Investigating Bronze Age Social Organisation in the Lower Danube Region. The Case of the Žuto Brdo – Gârla Mare Area
Investigating Bronze Age Social Organisation in the Lower Danube Region. The Case of the Žuto Brdo – Gârla Mare Area

Summary/Abstract: The first part of the paper reviews the state of the research on social inequality in the Romanian Bronze Age and concludes that previous studies were based more on stereotypes than on theoretically informed approaches. Further the paper presents the model considered more suitable for the present analysis – that by Brian Hayden. The paper then takes the Žuto Brdo-Gârla Mare Culture as a case study and argues that wealth generated through participation in supra-regional exchange was the basis of social inequality. It also raises the problem of agency in the construction of social power and suggests that a particular category of objects – the so-called ‘bread-like idols’ (Brotlaibidole) – were used to control access to exchange partners and thus prevent usurpation of the position of elites.

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