Back to the Bronze Age calendar
I said earlier that people were now treating possessions as an example of wealth and power. People were also becoming more tribal. We started our history looking at the hunter-gatherers who only owned what they could carry with them and only carried with them what they needed to live.
Now that Bronze Age people were living in one place, they could own more possessions. Things didn’t just need to have a use, they could be pretty and decorative.
Another change was that people’s lives were not just about providing for their own family group. Whole villages would be living for each other. Some villages then started to grow. Maybe their land was more fertile, maybe they had better craftsmen, but others would come and join this village.
The newcomers would certainly have less status and own less land. What you had, what you owned, be it land or possessions, became more important than just staying alive. There is evidence that already villages and tribes began to protect what was theirs against others who wanted it, not just by joining the community but by trying to conquer it. As soon as these people began to treasure possessions, to be what we call materialistic, someone somewhere becomes jealous and tries to take it away.
Being materialistic means wanting physical comforts or to be wealthy and own more things, possibly non-essential things.
Forward to 1159BC
