The Early Helladic period in the Peloponnese (c. 3100 -2000 BC) is traditionally viewed as a phase of
incipient hierarchical social organisation. This interpretation rests with a series of socio-economic
developments perceived to represent an increased socio-economic complexity over that visible during
the Late and Final Neolithic, including the appearance of organised, highly-socialised burial practices,
a monumental architectural tradition, a non-uniform shift in Peloponnesian settlement patterns, the
advent of sealing practices, an expansion of overland and maritime trade relationships and an
increased visibility for metallurgical practice and Other specialist technologies.
The second phase of the period, Early Helladic (E!"!) Il, and particularly so its later stages, is seen to
represent a socio-cultural apex for the Early Helladic period and that for which the existence of elite
groups on the Early Bronze Age Greek mainland -: has been most fervently proposed.
There is a persistent belief that these dynamic multi-scale changes represent correlative developments
articulated within a coherent and contemporary 'system' of social behaviours, within which social
hierarchy was present from the start or out of which it quickly developed. Through the analysis of
infant and adult burial practices, regional settlement activity and the use of monumental architecture
in multiple modes of social interaction, this thesis demonstrates that a far more complex situation is
evident. One in which systemic centralisation of 'elite' behaviours can be largely deconstructed in
favour of temporally- and spatially-specific developments resulting from inter-group interaction or the
particular geological, geographical or socio-political position of the study area. Increasingly accurate
artefactual chronologies have allowed the identification of local and regional variation in behaviour
which challenge existing ideas of 'hierarchy' and its operation in the Early Bronze Age Peloponnese,
and suggests instead that the evident complexity of the period may find its origins in non-stratified
communal and inter-communal action
