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An 11 600 year-old communal structure from the Neolithic of southern Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Steven J. Mithen ,
Bill Finlayson ,
Sam Smith ,
Emma Jenkins ,
Mohammed Najjar  and
Darko Maričević
Steven J. Mithen
Affiliation:
University of Reading, Whiteknights, P.O. Box 217, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, UK (Email: s.j.mithen@rdg.ac.uk)
Bill Finlayson
Affiliation:
Council for British Research in the Levant, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, UK
Sam Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology and Geography, Oxford Brookes University, Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP, UK
Emma Jenkins
Affiliation:
School of Applied Sciences, Bournemouth University, Christchurch House, Talbot Campus, Poole, Dorset BH12 5BB, UK
Mohammed Najjar
Affiliation:
The British Institute, P.O. Box 519, Jubaiha 11941, Amman, Jordan
Darko Maričević
Affiliation:
University of Reading, Whiteknights, P.O. Box 217, Reading, Berkshire RG6 6AH, UK (Email: s.j.mithen@rdg.ac.uk)
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The authors present a new type of communal and monumental structure from the earliest Neolithic in western Asia. A complement to the decorated stone pillars erected at Göbekli Tepe in the north, ‘Wadi Faynan 16 Structure O75’ in the southern Levant is a ritualised gathering place of a different kind. It serves to define wider western Asia as an arena of social experiment in the tenth millennium BC, one in which community seems to take precedence over economy.

Keywords

LevantWadi FaynanNeolithicPPNAmonumentalitycommunal structurescomplexity
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 328 , June 2011 , pp. 350 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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