Bioarchaeology of Social Inequality in the Unetice Culture: A case study

The barrow in Kąty Wrocławskie was discovered near the city of Wrocław, SW Poland, in 1998. This paper presents the results collated from excavations, isotopic analyses (13C/15N), radiocarbon dating and lipid analyses of or-ganic residues, found in this tomb. Social ranking/hierarchy shaped the lifestyle and identities, be they either individual or collective, upon which ultimately rigid or more flexible forms of stratification were built. However, archaeological debate regarding social inequality and leadership in the Unetice Culture is frequently reduced to bronze halberds, gold and the Leubingen barrow. We seek to determine the scale of social diversity among members of Early Bronze Age soci-ety. In this paper we present the biological profiles of the first group of Uneticean aristocracy buried in princely graves.