Specialization and social inequality in Bronze Age SE Arabia: analyzing the development of production strategies and economic networks using agent-based modeling

Authored by Lynne M. Rouse, Lloyd Weeks

Date Published: 2011-07

DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2011.02.023

Sponsors: No sponsors listed

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of specialized production strategies in the development of socioeconomic inequalities in Bronze Age south-eastern (SE) Arabia, and particularly, the ways in which a localized, internal exchange economy may have produced stress and instability in the SE Arabian socio-economic system. While archaeological research has established that the communities of SE Arabia participated in a widespread Bronze Age exchange system that included areas of the ancient Near East, South Asia, and Central Asia, it is unclear to what degree this interaction fostered the broad-scale socioeconomic changes seen in the Early Bronze Age of SE Arabia. Here we present the results of an agent-based model that suggest the nature of the internal exchange economy in SE Arabia itself may have precipitated the social conditions necessary for change by allowing individuals to profit disproportionately. We thus emphasize the importance of local production strategies in generating socioeconomic change, in addition to the well-established economic and cultural contacts with the wider Bronze Age world. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tags

Wealth inequality Agent-based modeling Bronze Age socio-economic networks Production specialization South-eastern Arabia