Over a span of four millennia, early agricultural villages gave rise to Europe's first kingdoms and monarchies, the first complex state organisations.  These kingdoms replaced smaller, more egalitarian social structures with complex state organisations led by royal individuals invested with power.

In this wonderfully illustrated book, which accompanies an international exhibition, scholars synthesize archaeological data and present artifacts from the most important museum collections across south-eastern Europe to illustrate the evolution of political hierarchy, power and status in this region, from the Neolithic to the Iron age.