Edited, by María Cruz Berrocal, Leonardo García Sanjuan and Antonio Gilman this volumen discuss the origin and early development of social stratification as essentially an archaeological problem. The impressive advance of archaeological research has revealed that, first and foremost, the pre-eminence of stratified or class society in today’s world is the result of a long social struggle. This volume advances the archaeological study of social organisation in Prehistory, and more specifically the rise of social complexity in European Prehistory. Within the wider context of world Prehistory, in the last 30 years the subject of early social stratification and state formation has been a key subject on interest in Iberian Prehistory.

This book illustrates the differing forms of resistances, the interplay between change and continuity, the multiple paths to and from social complexity, and the ‘failures’ of states to form in Prehistory. It also engages with broader questions, such as: when did social stratification appear in western European Prehistory? What factors contributed to its emergence and consolidation? What are the relationships between the notions of social complexity, social inequality, social stratification and statehood? And what are the archaeological indicators for the empirical analysis of these issues? Focusing on Iberia, but with a permanent connection to the wider geographical framework, this book presents, for the first time, a chronologically comprehensive, up-to-date approach to the issue of state formation in prehistoric Europe.

Contents:

1. Debating Early Social Stratification and the State in Iberian Prehistory: An Introduction María Cruz Berrocal, Leonardo García Sanjuán and Antonio Gilman

Part I: Introducing Social Stratification and the State in Iberian Prehistory

2. Were There States During the Later Prehistory of Southern Iberia? Antonio Gilman

3. Archaeology is (Sometimes) History, or It is Nothing María Cruz Berrocal

Part II: Case Studies

4. Complex Systems, Social Networks and the Evolution of Social Complexity in the East of Spain from the Neolithic to pre-Roman Times Joan Bernabeu Aubán, Andrea Moreno Martín and C. Michael Barton

5. Villages of Wealth and Resistance in Paradise: Millaran and Argaric Chiefdoms in the Iberian Southeast Antonio Ramos Millán

6. Against Uniformity Cultural Diversity: The "Others" in Argaric Societies Gonzalo Aranda Jiménez

7. Social Complexity in Copper Age Southern Iberia (c. 3200-2200 CAL BC): Reviewing the ‘State’ Hypothesis at Valencina de la Concepción (Seville, Spain) Leonardo García Sanjuán and Mercedes Murillo Barroso

8. Bronze Age Political Landscapes in La Mancha Marcella Chris Brodsky, Antonio Gilman and Concepción Martín Morales

9. Re-Thinking Social Hierarchisation and Stratification in the Bronze Age of the Balearic Islands Manuel Calvo Trías, Daniel Albero Santacreu, Jaime García Rosselló, David Javaloyas Molina and Víctor Guerrero Ayuso

10. Social Dynamics in the Recent Prehistory of Northern Iberia: Examining the ‘Margins’ of the Mediterranean Regions Roberto Ontañón

11. Atlantic Rock Art: Transformation and Tradition during Late Prehistory Manuel Santos Estévez

12. Social Change, Social Resistance. A Long-Term Approach to the Processes of Transformation of Social Landscapes in the NW Iberian Peninsula César Parcero Oubiña and Felipe Criado Boado

13. Big Men Showing Off: The Ideology and Practice of Social Inequality in the Atlantic Late Bronze Age of Iberia Xosé-Lois Armada

14. Non-Hierarchical Approaches to the Iron Age Societies: Metals and Inequality in the Castro Culture of the Northwestern Iberian Peninsula Inés Sastre and F. Javier Sánchez-Palencia

15. Households, Merchants and Feasting: Socio-Economic Dynamics and Commoners’ Agency in the Emergence of the Tartessian world (11th-8th centuries BC) Ana Delgado Hervás

16. Tartessos and the Orientalizing Elites Carlos González Wagner

17. Oppida, Lineages and Heroes in the Society of Princes. The Iberians of the Upper Guadalquivir Arturo Ruiz Rodríguez and Manuel Molinos Molinos

Part III: Conclusion

18. Social Stratification and the State in Prehistoric Europe: The Wider Perspective Chris Scarre