Ranks to Riches, Bust to Posh

Modelling Wealth and Inequality in the Czech Corded Ware Culture

Defence of PhD thesis by Mikkel Johansen Nørtoft.

 

This thesis takes a quantitative perspective on grave wealth and inequality in the Czech Corded Ware
culture (CWC, c. 2900-2200 BCE). For this purpose, I developed a new framework (in article 1) for
quantification of grave wealth, named QuantWealth. I use this framework in article 3 to show how
institutionalised (or “persistent”) inequality, shown through grave wealth in child graves, gradually
increased during the CWC in both Bohemia and Moravia as resource networks expanded. In article 2,
I give an update on social models for migrations from the Pontic steppe and the formation of the
CWC and investigate the role of dogtooth and shell ornaments as female prestige items, while also
critically assessing the archaeological evidence for the hypothesis of a dog and wolf cult among
young male migrant warriors in the Corded Ware culture.

 

 

Denne afhandling undersøger hvordan gravrigdom og ulighed udviklede sig I tjekkisk snorekeramisk
kultur (c. 2900-2200 f.Kr.). I denne forbindelse har jeg udviklet et nyt system (i artikel 1) for
udregning af gravrigdom, kaldet QuantWealth. Via dette system viser jeg i artikel 3 hvordan
institutionaliseret ulighed, belyst ved ulighed i børnegraves rigdom over tid, ser ud til at stige over tid
i både Bøhmen og Mæhren i forlængelse af migrationer fra de pontiske stepper i perioden, samt
hvordan øget ulighed sandsynligvis kan relateres til udbygning af ressourcenetværk. I artikel 2 giver
jeg et overblik over de nuværende sociale modeller ifm. migrationer fra steppen, en undersøgelse af
prestige genstande i form af hundetænder og skalperler særligt forbundet til kvindegrave, samt en
kritisk analyse af om der er arkæologisk evidens for hypotesen om end hunde- og ulvekult hos unge
mandlige migrantkrigere i snorekeramisk kultur.

 

Assessment committee

  • Professor Eva Birgitta Andersson Strand (University of Copenhagen)
  • Professor Volker Heyd (University of Helsinki)
  • Associate Professor Quentin Bourgeois (Leiden University)

Moderator of the defence

  • TBA

Copies of the thesis will be available for consultation at the following three places:

  • The Information Desk of the Copenhagen University Library South Campus, Karen Blixens Plads 7
  • In Reading Room East of the Royal Library (the Black Diamond), Søren Kierkegaards Plads 1
  • The Saxo Institute, Karen Blixens Plads 8, room 12-3-40