Rise of the elites

I was recently asked to contribute to a two-day meeting on Bronze Age civilisations, organised by the Research Centre for History and Culture, Beijing Normal University. Held on Zoom and with world coverage, it meant that some of us stayed up late and others arose early to contribute. Indeed, in my case I had to miss some presentations because I was falling asleep. Now the participants are preparing their papers to be published, having put together a series of issues to be concentrated on. It is almost a century since Gordon Childe published The Bronze Age, a volume that continues to exert a profound influence on our thoughts, even if increasingly as a source of inferences to take issue with