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Comparing ancient inequalities: the challenges of comparability, bias and precision

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2019

Mattia Fochesato ,
Amy Bogaard  and
Samuel Bowles
Mattia Fochesato
Affiliation:
Dondena Centre, Bocconi University, Via Röntgen 1, 20136 Milan, Italy
Amy Bogaard*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK Behavioral Sciences, Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
Samuel Bowles
Affiliation:
Behavioral Sciences, Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Archaeological evidence provides the only basis for comparative research charting wealth inequality over vast stretches of the human past. But researchers are confronted by a number of problems: small sample sizes; variable indicators of wealth (including individual grave goods, the area of household dwellings or storage spaces); overrepresentation of the wealthy, or invisibility of those without wealth; and vastly different population sizes. Here, the authors develop methods for estimating the Gini coefficient—a measure of wealth inequality—that address these challenges, allowing them to provide a set of 150 comparable estimates of ancient wealth inequality.

Keywords

wealth inequalityhouseholdstoragegrave goodsGini coefficient
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 370 , August 2019 , pp. 853 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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