Social Interaction at the End of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B: an Inter-site Analysis in the Euphrates Valley

Abstract

This article discusses contact, social relationships, and social organization between sites at the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the Euphrates valley; all of which are of high importance for reconstructing and modelling social organization in consolidated agricultural villages. Our analysis has succeeded in identifying a complex range of overlapping levels and types of social interaction that occurred simultaneously and operated at different scales including the household, the community and inter-regional communities. This complex mixture of interacting spheres, together with the identification of cultural-social boundaries, enables us to understand and explain inter-site variation in material culture and mortuary practices. Moreover, they reflect the growing social complexity of large farming communities at the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic and the role played by settlement as the social unit through which these communities became more distinctive and self-consciously different.

Pre-pottery Neolithic age spatial planning: The typo-morphology of the first urbanisation with reference to three Akarçay Tepe plaques

“…As Plaque plans register the spatial knowledge, one is led to think that there was an authority and order in this region at the time they were made. Borrell and Molist (2014) and Arimura and Suleiman (2015) have determined that the regions of Syria and the Levant, which are close to our region, constituted a single regional entity in the Neolithic Age. It is therefore considered necessary, from this stage onwards, to answer the questions of which settlements the other plaques pertain to, why the spatial plans for settlements of an extensive area were gathered at Akarçay Tepe as the result of another social consensusand hence what the geopolitical status of this settlement was.…”

Butterfly Beads in the Neolithic Near East: Evolution, Technology and Socio-cultural Implications

“…Excavated during three campaigns , the site yielded two major periods of occupation (Moore et al 2000): late Natufian (Abu Hureyra 1) and Neolithic (Abu Hureyra 2). Very attractive stones were used for making these items, most of them presenting nuances of colour ranging from green to grey, like those made Borrell & Molist (2014, fig. 12.28) and animals (Legge & Rowley-Conwy 2000, 425) are present in the earlier levels of phase 2A.…”

Bidirectional blade technology on naviform cores from northern Arabia: New evidence of Arabian‐Levantine interactions in the Neolithic

“…Scholars attempted to understand its large distribution area across the western Fertile Crescent, trying to grasp a variety of socioeconomic aspects of the first agrarian systems in the Levant (e.g. Borrell & Khalaily, ; Borrell & Molist, ). Other studies attempted to reconstruct the chaînes opératoires as well as determine technical competences, their users’ behaviours and the regional differences.…”