Quantitative Assessment of Social Stratification and Inequality in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age South Korea

ABSTRACT This study quantitatively assesses social stratification and inequality in Bronze Age and Early Iron Age communities through dolmen volume analysis in southeastern Gochang County (Daesan‐myeon, Seongsong‐myeon, Gosu‐myeon, and Gochang‐eup). Using power‐law distribution modeling, the scaling exponent ( α ) serves as an indicator of hierarchical structure. The results show that the dolmen volume distribution follows a power law with α ≈ 3.26, implying a moderately egalitarian tail. Bootstrap resampling ( n = 10,000) confirmed the robustness of this estimate (95% CI [2.17, 4.23]). Model comparisons revealed no significant difference between the power‐law and lognormal or exponential distributions, whereas Pareto and gamma fits were less appropriate for the data. Complementary measures—the Gini coefficient (≈0.537) and the 20/80 rule (≈57.9%)—also suggest moderate inequality, indicating that few large dolmens dominate but not overwhelmingly so. Spatial visualizations further show that the southeastern dolmen cluster is internally cohesive yet only loosely connected to the wider Gochang dolmen network. These findings demonstrate the utility of statistical distribution analysis in quantifying prehistoric inequality and suggest that the relatively high α value reflects both local social organization and the cluster's peripheral position within the broader dolmen system.