Bruce Routledge, professor of archaeology at the University of Liverpool in the UK, explains the formation and functioning of the state from an archaeological perspective.
The state is often thought of as a single entity, but according to Routledge, it is the result of a combination of various elements that form political authority.
Therefore, in order to understand the process of formation and operation of a state, we must examine the process of formation and operation of political authority.

This book examines the ways in which political authority is exercised and the process by which legitimacy is granted to political authority, focusing on Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony. It also examines the core elements that constitute political authority by analyzing various archaeological cases, such as the Imerina Kingdom in Madagascar, Athens in ancient Greece, the Inca Empire, the Mayan civilization, and the Royal Tombs of Ur in Mesopotamia.

Defining the state narrowly in terms of its official functions and institutions ignores the socially embedded nature of state power.
On the other hand, if we define the state broadly as some kind of comprehensive social system, the true limits of state power are ignored.
---From "Orientation"

More urgent than the question of the definition of the state is the ontological question of how the state exists.
While recognizing that the state is not simply or clearly a single entity, how a particular state is explicitly constituted by the practices, discourses, and strategies of particular individuals remains assumed and unaddressed in most critiques of neo-evolutionism.
---From “Chapter 1 (New) Evolution and After”

The coercive power of political society itself must essentially constitute a phase of hegemony.
Here we see how practices and strategies of political authority, coercive power, and transcendental identity intersect and reinforce each other under the umbrella of hegemony as a moral order.
---From “Chapter 2: Coercion and Consent”

The formation of a political body is not a simple process in which one side dominates and the other side revolutionizes.
Rather, the formation of a polity is framed by power relations and involves ongoing debates about what a hegemonic order includes and does not include, taking place in a context where cultural and material resources are unequally distributed among participants.
---From "Chapter 3: The Operation of Hegemony: The Kingdom of Imerina in Madagascar"

The courtyard house was a crucial space in classical Athens that not only embodied the material interdependence of economy, politics, gender, and identity, but also constituted them.
This material interdependence is activated, strengthened, and re-inscribed through the practice of civic hegemony.
---From Chapter 4 Beyond Politics: Athens and the Inca Empire

Ritual performances may be directed to a broad or limited audience, or to the performer himself, a deity, past ancestors, or future descendants.
What is significant is that the spectacle participates in the construction and representation of a particular moral order, and also includes its participants.
---From Chapter 5, Spectacle and Routine

It is not certain whether the attendant buried in the royal tomb was the most subordinate member of the household.
It is also unknown whether they were loyal and honorable volunteers, prisoners of war, paupers, or simply suitable surplus.
The funerary spectacle of the Ur royal tombs shows only that such distinctions are no longer significant.
Regardless of origin, the dying are absorbed into a service role that reproduces the hegemonic order of the institutional household in a ritual drama that fuses authority, violence, and transcendence with the power of governance.
---From "Chapter 6: Everyday Life and Dramatic Death: The Royal Tombs of Ur"

In response to this, it is important to emphasize the position of violence and hegemony in my argument.
The cases analyzed in this book are defined by violence.
In other words, violence is not a characteristic of other phenomena such as the state.
Rather, this book is about sovereignty, a form of institutional violence.

---From "Chapter 7 Conclusion: Dangerous Comparisons"