How inequality became durable before states: Evidence from 6000 years in the Central Plain of China

How did durable inequality emerge before the rise of states? Drawing on a synthesis of previously published mortuary data from more than 2300 burials, together with isotopic, zooarchaeological, and osteological data spanning nearly 6000 years (7000 to 1500 BCE) in the prehistoric Central Plain of China, we reconstruct long-term patterns of relational mortuary inequality. We show that inequality followed a strongly nonlinear trajectory and cannot be explained primarily by agricultural intensification or population scale. Instead, substantial disparities were structured by differential positions within social-relational networks that mediated access to labor, resources, and symbolic capital. Transformations in subsistence, the rise of mobile and appropriable wealth, and escalating conflict reorganized these networks, concentrating ritual and political-military power and technological control. Early states stabilized rather than created these preexisting disparities by institutionalizing control over resources, violence, and network-based access. These findings highlight the central role of social networks in shaping durable inequality before formal state institutions.