Unexpectedly early evidence for the precocious spread of farming has recently emerged in Cyprus. It is argued that the transmission occurred as a result of migration related to ecosystem stress in the Levant. So strong are the connections of the colonists with the mainland that we suggest the term Cypro-Pre-Pottery Neolithic B to describe what has hitherto been a major lacuna in Cypriot prehistory. Consistent dates from key sites and the evolution of material culture indicate that this Cypro-PPNB sequence represents the hitherto elusive ancestry for the Khirokitian.

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The earliest agro-pastoralists of the Near East are generally held to have emerged in a narrow Levantine Corridor. Agricultural life initially spread from this discrete core zone in the Early PrePottery Neolithic B to adjacent inland regions, only reaching the Mediterranean coast of Syria by the Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. Recent discoveries on Cyprus, far to the west of the core zone, prompt re-configuration of several elements of this model. They also provide evidence for characteristics of a regional variant of the PPNB and, in a broader context, fresh data for an understanding of the triggers and mechanics of precocious neolithic dispersals.In a flurry of recent reviews of evidence for the transition from foraging to agricultural societies in the N ear East, emphasis is placed on the Levantine Corridor as .the geographical focus of this seminal process (e.g.