Animals and inequality in Chalcolithic central Anatolia

This paper explores the changing social and economic roles of livestock within three increasingly complex societies in Chalcolithic central Anatolia. By specifically addressing practices associated with the production, distribution and consumption of livestock, particularly sheep and goats, I show how changes in the use of animals were dynamically linked to the emergence of new sociopolitical environments. These changes, including the development of intensive caprine pastoralism and complex provisioning systems as well as an increased focus on the production of secondary products, strongly suggest that control over animals, particularly sheep, and their products played a central role in the development of increasingly complex and hierarchical social systems in MC Anatolia.

► This paper explores the social roles of livestock in complex pre-state societies in Chalcolithic Anatolia.
► Changes in the production, distribution and consumption of livestock are documented at three sites in central Turkey.
► Changes in the animal economy played a central role in the rise of inequality in the Middle and Late Chalcolithic.