Trajectories of Complexity

About this book

This volume is the result of a workshop that was organised by Salam Al-Quntar and the editor of the present proceedings on June 11, 2014 during the 9th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE) in Basel, Switzerland. The workshop?s aim was to stimulate colleagues studying the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods in Mesopotamia to present papers investigating the development of human societies during the 6th?4th millennia BC in Upper Mesopotamia. Of specific interest was the analysis of the ?socio-economic complexity? phenomenon. The ten contributions that compose the volume propose conclusions that go beyond such rigid subdivisions. Many of them present the most recent data from key research projects currently ongoing in Upper Mesopotamia. Therefore this volume offers an updated view of the crucial changes that characterised the region throughout the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods.