I'm reading parts of a "Debt: The First 5000 Years," by David Graeber. He mentions that about nine thousand years ago, the people in Çatalhöyük burned down the palaces and temples, and created an egalitarian society without the state, where men and women were treated equally.
Is there archaeological evidence to base these claims on or is this account just speculation? Can archaeologists accurately determine the political, social, and economic aspects of such an ancient civilization?
EDIT: The story is NOT from Graeber, sorry for the confusion.
As far as I recall I do not mention Çatalhöyük anywhere in the book. I certainly do not believe people there burned down temples and palaces, which did not exist anywhere nearby to burn down, and while there are no dramatic signs of social inequality there, or of states, or of gender hierarchies, we don't in fact know for sure how the place was organised. David Graeber
I wouldn't say that we can accurately determine them, but we can do more than speculate. You can infer something about social inequality in prehistoric society from the amount of variation in its material culture, for example. The people of Catalhoyuk lived in almost identical houses and all owned, ate and did more or less the same things. So if there was social inequality there, it was subtle and didn't translate to material conditions in any significant way.
You could spend weeks reading about Catalhoyuk: http://www.catalhoyuk.com/research/bibliography
But I'd recommend The Goddess and the Bull by Michael Balter as a really interesting popular introduction to the site and also how it's being researched and interpreted.