Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-jr42d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T11:25:23.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2014

Ferran Borrell
Affiliation:
Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, 3, rehov Shimshon, P.O. Box 547, 91004 Jerusalem, Israel, Email: silmarils1000@hotmail.com
Miquel Molist
Affiliation:
Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici B, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain, Email: miquel.molist@uab.cat

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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)