From Sedentarisation to the Complex Society

Three cities, three continents. The volume comprises the discussions held at various locations between 2016 and 2019 in Research Cluster 1 ‘From Sedentarisation to Complex Society: Settlement, Economy, Environment, Cult’. With a total of 25 contributions, the comparative discussion from a global perspective offered by the various DAI projects and collaborations comes full circle. At the same time, the set themes: Neolithisation and its consequences: a global view, from and to Iran (Workshop held in Tehran, 1-4 March 2016, Bastani Parizi Hall, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran), (2) Transitions? Continuity and Discontinuity of Cultural Developments from the Mesolithic/Epipalaeolithic to the Neolithic Period (Workshop held in Lisbon, 11-13 May 2017, National Museum of Archaeology and Geological Museum) and Origins of Complex Societies: A Worldwide Comparative Perspective (Workshop held in Lima, 3-6 October 2019, Ponti cia Universidad Católica del Perú, Departamento de Humanidades, Auditorio) the finger on unanswered questions: What are the challenges of the new way of life, what is the reason for a society to take on such challenges in the first place, and how can gaps and upheavals be distinguished from each other in our archaeological data? The eponymous title of the research cluster leads to the foundations for the emergence of complex societies, and the causes for the emergence of complexity or the non-emergence of complex societies, for which regional characteristics must be taken into account, as well as ecological and socio-economic factors.