Institutional and Technological Development

The key topics in this chapter concern institutional and technological developments in agricultural communities. During the period, public goods and large-scale monuments become increasingly common and I explore the potential links to the capacity for collective action and social stratification. In a leapfrogging manner and in conjunction with climatic changes, new areas around the world such as the Eurasian Steppe, northern Europe, and Polynesia are colonized by waves of migrating farmers. The Trypillia culture featured the first known megasettlements. After 6 kya, major technological innovations such as artificial irrigation, the sail, animal traction, the plough, the wheel, and copper metallurgy gave rise to major social implications for gender roles, the spread of infectious disease, and the appearance of invading warrior pastoralists (the Yamnaya) that eventually marked the transition to the Bronze Age in Western Eurasia.