Over half a century ago, in a seminal work, Marshal Sahlins advanced his definition of an "original affluent society" introducing the concept of “affluence” and challenging well-established views on the recurrent association between complexity, progress, and prosperity. Since then, the relationship between the availability of resources and social organisation has been recognised as a fundamental issue for the study of pre-modern societies, a debate that has now re-emerged and has been strengthened in the aftermath of the publication of the Dawn of Everything. Such debate is yet to make a substantial impact in the study of political organisation in early polities, particularly in Western Asia, the Aegean and the circum-Mediterranean Area, a region that has experienced the earliest, fastest, and most striking social transformations worldwide. This conference sets to trigger the beginning of such a debate in the archeology of pre-modern societies (from the Neolithic period through to the early Archaic period), exploring this complex conundrum through all its possible facets, looking at topics such as:

 

•The roots of affluence: Was it farming? Was surplus available to communities with little arable or placed next to the coasts and/or wetlands? Was animal husbandry the key variable? What strategies were groups of herders and farmers employing to overcome the dearth of resources and, in turn, create affluence?

 

•The relationship between individual and community affluence: How evenly was affluence distributed among populations? Was this connected to an unbalance in social arrangements? How is this unbalance (or lack thereof) translated in the archaeological record of the world of the living or the dead? How was affluence made evident and communicated (e.g. by laying out monumental buildings and spaces, enlarging private dwellings, or furbishing tombs?)
•The management of affluence: Was affluence a multiplier of social complexity? How were groups managing affluence? Through feasting practices and/or the destruction of wealth? How far-reaching was the use of administrative tools aimed at bookkeeping (sacrificial or archival economies)? In a wider perspective, what was the role played by the accumulation and storage of staples, on the one hand, and the production of high-status and precious artefacts, on the other?

 

•The relationship between affluence and technology: What were the means through which affluence was achieved and regenerated over time? (e.g., exploiting wetlands, farming practices, animal husbandry, metal mining, staple storage, special textile techniques, trade relationships) What are its traces in the archaeological record (e.g., architectural monumentality, dining sets in precious metals, clay skeuomorphs, iconography)?