“Great Expectations,” or the Inevitable Collapse of the Early Neolithic in the Near East

Once the Neolithic existence in the Near East came into being, it is commonly assumed to have represented a threshold “point of no return”— a time when humankind finally got on track to become “us.” Neolithization is accordingly conceived of as an incremental continuum, with relatively minor disruptions occurring under sophisticated and complex circumstances. In this chapter, we briefly discuss various aspects of early village life and the factors involved in its ultimate demise observed in the Levant, the area in which Neolithization processes occurred at an earlier date than elsewhere in the world. The Levant is a circumscribed area