| This dissertation examines the development of regional polities with institutionalized inequality in Bronze Age Transylvania, Romania (2700-1320 BC). During the Bronze Age, southwest Transylvania became one of the most important mining regions in Europe, providing the copper, tin, and gold that funded the establishment of permanent social hierarchies across the continent. Through a holistic approach across social, economic, and ideological institutions, I document how communities living in these metal-rich mountains participated in, and were effected by, these social, political, economic, and ideological transformations. Specifically, I focus on two interrelated research questions: (1) How were communities in the mining districts of southwest Transylvania organized during the Bronze Age, and (2) How did community organization in southwest Transylvania change throughout the Bronze Age?;This study makes two important contribution to the culture history of the Transylvanian Bronze Age. First, I develop an absolute chronology for the Transylvanian Bronze Age based on the largest corpus of dates yet published. Second, I present a regional survey and spatial analyses conducted in Transylvania to document changes in community organization at multiple scales. This study develops the first historical trajectory of the organization of economic, political, social, and ideological institutions in Bronze Age Transylvania.;More broadly, this dissertation builds on existing frameworks for studying community organization in middle-range societies in two key ways. First, it moves beyond political economic approaches to incorporate alternative pathways towards hierarchical complexity. In addition to economic and political realms, ideologies, identities, and how they are materialized are important factors in the institutionalization of inequality. Different institutions, however, will not always be organized the same way. I argue that the coherence and dissonance in the presence of inequalities across institutions is a critical attribute of social organization. Second, it further problematizes the study of change in community organization in middle-range societies. The proposed framework distinguishes qualitative and quantitative changes in how institutions are organized, how they articulate, and social forms that emerge out of human action and institutional conditions.;Through examination of settlement, mortuary, chronological, and artifactual evidence, I argue that inequality became institutionalized only during the Late Bronze Age, centuries later than previously assumed. Throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, there was dissonance across multiple institutions in how inequality was made, marked, and masked. Many institutional changes that occurred throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Age set the stage for Late Bronze Age social transformations. In particular, the expansion of long-distance trade, a diversification in burial rites that emphasized intra-community difference, and an increase in the venues for signaling identities and inequalities provided opportunities for Late Bronze Age communities to reorganize hierarchically. These institutional changes were incremental, and unintentionally created the context in which historically specific events and processes ultimately led to the emergence of complex regional polities.;The social history of communities in southwest Transylvania challenges how archaeologists conceptualize mining districts in Bronze Age Europe. In regions with rich ore sources, more than just metal procurement mattered. In southwest Transylvania, changes in social organization throughout the Bronze Age involved ideological, political, social, and economic institutions beyond metal procurement. The archaeology of pre-state societies in mining districts is uniquely positioned to contribute a deep historical perspective to the origin and evolution of the dynamics of resource extraction. |
