Supported by a stable climate, the “climatic optimum” [Perrot, 2003] that will last more than 3,000 years, the Neolithic Revolution in the Middle East saw the emergence of sedentarization, made possible by the introduction of an economy of production that resulted in a demographic growth without precedent in human history. This revolution, however, was not marked by any irreversible break with the past, but evolved very steadily. In fact, the collective and egalitarian values of nomadism were still prevailing long after these populations were settled, giving Neolithic society a character of stability and homogeneity.
It is true that data excavated to this day leave extended zones of darkness. Nevertheless, a few aspects present throughout this period let us discern some particularities of these populations’ beliefs. One of them, the funeral practices, reveals that the notion of an eternally recycled natural world still dominated the beliefs of that era, the spirits playing a determining role on how these people considered the universe.
A second aspect, the architectural vestiges, brings into light some of the norms and values that these populations possessed at the time they settled down, and gives us some hints about their social organization. Opening the new era, the circular architecture with its communal storage facility illustrates the egalitarian heritage of these communities. Later, the appearance of rectangular constructions, of inside partitions and of private silos imposed by an explosive demographic growth implies a shift towards an increased perception of property. However, the absence of monumental architectural and the lack of signs of wealth in graves show that social differentiation and hierarchization remained very subdued [22].
The population, first distributed along undifferentiated gender lines, will gradually endorse simple matrilineal lineages. Later, the economic challenges of the last phase of the Neolithic era will impose the formation of larger domestic units, the extended matrilineal family. In time, the first patrilineal lineages will make their apparition as the discovery of paternity is slowly absorbed in the social structures.
Aggregates of these lineages will create tribal structures that will maintain the egalitarian principles anchored in their ancestral traditions. In this structure, everyone is defined by the place it occupies inside its parental group, the identity of the group always preceding the identity of the individual. Chiefs and shamans possess weak and ephemeral powers, because their position has to be earned, acquired, and maintained. As it has been observed by the Iroquois (North America), this social structure could reach a high degree of complexity: “Among the Iroquois, the individual was part of a nuclear family, which belonged to a household, which lived with other households in a long-house, which constituted part of a clan, which belonged to a moiety, which made up a tribe or nation, which in turn was part of the Confederation. Within this complex, overlapping set of relationships, a royaneh would be a family unit defined by a ‘fire-side.’” [Lutz, 1998] Furthermore, it is important to note that this tribal organization allowed the decoupling between settled women and nomadic men that characterized the first half of the Neolithic era in this region.
Toward the end of the seventh millennium, sites that have been occupied for centuries, and, in some cases, for millennia, are abandoned. The reasons for this exodus are twofold. On the one hand, the “climatic optimum” that prevailed until then comes gradually to an end. The period of more unstable weather that follows will have a profound impact on the economies in this part of the world.
A second and more direct cause is the erosion and exhaustion of the soils, the result of centuries of intensive agriculture. Declining yields forced these communities to diversify their economy, giving birth to pastoralism. Ultimately, most of the sites throughout the region were abandoned. In a very dramatic manner, Steven Mithen recounts that, by the end of the PPNB, all the trees around the site of ’Ain Ghazal (Jordan) were decimated, its inhabitants having to walk further away every year to plant their seeds and feed their flocks. Infantile mortality, already high, reached alarming proportions. Many were thus obliged to leave their land and settle elsewhere, while others had no other choice but to return to nomadism.
This description applies to all the sites of the Jordan Valley and beyond. It is during the same period that the site of Çatalhöyük (Turkey) is abandoned. In the Balikh valley (Syria), at least 10 sites that were continuously occupied for several centuries cease to exist between 6,300 and 6,200. It is also around that time that plastered skulls disappear at ’Ain Ghazal.
All these changes point to the demise of what characterized Neolithic social and economic structures in the Middle East. However, it is important to note that the nomadic lifestyle and customs were not forgotten, still present in many aspects of the life of these populations. First, during most of the Neolithic, this region provided hordes of hunter-gatherers that lived beside settled populations with sufficient wild food to ensure their survival. Besides, within the settled communities, men were not fully integrated into sedentary life, this lifestyle offering too few outlets of value for them. Through their favorite activity, hunting, they kept the customs and beliefs of nomadism alive, transmitting them from generation to generation. Only the deterioration of the conditions of life – deterioration certainly affecting the wild fauna as well – will bring them to participate in the communal economy.
The implementation of an economic duality – agriculture and pastoralism – will have for consequence that a part of the population will live sedentarily while the other will take the flocks in transhumance and live as nomads. It is with the return to nomadism that circular architecture reappears. As we will see with the Israelites, pastoralism will keep nomadic traditions a long time alive.
The deterioration of climatic and environmental conditions has played a key role in the demise of the Neolithic economy. Yet, this would not have been sufficient to eradicate the Neolithic culture as a whole, some of its traditions inherited from ancestral times. It will necessitate a profound overhaul of human knowledge and technology to eradicate its cultural values and ensure the complete collapse of this millennial society.
We saw that the primitive perception of the universe rested on humans sharing nature with the animal world and the world of spirits. The domestication of the bull and the discovery of man’s procreative function brought this conception to an end, disintegrating the foundations that underpinned the shamanic universe.
The holistic approach will be replaced by a pyramidal vision of the universe, with man reigning at its top, reflecting the new image he has forged of himself. In the new society, the egalitarian tribal structures make place for chiefdoms that are based on hierarchy and social differentiation. As for the spirits, they are invested with new roles – implementing the hegemony of the father in the social fabric through ancestor cults – and are endowed with new powers as they become divinities.
Eagle and headless men. Çatalhöyük (Turkey)