Eco-systems or socio-systems? The case of the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

MILEVSKI, I.; GANDULLA, BERNARDO; JARUF, PABLO F.

Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East

Harrassowitz Verlag

Lugar: Wiesbaden; Año: 2016; p. 291 - 303

The Chalcolithic Ghassulian culture of the southern Levant lasted for about 800 hundred years starting in the second half of the 5th millennium BC. A great deal of research has been involved in the southern facies of this culture, mainly in the Northern Negev. Changes in settlement patterns at the end of this period and the dénouement of the Ghassulian culture has been interpreted in relation to the influence of eco-systems on the material culture of the southern Levant in that particular semi-deserted area. In this paper we will offer our interpretation on the developments concerning the end of the Chalcolithic from a socio-economic context, without discarding the influence of the environment and natural sources on the development of the rural communities of the southern Levantine Chalcolithic.