Feasting the collapse. Ceremonial buildings at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age between highlands and lowlands: some considerations

After the demise of the Uruk phenomenon and the collapse of the economic centralised institutions, a reorganisation of the political systems, coupled with the emergence of new forms of power, seems to have taken place in the Anatolian and Iranian highlands towards the end of the fourth millennium. Building 36 at Arslantepe, constructed by the pastoral groups that occupied the sites during period VIB1, provides meaningful evidence on these changes. In this paper we present two comparable case studies at Godin Tepe and Hassek Hoyuk, highlighting how ceremonial feasting could have represented a new practice of power enacted by the post-Uruk Anatolian and Iranian communities at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age.