A Roof Over One’s Head: Developments in Near Eastern Residential Architecture Across the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic Transition

Goring-Morris, A. Nigel; Belfer‐Cohen, Anna

doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-8539-0_10

Cited by 67 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Archaeologists have conventionally associated the origins of stone-built architecture with the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) c. 14,500 years ago, and suggest that they represent the first semi-sedentary settlements, marking a critical threshold in human evolution [1]–[3]. Yet, hut structures that suggest repeated and prolonged occupation are acknowledged at several earlier sites and appear as early as 23,000 cal BP at the site of Ohalo II on the shore of the Sea of Galilee [4], [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

et al. 2012

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Ten thousand years before Neolithic farmers settled in permanent villages, hunter-gatherer groups of the Epipalaeolithic period (c. 22–11,600 cal BP) inhabited much of southwest Asia. The latest Epipalaeolithic phase (Natufian) is well-known for the appearance of stone-built houses, complex site organization, a sedentary lifestyle and social complexity—precursors for a Neolithic way of life. In contrast, pre-Natufian sites are much less well known and generally considered as campsites for small groups of seasonally-mobile hunter-gatherers. Work at the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site of Kharaneh IV in eastern Jordan highlights that some of these earlier sites were large aggregation base camps not unlike those of the Natufian and contributes to ongoing debates on their duration of occupation. Here we discuss the excavation of two 20,000-year-old hut structures at Kharaneh IV that pre-date the renowned stone houses of the Natufian. Exceptionally dense and extensive occupational deposits exhibit repeated habitation over prolonged periods, and contain structural remains associated with exotic and potentially symbolic caches of objects (shell, red ochre, and burnt horn cores) that indicate substantial settlement of the site pre-dating the Natufian and outside of the Natufian homeland as currently understood.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

et al. 2012

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“…Goring-Morris and Belfer-Cohen note that "a major innovation" in the PPNA is the "occasional appearance of substantial communal architectural endeavours" (ref. 4, p. 254). PPNA special purpose buildings come in very different styles with very different ascribed functions.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is evidence for architecture and sedentary behavior before the PPNA (ref. 4 and references therein), including in the southern Levant brushwood huts from Ohalo II in the early Epipaleolithic and occasional stone architecture as at Neve David from the Geometric Kebaran, whereas the well-known architecture at Early Natufuian sites (e.g., Mallaha, Wadi Hammeh 27) is combined with the development of a nontransportable heavy-duty tool kit, cemeteries, the appearance of commensuals, and possibly storage. Although a general consensus exists for a sedentary way of life in the Early Natufian (5), serious doubts regarding the degree of sedentism have been raised by many scholars, including Edwards (6), Olszweski (7), Bar-Yosef and Belfer-Cohen (8), Valla (9), Hardy-Smith and Edwards (10), and Shewan (11).…”

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confidence: 99%

Architecture, sedentism, and social complexity at Pre-Pottery Neolithic A WF16, Southern Jordan

Finlayson

Mithen

Najjar

et al. 2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Recent excavations at Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) WF16 in southern Jordan have revealed remarkable evidence of architectural developments in the early Neolithic. This sheds light on both special purpose structures and "domestic" settlement, allowing fresh insights into the development of increasingly sedentary communities and the social systems they supported. The development of sedentary communities is a central part of the Neolithic process in Southwest Asia. Architecture and ideas of homes and households have been important to the debate, although there has also been considerable discussion on the role of communal buildings and the organization of early sedentarizing communities since the discovery of the tower at Jericho. Recently, the focus has been on either northern Levantine PPNA sites, such as Jerf el Ahmar, or the emergence of ritual buildings in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the southern Levant. Much of the debate revolves around a division between what is interpreted as domestic space, contrasted with "special purpose" buildings. Our recent evidence allows a fresh examination of the nature of early Neolithic communities.forager-farmer transition | Near East T he Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) is the earliest Neolithic in Southwest Asia (circa 11,600 to 10,200 y ago) situated between hunting and gathering and sedentary farming societies. It is generally considered as the key period in the shift to management and production of resources, wherein increasingly sedentary communities start to produce food to extend the period of occupation at a site, with one of the main economic developments in the PPNA being the cultivation of wild cereals. Social changes are as significant as economic ones, enabling communities to both increase in size and live together for longer periods, and, arguably, it is these social changes that drive the economic developments. Architecture is an important facet of the early Neolithic, providing evidence for an increasingly sedentary lifestyle; changing social structures; and, in the growth of communities, a motive for the development of food production.Three basic assumptions tend to be made regarding PPNA settlements: (i) that the presence of stone or mud architecture indicates sedentism; (ii) that most buildings are domestic and can be described as houses forming small permanent villages; and (iii) that any buildings not fitting this pattern are "special," with some communal function, frequently assumed to be ritual as opposed to a domestic norm, including the tower at Jericho (1), monumental stone-pillared structures at Göbekli Tepe (2), and communal buildings at Jerf el Ahmar and Mureybet (3). On the basis of our recent discoveries at WF16, we argue that these normative assumptions must be questioned. Can we really identify basic domestic structures in these early settlements, and do they exist in opposition to the nondomestic? This has profound implications for how we understand PPNA social organization.Strong arguments have been made that the PPNA is part of a long, sl...

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“…The notion that Natufian hamlets were relatively permanently occupied has been based upon biological and archaeological evidence such as the increase in site size, appearance of stone constructions, groundstone implements, decorative and art objects, cemeteries, and commensal animals (e.g., Garrod, ; Noy et al., ; Henry, ; Belfer‐Cohen, ; Kaufman, ; Valla, ; Bar‐Yosef, , ; Goring‐Morris & Belfer‐Cohen, ; Belfer‐Cohen & Bar‐Yosef, ; Belfer‐Cohen & Goring‐Morris, ; Maher, Richter, & Stock, ; Nadel et al., ). Many Natufian sites provide evidence of building activity in durable materials, as well as application of earth (mud) and/or lime plastering (Nadel, ; Goring‐Morris & Belfer‐Cohen, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil‐Geomorphology and Micromorphology of a Natufian Depositional Record at El‐Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel

et al. 2016

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The Natufian sequence at the site of el‐Wad Terrace (EWT) shows a complex depositional record derived from intertwined soil‐geomorphic and human processes. In order to identify site formation processes at EWT, we analyzed gravel composition, its distribution within the stratigraphic sequence, and micromorphology of both fine‐grained material and gravel rims. The fine deposits within the EWT sequence are magnetically enhanced anthropogenic sediments mixed with a colluvial component. They contain miniscule burnt bones, charcoal, and calcareous aggregates reminiscent of reworked ash. The constructed stone floors in the earlier Early Natufian (ca. 15.0–13.7/13.0 ka) are largely covered by crusts on their undersides. In thin sections, the crusts exhibit a sequence of thin phosphate coatings directly overlying limestone calcite followed by clayey and secondary pedogenic calcite on the outer side. The expected post‐depositional erosion of floors was likely hampered by their cementation resulting from pedogenic calcite redeposition. The major break in coarse deposition appears to have occurred in the later Early Natufian occupation phase marked by low rate of scree formation.

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A Roof Over One’s Head: Developments in Near Eastern Residential Architecture Across the Epipalaeolithic–Neolithic Transition

Cited by 67 publications

References 63 publications

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

Architecture, sedentism, and social complexity at Pre-Pottery Neolithic A WF16, Southern Jordan

Soil‐Geomorphology and Micromorphology of a Natufian Depositional Record at El‐Wad Terrace, Mount Carmel, Israel

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