Cover -- Editors' Preface -- List of Contributors -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 The development of pre-state communities in the ancient Near East -- PART 1: SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND COMPLEXITY IN PRE-STATE COMMUNITIES -- 2 Social complexity and archaeology: A contextual approach -- 3 Late Neolithic architectural renewal: The emergence of round houses in the northern Levant,c. 6500-6000 BC -- 4 Abandonment processes and closure ceremonies in prehistoric Cyprus: In search of ritual 29Demetra Papaconstantinou -- 5 A different Chalcolithic: A central Cypriot scene -- 6 Thoughts on the function of 'public buildings' in the Early Bronze Age southern Levant -- PART 2: EARLY URBAN COMMUNITIES AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE STATE -- 7 The Tell: Social archaeology and territorial space -- 8 Rethinking Kalopsidha: From specialisation to state marginalisation -- 9 From kin to class - and back again! Changing paradigms of the early polity -- 10 Different models of power structuring at the rise of hierarchical societies in the Near East:Primary economy versus luxury and defence management -- 11 States of hegemony: Early forms of political control in Syria during the 3rd millennium BC -- PART 3: TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMY AND SOCIETY -- 12 A household affair? Pottery production in the Burnt Village at Late Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad -- 13 Late Cypriot ceramic production: Heterarchy or hierarchy? -- 14 The domestication of stone: Early lime plaster technology in the Levant -- 15 Domestication of plants and animals, domestication of symbols? -- 16 Herds lost in time: Animal remains from the 1969-1970 excavation seasons at the Ceramic Neolithicsettlement of Philia-Drakos Site A, Cyprus -- PART 4: AGENCY, IDENTITY AND GENDER -- 17 Agency in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A -- 18 Understanding symbols: Putting meaning into the painted pottery of prehistoric northern Mesopotamia.

19 Gender and social complexity in prehistoric and protohistoric Cyprus -- 20 The painting process of White Painted and White Slip wares: Communities of practice -- 21 The ceramic industry of Deneia: Crafting community and place in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus -- PART 5: INSULARITY, ETHNICITY AND CULTURAL INTERACTION -- 22 Outside the corridor? The Neolithisation of Cyprus -- 23 Contextualising Neolithic Cyprus: Preliminary investigations into connections between Cyprusand the Near East in the later Neolithic -- 24 Was Çatalhöyük a centre? The implications of a late Aceramic Neolithic assemblage from the 207neighbourhood of Çatalhöyük -- 25 The birth of ethnicity in Iran: Mesopotamian-Elamite cross-cultural relations in late prehistory.

This book explores the dynamics of small-scale societies in the ancient Near East by examining the ways in which particular communities functioned and interacted and by moving beyond the broad neo-evolutionary models of social change which have characterised many earlier approaches. By focusing on issues of diversity, scale, and context, it considers the ways in which economy, crafts, technology, and ritual were organised; the roles played by mortuary practices and households in the structure and development of ancient societies; and the importance of agency, identity, ethnicity, gender, community and cultural interaction for the rise of socio-economic complexity. The contributors to this volume are well-known archaeologists in the field of Near Eastern studies; all are currently engaged in fieldwork or research in Cyprus, the Levant, or Turkey. The variety and depth of the research they present here reflect the richness of the archaeological record in the 'cradle of civilisation' and convey the vibrancy of current interpretive approaches within the field of Near Eastern prehistory today.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.