspiration for pottery decoration (Wengrow
1998). The production of Halaf female figurines, probably by
the same potters, might also be a hint in this direction.
In sum, Halaf communities obtained substantial surplus
gains through a diversified subsistence production, which
they preferentially devoted to the manufacture and circula-
tion of high quality bowls, dishes, and pots. There is a gen-
eral agreement that the elaborate decoration on the vessels
must have furthered communication at a local, regional, and
supra-regional level, even functioning as a form of language
(Bernbeck 1994; Nieuwenhuyse 2o17). This language was
circulated and used in the Halaf territory on a scale which far
exceeds the communicative networks to be expected among
dispersed and largely self-sufficient agricultural communi-
ties, but would have been crucial to a political praxis aimed
at maintaining consensus on social rules and values relating
to land, hunting game, and the exchange routes which are
manifest, for example, in the distribution of obsidian and
flint. Sling bullets and burned buildings (Campbell 2ooo)
signal that violence was not alien to Halaf. Whatever the
external or internal threats may have been, they did not dis-
rupt this extended social network over a period of at least
1ooo years, despite the clear productive and demographic
differences between communities.
The abundance of open bowls and dishes and their pre-
dominance in the ceramic assemblages emphasise the
importance of serving and eating in a collective context,
possibly in the open rather than in the narrow and prob-
ably dim spaces of the houses. The widespread distribution
of fine pottery is a material expression of affluence in sub-
sistence goods and of socially unrestricted access to it. Ela-
borate vessels served both food and purposes of communi-
cation between individuals and groups desiring to convey
and discuss extended social relations and agreements. The
highly elaborate and symbolically charged vessels enabled
the distribution and consumption of a large variety of sur-
20.09.18 11:19
 52 ROBERTO RISCH

1.1 1.5

1.6
1.2

1.7

1.3

1.8

1.4 1.9

2.1

4.1

2.2

2.3 4.2

3.1 3.2

3.3

Fig. 2 Monochrome, fine Halaf painted ware from Tell Amarna (Syria); not to scale.

Abb. 2 Monochrome, bemalte Halaf-Feinkeramik aus dem Tell Amarna (Syrien); o. M.

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 A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 53

a b

Fig. 3a–b Two reconstructions of the settlement of Dimini, Thessaly (Greece). a Suggesting a settlement dominated by an acropolis and an elite mega-
ron; b suggesting a small agricultural community, based on improved stratigraphic, economic, and geomorphological evidence. The first picture still
appears in most handbooks or overviews of European prehistory, thereby reinforcing the dominant state-centric narrative.

Abb. 3a–b Zwei Rekonstruktionsvorschläge für die Siedlung von Dimini, Thessalien (Griechenland). a Suggeriert eine von einer Akropolis und einem
Megaron dominierte Siedlung; b suggeriert eine kleine landwirtschaftliche Gemeinschaft, basierend auf verbesserten stratigrafischen, wirtschaftlichen
und geomorphologischen Beweisen. Die erste Variante wird immer noch in den meisten Handbüchern und Übersichten über die europäische Urgeschichte
abgebildet, wodurch die dominanten, staatszentrierten Vorstellungen gestärkt werden.

plus food in a civilised, i. e. collective, manner. Probably this and artefacts. Regional and chronological differences seem
act of shared consumption represents the locus of political to have been more important. Pit dwellings are more fre-
practice of Halaf society, in which women might have been quent in the flat, extended sites of northern Greece but rec-
leading figures. Encoded pottery became a means of politi- tangular houses, with walls made of clay and perishable
cal dialogue sustaining this cooperative affluent society. materials, sometimes standing on a stone base, appear in
both settlement types, especially during the Late Neolithic.
Dwellings are relatively small, their inner spaces usu-
Neolithic Greece ally comprising between 2o and 6o m 2 . Houses were often
re-built on the same spot and in the same way over genera-
Between 68oo/66oo and 45oo BC, the southern Balkans, tions (e. g., Koutroulou Magoula, Thessaly), expressing a
particularly regions such as Thessaly and Macedonia, reliance on communal rules concerning spatial organisa-
appear to have been among the most densely populated tion and probably also regulating access to land. Based on
areas of Neolithic Europe3. During the middle and late Neo- domestic debris, ovens, and auxiliary installations, there
lithic, communities started to settle according to two dis- is a general agreement that buildings usually represent
tinct principles (Kotsakis 1999). One is represented by the small-scale households, rather than storage spaces or work-
small and rather densely built tells or magoula, which were shops (Halstead 1999). Evidence for activities and wealth
inhabited uninterruptedly over centuries. These tells rarely storage can appear inside the dwellings, but is at least as
exceed 2 ha and could host a population of between 5o and abundant in the open spaces of the settlements. Although
3oo inhabitants. The other involved a less permanent and some tells and flat settlements were surrounded by peri-
more dispersed habitation praxis, leading to the formation meter walls and ditches, nothing indicates that these
of extended, flatland sites, ranging from 5 to 5o ha in size. structures had a defensive or military function. Rather,
Their demographic strength is a complex issue, as their they represent large-scale communal works, organising
occupation was probably much less permanent and dense the inhabited space. How much the view of the Neolithic
than that of the tells, but 1ooo –2ooo persons seems a rea- society of Greece has changed during the last decades is
sonable estimate. The exceptional volume of archaeological evident from a comparison between the traditional and a
materials retrieved from both types of settlement and the more recent reconstruction of the classic Late Neolithic site
dimensions of collective works, such as peripheral walls and of Dimini, Thessaly (Fig. 3). Stratigraphic and geomorpho-
ditches up to 2 km long, also express the capacity to organise logic evidence, as well as the study of fauna and pottery,
substantial work forces. Settlement locations favour good have dismantled the idea that Dimini was the precursor of
access to fertile lowlands, where rain-fed agriculture would the Mycenaean acropolis, ruled by an elite dwelling in a
have proved most productive. Only occasionally are tell sites central building or megaron. The distribution of material
surrounded by extensive settlements (e. g., Sesklo, Thessaly). remains, hearths, etc., inside the settlement conforms,
However, no large distinctions can be traced between the rather, to a pattern suggestive of an egalitarian society
two settlement forms in terms of types of houses, hearths, with a certain division of tasks4.

3 Demoule/Perlès 1993; Aslanis 1995; Andreou 4 Hourmouziadis et al. 1982; Halstead 1992;
et al. 1996; Perlès 2oo1; Souvatzi 2oo8. Halstead 1993; Aslanis 1995; Souvatzi 2oo8.

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 54 ROBERTO RISCH
Subsistence was based on a variety of cereals, pulses, and
wild fruits (olive, grape, acorn, fig, blackberry, terebinth,
etc.). Apart from rain-fed agriculture, it has been suggested
that extended settlements might also have practiced some
kind of horticulture between dwellings (Pappa/Besios
1999). Sheep and goats were the most abundant domestic
animals, representing 4o –8o % of the faunal assemblage.
Yet the keeping of small numbers of cows in each settle-
ment demanded collaboration at a regional level in order to
ensure the survival of the herds (Halstead 1992). Contrary
to the situation observed in Halaf, hunting played a mar-
ginal role in Neolithic Greece, usually representing less than
5 % of the faunal assemblages (Halstead 1999). Considering
that wild game was a more important source of meat even
in the Greek Bronze Age, this restrictive pattern might mir-
ror a shared social norm to prevent overexploitation of the
natural world. The preference for a diversified, rather than
intensive exploitation of domestic animals is also supported
by the very early evidence of milk processing (Evershed et al.
2oo8).
The exceptional development of craft specialisation and
exchange relations during the Greek Neolithic is surpris-
ing in view of the relatively small size of the communities
settled in tells. The high standardisation of flaked industry,
particularly in the case of obsidian, strongly supports the
idea that stone working was carried out by itinerant (male?)
specialists (Perlès 1992). As local flint is of rather low quality
in Thessaly and coastal Macedonia, obsidian, chert, radio-
larite, and »honey flint« had to be obtained from distant
sources, such as the island of Melos and the region Epirus.
Some blades even came from Bulgaria, central Anatolia, and
the Carpathians. Other important craft activities were the
manufacture of stone and shell ornaments, figurines made
out of clay and stone, and metal artefacts, which appeared
after c. 48oo BC. Locally made ornaments of Spondylus
shell and other manufactured goods circulated well beyond
the core area of Neolithic Greece (see Fig. 1). Pottery manu-
facture, as petrographic and stylistic analysis have indi-
cated, was another economic activity carried out by only a
few, possibly female, specialists (Vitelli 1995; Perlès/Vitelli
1999), who were probably also responsible for the creation
of a large variety of clay figurines. As in the case of Halaf,
clay preparation, shaping, decorating, and firing techniques
were highly labour intensive and resulted in vessels of
exceptional quality. Specialists were primarily concerned
with the creation of distinctive objects, rather than with the
volume of production. Particularly in the early and middle
phases of the Greek Neolithic, painted or plastic decorations
were not standardised, and each potter probably produced
only a few dozen of these unique pieces a year (Vitelli 1993).
The diversity of residues identified in pots from different
parts of extended settlements such as Makriyalos, Mace-
donia, as well as the variability of stable isotope (C/N) val-
ues, reflecting diet, in human remains, also support the
idea that individual diversity in the realm of consumption
was not only respected but acknowledged at the commu-
5 Pappa et al. 2oo4; Halstead 2o12; Pappa et al.
2o13; Lymperki et al. 2o16; Hamilakis et al.
2o17.
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 54
nity level (Urem-Kotsou/Kotsakis 2oo7). Large clay or
stone seals with geometrical motifs, not dissimilar to the
pottery decorations, might have been used to mark bodies
or cloth as a further means of emphasising social diversity.
The same expression of individual, communal, and regional
diversity has also been recognised among the anthropomor-
phic figurines (Nanoglou 2oo6).
At the same time, clear evidence exists of substantial
preparation and collective consumption of food in open
spaces5. While the accumulation of large volumes of food
remains and artefacts is a common trait in many settle-
ments, the most interesting example of massive consump-
tion at a communal level has been identified in the large,
28 ha settlement of Makriyalos, Macedonia. Here, a rubbish
pit, 1.4 m in depth and probably 5oo m 2 in area, contained
the remains of hundreds of ceramic vessels, grinding
tools, and animals (Pappa et al. 2oo4). The different pot-
tery shapes and decorations provide clues about the par-
ticipants in these acts of conspicuous consumption. While
cooking and serving vessels, such as conical and carinated
bowls, were highly standardised, suggesting that they were
produced on a communal scale, the individual character of
consumption was clearly expressed through hundreds of
small and highly variable cups, which can often be distin-
guished by the specific zoomorphic decoration of their han-
dles. Again, this seems to be an example of how these afflu-
ent societies searched for economic and political practices
that allowed communal bonds and individual diversity to
be negotiated and balanced out.
Hundreds of female idols found at sites such as Makriya-
los, Macedonia, or Koutroulou Magoula, Thessaly, provide
further examples of the economic affluence produced by
these communities. An assemblage of such clay figurines
occupied the model of a house which had been carefully
placed under the floor near the hearth of a Late Neolithic
dwelling excavated in Platia Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly (Gal-
lis 1985). The dome-shaped oven underlines the domestic
character of the scene, possibly even related to the house-
hold which offered the model (Fig. 4; see also Bertemes in
this volume, Fig. 2). Apart from two unidentifiable objects
(a bread loaf and a large grinding slab?), three groups of fig-
ures can be identified. The left side of the house is occupied
by the two tallest figures, one of which is characterised as a
woman and the other, modelled as a tripod, probably repre-
senting a man. The same couple, but in a slightly smaller
version is found in front of the oven. Next to the female is a
small anthropomorphic figure, possibly an infant. The third
group is formed by three small figures resting next to the
oven. One of them wears the same skirt as the other two
female figures in the model, but shows no sexual attributes.
It is easy to sense that three generations belonging to the
same household are represented here. But a more interest-
ing picture emerges if the eight figures are put back in their
upright positions, as they were probably seen by the Neo-
lithic community. Not only are the three female figures taller
than their mates in each group, but the special character of
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Fig. 4 Late Neolithic house model of Platia
Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly (Greece).
Abb. 4 Das spätneolithische Hausmodell von
Platia Magoula, Zarkou, Thessalien (Griechen-
land).
the tallest one is underlined by placing her on a platform
or bench at the back of the room. Yet another crucial differ-
ence exists between the two sexes: only the adult women
have their arms and hands modelled in detail, placed on
their torsos below their breasts. Although this is a recur-
rent pose in female figurines of the eastern Mediterranean,
including Halaf, the important detail is not so much the rela-
tion between the hands and breasts, but the representation
of the hands in the first place. Upper limbs shown in this
way, rather than hanging down by the sides of body, convey
a dynamic and powerful message. The hands are not rest-
ing, but holding the woman’s torso and ready to act, grab,
and transform the surrounding world. The larger size of
the female in comparison to the male figurines ignores the
mean biological differences in height between the two sexes
and seems to underline the social position and authority of
women within the community. All in all, women playing an
active role in the economic and political realm seems a more
realistic scenario than the opposite.
In the case of Neolithic Greece, material efflorescence was
produced by a marked division of tasks at the local as well
as regional scale, thereby generating effective and affective
bonds and inter-dependencies between the different mem-
bers and sectors of society (Durkheim 1982 [1893]). One of
the most specialised activities, the production of elaborate
pottery and figurines, seems to have aimed at reversing the
social and individual constrains of Marx’s production-con-
sumption paradigm. While the manufacture and, more par-
ticularly, decoration of pots reinforced individual creativity
and particularities, at the moment they were used, these
differences were levelled out through acts of collective food
consumption, which helped to update social bonds. Prob-
ably the act of sharing and circulating elaborate and often
unique goods was the focus of political practice, in which
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A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 55
2 cm
women might have been leading figures. These strategies
of surplus circulation ensured the participation of closely
neighbouring but generally small populations, not only in
local and regional, but also in supra-regional networks of
communication and material supply. The relative homo-
geneity of the archaeological record, the absence of clear
demographic breaks, and its relatively low environmen-
tal impact, as indicated by palaeo-ecological information,
attests the sustainability of this cooperative affluent society
over more than 2ooo years.
Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic southern Iberia
After 35oo BC, the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula
witnessed what was probably one of the most dynamic
developments of Later Prehistory in the Mediterranean and
Europe (Bernabeu Aubán et al. 2oo6; Chapman 2oo8;
Gonçalves/Sousa 2o1o). Somewhat like the situation in Neo-
lithic Greece, described above, populations started to settle
according to three markedly different principles. Firstly,
extended flat sites, with one or more peripheral ditches,
appeared during the last centuries of the 4th millennium BC
(Márquez-Romero/Jiménez-Jáimez 2o1o; Valera 2o15; Risch
2o17). The topographic placement of these enclosures, in
low-lying areas and on gentle slopes or low hills, allowing
only limited visual control over the surroundings, does not
support their interpretation as defensive structures (Fig. 5).
Although some ditch sections, for instance in Marroquíes
Bajos, prov. Jaén, were found to have been up to 22 m wide
and 5 m deep (Zafra et al. 1999), other ditches were much
more modest. The size of these enclosures varied from 1 ha
to more than 1oo ha. The largest site so far known is
Valencina de la Concepción, near Seville (prov. Seville). It
20.09.18 11:19
 56 ROBERTO RISCH

b c

Fig. 5a–c Ditched enclosure of Fuente de la Mora, Madrid (Spain). Aerial photograph (a) taken before the start of excavations (red circle marks the situa-
tion of the ditched enclosure). Trench through the internal ditch (b) and pits (c) inside the settlement.

Abb. 5a–c Wall-und-Grabenanlage in Fuente de la Mora, Madrid (Spanien). Luftbildaufnahme (a) vor der Ausgrabung (der rote Kreis markiert den Stand-
ort der Anlage). Schnitt durch den inneren Graben (b) sowie durch die Gruben in der Siedlung (c).

exceeded a staggering 4oo ha (García Sanjuán et al. 2o13,
García Sanjuán et al. 2o18).
Secondly, around 31oo BC, fortified settlements
started to appear, first in south-west Iberia and later in the
south-east and in central Portugal, where they led, respec-
tively, to the definition of the Los Millares and the Vila
Nova de São Pedro Cultures (Jorge 2oo3; Gonçalves/Sousa
2o1o; Kunst/Arnold 2o11). Today these labels are not very
useful, since as well as regional diversity there were also
abundant material traits that were shared, not only across
southern Iberia, but also across the central and even
northern parts of the peninsula (Micó Pérez 1993; Díaz
del Río 2o13; see Fig. 1). Fortified settlements occupied
dominant places within the landscape, on hilltops, ridges,
or river terraces, but they tended to be much smaller than
the ditched enclosures (o.1–6.o ha). Their defences con-
sisted of a single or multiple concentric masonry walls,
often several metres in thickness, including semi-circular
bastions and often complex gate structures (Fig. 6). Arrow
heads are abundant in the archaeological record of these
fortifications as well as of other settlements. Some are
highly sophisticated, and the identification of workshops

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b c

Fig 6a–c The fortified settlement of Zambujal, Torres Vedras (Portugal). Aerial photograph (a), detail of fortification walls (b) and stone basement of
houses (c).

Abb. 6a–c Die befestigte Siedlung von Zambujal, Torres Vedras, Portugal. Luftbildaufnahme (a), Detail der Befestigungsmauern (b) sowie der Steinkeller
der Häuser (c).

confirms that their production required some kind of research. According to botanical and faunal evidence, sub-
craft specialisation. sistence was based on a considerable diversity of domestic
A third, and probably the most common settlement and wild resources, and varied between sites and regions.
form, continued to be open sites, situated in the lowlands, Although stable isotope analyses suggest that the diet, at
on hills, and also in mountain enclaves. Although the flat- least of the larger communities, was based primarily on
land settlements could occupy considerable areas during cereals (Waterman et al. 2o17; García Sanjuán et al. 2o18),
the 4th millennium BC, they became much more modest grinding tools tend to be fewer and much smaller in size
in size during the Chalcolithic (3ooo –22oo BC). Because of than during the Bronze Age, after 22oo BC, when an
the absence of monumental walls or ditches, these smaller extensive agriculture is attested (Delgado-Raack/Risch
sites have been given much less attention in archaeological 2o15).

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 58 ROBERTO RISCH
The main difference between the large ditched enclo-
sures and the fortified sites, apart from their size and topo-
graphical location, lies in their architecture and construction
techniques. Within the defensive walls of the fortified sites,
circular stone and clay huts are irregularly arranged. Their
typical external diameter ranges from 3 to 8 m and their
internal area from 1o to 45 m 2. It would be wrong, however,
to assume that each of these huts equated to a single »house-
hold«. Rectangular buildings are much rarer, while storage
pits and other subterranean structures are found only occa-
sionally. In contrast, the latter form the characteristic fea-
tures of the ditched enclosures, where stone constructions
are usually absent. Although the dug-in features have been
interpreted very differently (storage pits, sunken hut floors,
wells, burials, etc.), the material recovered (ceramics, stone
tools, remains of foodstuffs) confirms that at least part of
the internal area of the enclosures was used for domestic set-
tlement. In view of the large number of pits of different sizes
and forms, the storage of large quantities of produce seems
to have been a primary concern of the large communities
responsible for the enclosures. The means of storage and the
quantity, and possibly also the nature, of the goods stored
must have differed fundamentally between the two types of
monumental settlement. The topographical location of the
ditched enclosures, within or on the fringes of the fertile val-
leys, as well as the shape and size of some of the pits, suggest
that the enclosures represented central storage facilities for
agricultural products derived from more or less extensive
areas. The spatial distribution of the two settlement types
and their geographical relations may suggest a settlement
hierarchy in some areas; small fortifications appear to
define the boundaries of separate territories, of which the
so-called macro-villages, for instance sites like La Pijotilla,
prov. Badajoz, or Valencina, prov. Seville, formed the geo-
graphical and possibly also the economic and political cen-
tres (Hurtado 2oo3; Nocete et al. 2oo8). However, such a
connection can only be postulated on the two sides of the
Guadiana River, where both settlement types are present. In
other regions, such as the Portuguese Estremadura or the
south-east, only fortified settlements have been excavated
so far. On the other hand, ditched enclosures are distinc-
tive of the Levantine region as well as central and northern
Spain (Risch 2o17, Fig. 1).
So far, it has not been possible to discern differences
between ditched enclosures, fortified settlements, and
open sites in terms of their archaeological assemblages
(e. g. ceramic or flint typologies, metal working, subsist-
ence remains) or of their associated collective grave struc-
tures. We have to assume that both types of community
belonged to the same social order and form of political
organisation. Although quantitative differences in size and
material wealth of settlements, burials, or underground pits
have occasionally been interpreted in terms of social asym-
metries and political centralisation (e. g., Bernabeu Aubán
et al. 2oo6; Nocete et al. 2oo8), such patterns could equally
be the result of the highly variable demographic strength
of households and communities. Few excavations have pro-
vided the necessary information to distinguish between
these two possibilities, but a detailed analysis of the Los
Millares necropolis has shown that the size of the collec-
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 58
tive funerary tholoi and the quantity of grave goods placed
in them correlate with the number of buried individuals
(Micó Pérez 1993). In the south-east of the Iberian peninsula,
where over a dozen sites have been excavated, copper metal-
lurgy proves not to have been restricted to defended sites but
was also practised at open lowland settlements. Even small
communities had access to metallurgy (Escanilla Artigas
2o16). The rare objects made of gold sheet are found, with-
out distinction, in fortified sites, ditched enclosures, and
open settlements (Murillo-Barroso et al. 2o15). The density
of grinding stones also seems to have been the same in all
three types of settlement (Risch 2o17). The abundance of
elaborate anthropomorphic idols made of ivory, bone, clay,
or stone does not correlate with the size of the settlements
or their monumentality. Only the ditched settlement of La
Pijotilla with over 15o idols, is clearly exceptional. Moreover,
their distribution inside the settlements and necropoleis
tends to be dispersed, rather than concentrated in more
monumental dwellings or burials (Hurtado 2o1o, Hurtado
2o13). In the rare cases where spatial information about
the distribution of auxiliary structures and macro-lithic
tools is available, many activities, including metal working,
appear to have taken place in open spaces, between loosely
arranged buildings (Delgado-Raack 2o13; Delgado-Raack/
Risch 2o15). However, in all sizes and types of settlement,
a variety of tasks, requiring different degrees of speciali-
sation, can be identified in distinct spaces, buildings, and
settlements. No elite buildings with clear signs of surplus
accumulation have been found until now, and storage pits
are generally placed outside the houses in an apparently ran-
dom way. In sum, the Late Neolithic/Chalcolithic in south-
ern Iberia is outstanding in Mediterranean Prehistory for
its exceptional variety of communities, settlement patterns,
craft types, and raw materials worked, but it is difficult to
recognise in the productive web and the goods resulting
from it anything like a »prestige« economy or surplus values
benefitting an elite.
Unlike the strategies of surplus circulation of the Halaf
group and Neolithic Greece, the Iberian communities
devoted considerable efforts and resources to funerary prac-
tices, taken place in such as tholoi, megaliths, hypogea, and
caves. Although some of these monuments and the grave
goods placed in them manifest exceptional skill, elite bur-
ials, with a standardised panoply of insignia expressing
power and violence, are missing. Valencina de la Concep-
ción has recently offered the clearest insight into the extra-
vagant and enigmatic funerary world of the Iberian Chal-
colithic (Fernández et al. 2o16; see also García Sanjuán et al.
in this volume). The two monumental tholoi of Montelirio,
prov. Seville, and the structure known as 1o.o42-1o.o49 were
probably built, used and closed during the 29th century BC
(García Sanjuán et al. 2o18). Yet the individuals buried in
them and their grave goods are markedly different. In the
innermost chamber of tumulus 1o.o42-1o.o49 a young man
was found surrounded by various ivory objects, including
an elephant tusk, flint blades, a flint dagger with an amber
pommel, a large ceramic plate, and cinnabar. After this
funerary assemblage was sealed with slate slabs, an even
greater number of ivory, flint, and pottery objects, as well
as an outstanding dagger of rock-crystal, were deposited in
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the chamber. At least four more individuals were buried in
this tholos, together with further exceptional grave goods,
but very little is known about the funerary practices carried
out in the first chamber, which was disturbed in Late Antiq-
uity. In the tholos of Montelirio, the stone slabs delimiting
the inner chamber and the clay stela standing in its cen-
tre were elaborately decorated (Bueno Ramírez et al. 2o16).
Despite some alterations to this funerary deposit, 2o indi-
viduals have been identified, possibly all of them women.
Some of them wore dresses made of as many as several
thousand perforated shell beads, as well as amber and ivory
pendants. Although hundreds of Chalcolithic burials are
known, no similar scenarios have been documented so far
(see also García Sanjuán et al. in this volume). The variety of
funerary structures, bodies, grave goods, and symbols runs
contrary to the idea of any sort of control or institutionali-
sation of burial practices, aimed at establishing permanent
political or economic distinctions within the community.
Rather, each funerary context seems to be the expression of
a unique event and social constellation.
The unconventional character of the Late Neolithic/
Chalcolithic society of southern Iberia lies not only in the
production of elaborate and symbolically charged artefacts,
often made of exotic raw materials, but in their circulation
throughout the territory, irrespective of the marked diver-
sity in population sizes, settlement forms, environmental
conditions, economic focuses, funerary practices, and sym-
bolic expressions between communities. Such an apparently
contradictory emphasis on shared diversity, clearly differ-
ent from the world’s present increasing uniformity of pro-
duction and thought, might represent a deliberate strategy,
necessary to prevent diversity turning into wealth differen-
tials within affluent societies. Neither local nor regional and
peninsular networks seem to have been directed towards
the supply of raw materials or objects with particular tech-
nical advantages, or to have fostered politically dominant
positions through the control of exchange goods. Instead,
the creation and circulation of wealth through exceptional
objects, with high symbolic value but limited or replaceable
economic importance, appears to have been a mechanism to
prevent the concentration of economic and political power.
The symbolic emphasis of this form of wealth production
seems to insist on the transmission of common concepts and
value systems over the wider region. In a world witnessing a
strong expansion of the forces of production and a growing
division of labour, the manufacture and circulation of exotic
and elaborate objects can be seen as a way of creating wealth
with strong social links, which at the same time inhibits sur-
plus profits. In a somewhat paradoxical way, the existence
of a growing number of small-scale producers/consumers
in a wide-ranging and territorially unrestricted distribution
network reinforces the individual actor while at the same
time emphasising the un-personalised or fetish character of
the products circulated. The larger the diversity of symboli-
cally charged objects put into circulation, the more difficult
it becomes to standardise and centrally control exchange
values (Risch 2o16).
This strategy of surplus obliteration, involving the trans-
formation of wealth into a large variety symbolic values,
then allows the establishment of reliable social engagements
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A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 59
by circulating and sharing these values. As all communi-
ties have the creativity to produce such symbolic exchange
goods with locally available or imported raw materials, reci-
procity is easy to achieve, and debt, the first step towards
economic exploitation, avoided. This mechanism is easily
recognisable in the spatial distribution of elaborate sym-
bolic goods: whereas the lower Guadalquivir stands out
for the working of ivory, imported from north Africa and
even Syria, central Portugal circulated locally available
slate plaques, decorated with sophisticated geometric and
anthropomorphic signs. Meanwhile, in the south-east, com-
munities decorated long bones from sheep, goat, bovids,
and even humans with equally sophisticated, but different
anthropomorphic motifs (Fig. 7a). J. A. Soler Díaz (2o17) has
recently offered a possible key to the grammar and mean-
ing of these symbols (Fig. 7b). The messages conveyed by
these objects would be identity between individuals, the
integration of agents and the close relationship between
different individuals. At the same time it must be stressed
that, although the different decorative styles and symbolic
objects seem to follow rather strict norms in terms of pro-
portions and motifs, the elaborate figures represent unique
artefacts. As in Neolithic Greece, an emphasis on individual
creativity within socially recognisable/exchangeable com-
munication apparently seeks to solve the economic para-
dox between a socially organised production and an – ulti-
mately – individually motivated consumption.
Whatever the exact meaning of the symbolic language
of Chalcolithic Iberia, the elaborate objects and highly var-
ied raw materials through which it was transmitted could
have been both an expression of the economic efflorescence
of these communities and, at the same time, the political
means through which social relations that avoided the cen-
tralisation of wealth were remembered and reinforced.
Conclusion
The affluent societies of the Neolithic Mediterranean reveal
that highly dynamic economies do not require a centralised
political organisation with an institutionalised leadership. It
is unlikely that the communities of the Halaf group, Neo-
lithic Greece, and Late Neolithic-Chalcolithic Iberia estab-
lished economic and political relations merely at the linage
level. The circulation and sharing of raw materials, goods,
technologies, and symbolic values over large distances sug-
gests a considerably more complex political organisation,
though not one ruled by and enforcing a dominant class.
Both the demographic and the economic variability of these
communities would easily have led to the accumulation of
wealth and to personal subjugation, if mechanisms of sur-
plus circulation and consumption had not been constantly
adjusted. The absence of materially distinguishable asym-
metries can only be understood as socially constructed.
Despite the spatial and temporal distances between the
three cases studies, their material affinities can hardly be
explained as mere coincidence. Rather, they seem to express
a coherent combination of economic and political practices
leading to material affluence and large-scale social networks
in the most densely settled regions of the Mediterranean
20.09.18 11:19
 60 ROBERTO RISCH
Neolithic. The main features of this mode of production and
exchange, evidenced in the archaeological record, can be
summarised in the following way:
a) Economic and demographic diversity and a marked
division of tasks were distinctive features of these afflu-
ent societies. Diversity allowed a substantial improve-
ment in productivity, representing the necessary step
towards providing society with more resources and
better living conditions.
b) All three societies devoted substantial resources to the
production of artefacts with little or no productive, but
a high symbolic and, hence, communicative value. The
circulation of these distinctive goods led to an expan-
sion of exchange and communication networks, which
in turn reinforced the development of craft speciali-
sation, leading to a further increase of surplus gains.
This is what would have stimulated the exceptional
economic take-off seen in the archaeological record;
one powered, crucially, by creative praxis, rather than
by technological efficiency and the standardisation
of production and consumption. The constant sup-
ply within social networks of a growing variety and
quantity of elaborate objects curtailed the accumu-
lation of wealth, because all individuals and groups
had the chance to participate in and benefit from this
mode of production. Such investment in craft pro-
duction, focused on the circulation of symbolic goods
and immaterial values, probably represents the most
sophisticated strategy for preventing the transforma-
tion of surplus gains into surplus profit or value which
is recognisable in the archaeological record (Risch
2o16).
c) A further common strategy of surplus obliteration,
practiced by all the societies discussed, was collective
consumption in open spaces, using highly elaborate
and distinctive dishes, as well as communicative items
conveying encoded messages, addressing individuals,
their kin and political groups, and the community as a
whole. The archaeological evidence provided by settle-
ments such as Domuztepe, south-east Anatolia; Makri-
yalos, central Macedonia; and Valencina de la Con-
cepción, western Andalucía; suggests that substantial
contingents of people took part in these consumptive
practices, often referred to in archaeology and anthro-
pology as feasting.
d) The gathering of large communities is also expressed
in the creation of monumental features, above all
ditches. These negative features, up to several kilo-
metres long, together with perimeter walls, fortifi-
cations, and funerary structures, represent a further
strategy for wealth removal and the prevention of sur-
plus accumulation.
e) While population densities could be high, and thou-
sands of persons seem to have lived or at least gathered
in certain macro-settlements, urban developments,
which would have involved some form of centralisa-
tion of political decision-making and settlement hierar-
chy, were clearly avoided. Nothing in the archaeological
record of these affluent societies suggests that hamlets
TB18_Buch_satz.indb 60
of just a few dozen or hundred members enjoyed worse
conditions than larger settlements or were excluded
from supra-regional circulation networks. The rela-
tions of production, distribution, exchange, and con-
sumption seem to have involved all communities,
social segments, and even households, irrespective of
their size, economic strength, or location.
f) The circulation of reliable information, and collective
discussion and decision-making through consensus,
the eminent features of political praxis in a- or poly-ce-
phalic societies (Amborn 2o16), match well with the
widespread distribution and variability of symbolic
artefacts observed in the archaeological record of the
societies discussed. Moreover, significant elements
exist in the material record that express the relevance
of women, rather than men, in the political sphere. The
house model of Platia Magoula Zarkou, Thessaly, the
exclusive group of women buried in the monumen-
tal tholos of Montelirio, Andalucia, and the abundant
female codes on pottery, stone, ivory, etc., suggest the
visibility and activeness of women in the economic as
well as the political sphere of these cooperative afflu-
ent societies.
g) Metallurgy became known to all three societies dur-
ing the later phases of their development. Regardless of
the scale of metal production (low in the Halaf group
and Greece, and higher in Iberia), this specialised craft
and the goods produced do not appear to have had
any effect on the economic or political organisation of
these societies.
h) The fact that violence played a role in these commu-
nities is shown by the frequent occurrence of long-dis-
tance weapons, such as sling bullets and arrow points,
in the archaeological record. As underlined above,
strategies preventing surplus accumulation and politi-
cal centralisation do not appear naturally but represent
a socially constructed reality; as such, they are vulner-
able to conflict. Hence, it should come as no surprise
that war and even torture are known to cooperative
societies (Fowles 2o14). However, the motivations for
violence are radically different from those in situa-
tions where relations of work exploitation form the
backbone of surplus production. Rather than being a
means to subjugate and demand obedience, violence
can also be a strategy to achieve the opposite. However,
the anthropological record does not suggest that armed
conflict was pervasive in the societies discussed. The
uninterrupted development of the Halaf group, Neo-
lithic Greece, and the communities in Iberia over more
than a millennium manifests the productive strength
and success of their political forms, including an occa-
sional, rather than systematic, use of force.
The final question remains. Why do cooperative affluent
societies, such as the ones just presented, only occasionally
shine through in the anthropological and historical record
(e. g., Wengrow/Graeber 2o18). State-repelling societies defi-
nitely appeared during the Bronze and Iron Ages, for
instance in the Balearic Islands, which clearly became a ref-
uge for communities escaping violent oppression and
TA G U N G E N D E S L A N D E S M U S E U M S F Ü R V O R G E S C H I C H T E H A L L E • B A N D 18 • 2 018
20.09.18 11:19
 A F F L U E N T S O C I E T I E S O F L AT E R P R E H I S T O R Y 61

2 3 4 5

11 12

10
13
5 cm

1 7 8 9 a

5 cm

E. Alcázar Almizaraque B. Parra 5 Monedero Almizaraque T. Ventura B. Parra 5 B. Cáfer Pastora

a
a a
a
b
b b
b a
b b
b
b b c
b
b c
b2 c
c c
a2
c c
c2 a2
c c
c
c b2
b2

c2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
A. Relation of identity B. Integration C. Relation b

Fig. 7a–b a Bone »idols« from Almizaraque, prov. Almeria (south-east Iberia, Spain); b logic and meaning of the decorative motifs of bone »idols« of the
Pastora type.

Abb. 7a–b a Knochenidole aus Almizaraque, Prov. Almeria, im Südosten der iberischen Halbinsel (Spanien); b Aufbau und Interpretation der Verzierun-
gen der Knochenidole vom Typ Pastora.

exploitation on the continent (e. g., de Cet et al. 2o17). As remained for resisting their monopolisation of the forces of
labour and wealth came increasingly under the control of violence and deployment of substantial parts of surplus
emergent dominant classes in various parts of Europe and profit in the development of armies and other specialised
the Mediterranean region, less space and fewer options means of domination (e. g., Lull et al. 2o17; Meller 2o17). The

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 62 ROBERTO RISCH

preference by all states for surplus looting over production
turns any wealthy society into potential prey. Ultimately,
the only state-repelling strategy left demanded curtailing
and hiding economic capacities in order to remain as unno-
ticed as possible by the state.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Anna Gómez Bach, Randy McWire, David
Wengrow, Detlef Gronenborn, and Miquel Molist for their
remarks and suggestions on an earlier version of this study. I
would also like to thank Vicente Lull, Rafael Micó and Cris-
tina Rihuete Herrada for theoretical discussions on the state
sustained and developed over many years. Finally, I would
like to thank Area, Cooperative Arqueológica, and Michael
Kunst, German Archaeological Institute Madrid, for provid-
ing the photographs which appear in Fig. 5–6. This research
on the Mediterranean societies of Later Prehistory is made
possible thanks to grants from the Spanish Ministry of
Economy and Competitiveness (HAR2o17-85962-P) and the
AGAUR of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2o17SGR1o44).

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Source of figures

1 author, map LDA 4 Gallis 1985, Pl. XVb 7 a Siret 19o8, Pl. V–VI; b Soler Díaz
2 Cruells 2oo4, 93 Pl. 5,7 5 AREA-Sociedad Cooperativa, 2o17, 355 Fig. 7.43
3 a after Theocharis 1973, Fig. 19; Madrid
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drawing by A. Boudouridou- photos H. Schubart, DAI, Abtei-
Aslanis, based on M. Korres lung Madrid

Address

Prof. Dr. Roberto Risch

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Departament de Prehistòria
Edifici B
o8193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
Robert.Risch@uab.cat

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TB18_Buch_satz.indb 65 20.09.18 11:19

 Bislang erschienene Bände in der Reihe
»Tagungsbände des Landesmuseums für
Vorgeschichte Halle«

Die Reihe der Tagungsbände des Landesmuseums wurde großen Anteil internationaler Autorinnen und Autoren
2oo8 ins Leben gerufen. Anlass dazu war die Konferenz entsprechend, erscheinen viele Beiträge dieser Reihe in eng-
»Luthers Lebenswelten«, die im Jahr 2oo7 in Halle ausge- lischer Sprache mit deutscher Zusammenfassung.
richtet wurde. Bereits der zweite Tagungsband widmete Mit dem bislang zuletzt erschienenen Tagungsband
sich mit dem Thema »Schlachtfeldarchäologie« dem Mit- konnten die Vorträge des 9. Mitteldeutschen Archäologen-
teldeutschen Archäologentag, der seit 2oo8 jährlich vom tags »Migration und Integration von der Urgeschichte bis
Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen- zum Mittelalter« in zahlreichen Artikeln renommierter For-
Anhalt veranstaltet und zeitnah publiziert wird. Dem scher verschiedenster Fachdisziplinen vorgelegt werden.

Band 15 Band 16 Band 17

Band 1/2oo8 Harald Meller/Stefan Rhein/Hans-Georg 2. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom

Stephan (Hrsg.), o8. bis 1o. Oktober 2oo9 in Halle (Saale).
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Tagung vom 25. bis 27. September 2oo7 in
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Internationale Tagung vom 2o. bis 22. November
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1. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom
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schichtliche Skelette?

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Neolithische Kreisgabenanlagen in Europa.
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Salzmünde – Regel oder Ausnahme?
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Internationale Tagung vom 18. bis 2o. Oktober
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