Monumentalità, abbondanza e cerimonialità come espressione e legittimazione del potere nella prima metà del IV millennio in Alta Mesopotamia

Whilst religion proper during prehistory is extremely complex to investigate and understand, the present paper looks at Neolithic and Chalcolithic temples in the Near East with the intent of evaluating the impact that these had on societal structure and community relations. Ritual and sacrality are evaluated as forms social cohesion, but also of legitimation of the status quo and, in the early complex societies of the Chalcolithic period, as instruments of power.