The restructuring of socio-economic relations during the LPPNB∗ in the southern levant and the role of ritua buildings

Abstract EN

The Neolithic period in the southern Levant brought about fundamental changes in socioeconomic practices that were mediated through transformations in social organization as well as in ritual behaviors.

Based on new archaeological data that span the two major periods of the Aceramic Neolithic–PPNA and PPNB–our understanding of these transformations has increased.

In this paper we will focus on highlighting the role and function of ritual buildings in restructuring the new economic and social relations that characterized LPPNB societies in the southern Levant.

We propose a model that focuses on the causal relationship between the transformations in social and ritual practices and agricultural land–the principal economic base of those societies and the impact of population growth and aggregation on those changes.