ERC-2023-CoG: 101125419 From Stone to Home:

This ambitious ERC-funded project, From Stone to Home, aims to uncover the social and economic transformations that shaped Neolithic communities in the Aegean from 6800 to 3300 BC. At its core lies a deceptively simple object: the polished stone tool. Through these tools—axes, adzes, chisels, and wedges—the project explores how early societies began to perceive, assign, and negotiate the concepts of value and wealth.

Traditionally regarded as purely utilitarian, polished stone tools will be re-examined as powerful indicators of emerging social complexity. Employing cutting-edge scientific methods, including provenance analysis, technological studies, and contextual archaeology, the project will analyse tools made from both common and rare materials like jadeitite and nephrite. These materials, often procured over long distances and through dangerous expeditions, signal that their value may have extended well beyond the practical.

By tracing the full life biographies of these tools—from quarry to final deposition—the project seeks to reconstruct ancient exchange networks, identify specialised production, and map increasing disparities in access to high-value raw materials and objects.

From Stone to Home challenges the long-held narrative that Neolithic societies were largely egalitarian. Instead, it explores how these communities may have developed early forms of inequality, prestige, and desirability—laying the foundation for later hierarchical civilisations.

The project’s integration of archaeological and geological science in combination with sociological and anthropological theory will culminate in new models of prehistoric value systems. Its findings will be disseminated through academic publications and an open-access database, offering an unprecedented resource for both scholars and the public with an interest in polished stone tools.

Through the lens of the polished stone tool, From Stone to Home promises to reshape our understanding of how material culture influenced – and reflected – the earliest steps towards economic and social inequality in human history.

Disclaimer: Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the European Research Council, or any other of the institutional research collaborations or partners. Neither the European Union, the granting authority nor any other institutional research collaborator can be held responsible for them

Contact:

From Stone to Home: Polished stone tool biographies and their social and economic impact in the Aegean Neolithic

Nationalmuseet
Frederiksholms Kanal 12
1220 København

Lasse Vilien Sørensen, Senior Researcher, lasse.sorensen@natmus.dk, +45 41 20 61 64

Frederik Vingaard, Research Assistant, fvra@natmus.dk, +45 41 20 63 63