Tripolye Mega-Sites: “Collective Computational Abilities” of Prehistoric Proto-Urban Societies?

Abstract

In the East European region between Prut and Dnieper, proto-urban mega-sites developed ca. 4100−3600 BCE with population agglomerations of around 10000 inhabitants per site. An outline of complexity categories, based on P. Turchin et al. (2018), illustrates that “computational abilities” are first developed to make the shift from dispersed to agglomerated settlement patterns. The development of an internal decision-making system for a polity that organizes communication via public buildings on different levels, together with a site-specific track system, may be responsible for this shift (or made it possible). However, after generations, this communication pattern was not developed into further collective communication abilities (e.g., into a writing system), while at the same time a tendency toward centralizing decision processes probably destroyed the communication flow. This ultimately led to the collapse of Tripolye mega-sites.

Keywords

• non-state societies
• social constitution
• chalcolithic mega-sites
• tripolye