The Aceramic Neolithic of the Southern Levant : The View from 'Ain Ghazal

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Abstract
Recent re-evaluations of absolute chronologies for the Neolithic of the southern Levant have necessitated a reassessment of the events that transpired during the 7th-6th millennia. It now appears that the severe disruption of settlement patterns at the end of the 7th millennium was preceded by a major dislocation of population distribution at about 6,500 b.c. Evidence from 'Ain Ghazal indicates that the principal factors that caused both disturbances concern cultural degradation of the sensitive ecological balance in the immediate vicinity of the settlements, and each disturbance resulted in major cultural adjustments. In the earlier case, dispersed village populations "collapsed" into a number of Late PPNB "mega-sites" of immense proportions. In the latter crisis, population concentrations were either redispersed into probably hamlet-sized settlements or were maintained as large PPNC centers that were able to intensify exploitation of steppe and desert resources well into the 6th millennium.

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