Pages: 149-166

The formation of social complexity often unfolded in non-unilineal ways in those regions of the world where the surplus product remained low enough to support institutionalized power and state bureaucracy. The Bronze Age of Northern Eurasia is a vivid example where social complexity arose based on herding economy, while population density remained low enough not to form territorially separate competing groups. Studying of such societies sheds light on how and under what conditions the social elite emerged. The undertaken analysis suggests that the formation, development, and decline of social complexity in the Bronze Age steppe societies were directly related to the intensification of subsistence practices and colonization of new territories. At the same time, some members of the society took upon themselves the role of community life’s managers, and, in return, received privileged statuses. The environment and the economy changing, the need for such functions disappeared. As a result, the Bronze Age social elites dissolved in the mass and lost their privileged statuses.

Keywords: Eurasian Steppes, Bronze Age, early complex societies, Sintashta-Petrovka archaeological culture, local community

Information about authors:

Igor Chechushkov (Pittsburgh, USA). Candidate of Historical Sciences. University of Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 3302 WWPH, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
E-mail: [email protected]
Artem Yakimov (Tyumen, Russian Federation). Candidate of Geographical Sciences. Tyumen Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Earth Cryosphere Institute. Malygin St., 86, Tyumen, 625026, Russian Federation; University of Tyumen, Institute of geo-sciences. Volodarsky St., 6, Tyumen, 625003, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Olga Bachura (Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Biological Sciences. Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 8th March St., 202, Yekaterinburg, 620144, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Yan Chuen Ng (Pittsburg, USA). University of Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology, 3302 WWPH, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Evgeniya Goncharova (Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation). Sverdlovsk Regional Museum named after O. E. Claire. Lenin Ave., 69/10, Yekaterinburg, 620075, Russian Federation E-mail: [email protected]