"Egalitarian" or "Stratified" Society? Some Notes on Mortuary Practices and Social Structure at Jericho in EB IV

Abstract

The concepts of egalitarian and stratified society are derived from theories of cultural evolutionism, whose application to archaeological cases is often unsatisfactory because the outline of the ancient society is often simplistic. The review of several articles concerning burial practices in Palestine and in Jericho is the basis on which new interpretations of Jericho's archaeological evidence and inferences on its social structure are made. Kenyon's hypothesis of different ethnic groups using the cemetery is maintained, but the idea of social differentiation within these groups is presented here, based on the presence of three different kinds of body treatment (primary extended, primary crouched, secondary disarticulated), and on the variation of grave assemblages among and inside tomb groups. The model of pastoral nomadism is accepted as the basis of discussion to explain Jericho society, and in a wider perspective the Palestinian social landscape during EB IV. To this model, very popular today and supported by many scholars, a variant has been added, that is, social stratification in a pastoral society. Ethnographic and theoretical studies confirm the tendency towards social stratification in many pastoral societies: this theory, and the hypothesis of the existence of small, sedentary communities, could be used to outline in a more satisfactory way the social organization in Palestine during the EB IV period and the origins of the MB I urban culture.

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