Inheritance of wealth and socioeconomic inequality in the Early Bronze Age: Evidence from the Mokrin necropolis (2100–1800 BCE)

Abstract

The social structure of Bronze Age societies in Europe, particularly the extent and nature of socio-economic inequality, remains a subject of debate. At the heart of this discussion is the question of whether the Bronze Age witnessed a substantial increase in social and economic inequalities, or whether observed changes represent a continuation of patterns already present during the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods. Central to this debate is the issue of inheritance, since socio-economic inequalities are both expressed and reproduced through the intergenerational transmission of material wealth within kin groups. This paper contributes to ongoing discussions of inequality and inheritance in the European Bronze Age by quantitatively assessing socio-economic inequality and by examining evidence for the intergenerational transmission of material wealth at the Mokrin necropolis (2100–1800 BCE), one of the most important Bronze Age cemetery sites in Southeast Europe. Our aims are twofold: 1) to measure inequality, and 2) to look for evidence of wealth inheritance. Given the economic importance of metal in the Bronze Age, it is reasonable to assume that the quantity of metal reflected material wealth to at least some extent. On this basis, we use the mass of metal grave goods (predominantly bronze) as a proxy for material wealth and calculate the Gini index to quantify inequality. To address questions of inheritance, we examine 1) the distribution of metal quantities across age categories and 2) the potential spatial correlation between adults and children buried with metal objects, which may indicate intergenerational wealth transmission within family groups.