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New light on Neolithic revolution in south-west Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Trevor Watkins
Trevor Watkins*
Affiliation:
*School of History, Classics and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh, The Old High School, Infirmary Street, Edinburgh EH1 1LT, UK (Email: trevor.watkins@ed.ac.uk)
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Abstract

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Shortly after his retirement from a distinguished career in the Department of Archaeology at Edinburgh, the author gave the Rhind Lectures for 2009, bringing together his thoughts about the Neolithic revolution, and comparing Childe's ideas with today's. These lectures, summarised here, announced the modern vision to a wide audience. It is a reversal of the old: Epipalaeolithic people came together in the first large, permanent communities, to form extensive settlements which only later needed to be fed by farming.

Keywords

south-west AsiaNeolithic revolutionGordon Childespiritualitymonumentalityagriculture
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 325 , September 2010 , pp. 621 - 634
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

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