Published in

Cambridge University Press, American Antiquity, 3(79), p. 401-424, 2014

DOI: 10.7183/0002-7316.79.3.401

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Reconstructing Early Neolithic Social and Economic Organization through Spatial Analysis at Ayn Abu Nukhayla, Southern Jordan

Journal article published in 2014 by Donald O. Henry, Seiji Kadowaki ORCID, Sean M. Bergin
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

This study involves the high-resolution spatial analysis of a 9,500-year-old Early Neolithic site in an effort to reconstruct the social and economic organization of the settlement at household and community scales. We introduce an approach to distinguishing stratified occupational surfaces (floors) from intervening deposits (fills), to tracing the different formation processes associated with floors and fills, and to critically examining various factors (curation behaviors, palimpsests, and the Clarke Effect) that may have shaped house floor assemblages. The spatial analyses of behavioral residuals, features, and structures are then presented at intramural and intrasite scales, and the results are discussed as they relate to certain aspects of the social and economic organization of the community. These include family structure, control of resources, social differentiation, ritual participation, craft specialization, and gender-linked activities.