Daily Practice and the Organization of Space at the Dawn of Agriculture: A Case Study from the near East. Issue 3 (20th July 2009)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kuijt, Ian; Goodale, Nathan
• Is Part Of: American antiquity. Volume 74: Issue 3(2009)
• Page Start: 403
• Page End: 422
• Publication Date: 2009-07-20
• Subjects: North America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- North America -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- America -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- America -- Periodicals; North America -- History -- Periodicals; America -- History -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 970
• DOI: 10.1017/S000273160004868X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7316

Abstract

Abstract : Drawing upon the lithic remains from the Late Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A occupations of "Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan, we utilize a quantifiable statistical approach with Geographic Information Systems analysis to interpret shifting practices that influenced site structure. This study indicates that the highly mobile Late Natufian population who inhabited the site had fairly nondelineated use of space compared to a more delineated use of space during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. It appears that intensified intra-community organization of space was a byproduct of decreased residential mobility. Moreover, the emergence of more formal intra-community organization likely aided in the development of much more complex human societies that evolved several millennia after the onset of Holocene conditions.