Individual, household, and community space in Early Bronze Age western Anatolia and the nearby islands

Abstract

Societies exhibit variation in how they conceptualize and ascribe importance to social categories such as the individual, the household and the community. One way that archaeologists can begin to investigate ancient concepts about social categories is through a study of the arrangement of space. The placement of walls within houses and settlements provides a framework for interactions and negotiations, and the allotment of space should correspond in some degree to social divisions and relationships, or at least ones that the builders chose to mark in a material form. An examination of architectural remains from Early Bronze Age sites in western Anatolia and the nearby island of Lesbos demonstrates how physical boundaries and spatial arrangements can express ideas about the relationship of the individual to larger social categories of an ancient community.