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

Mithen, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3391-7443, Finlayson, B., Smith, S., Jenkins, E., Najjar, M. and Maricevic, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8647-6250 (2011) An 11,600 year old communal structure from the Neolithic of southern Jordan. Antiquity, 85 (328). pp. 350-364. ISSN 0003-598X doi: 10.1017/S0003598X00067806

Abstract/Summary

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.