When was the first time in human history where a collection of people actively chose that a certain person or other group of people were strictly better than them, but not based on physical dexterity or hunting capabilities, like an alpha male.
I hope I've made my question clear. I attempted to search, but Reddit kept crashing. Thanks in advance!
That would go back to the earliest known civilization, the Sumerians of Mesopotamia. While highly mythologized, they had a pretty extensive King List. They are dated to well over four millennia ago. I'm unsure which Kings would be historical or semi historical vs mythological, a near east scholar would have to fill that in. Either way, the Sumerians were well established by the time, having had cities and rulers for centuries. The Sumerians called Eridu the first city. Excavations date the settlement back to 5400BC. It's hard to imagine founding a city and construction of a temple platform without some sort of organized leadership, but these original settlers had no system of writing.