Chapitre VI. Synthèse. L’architecture, miroir d’une société néolithique complexe

Tracking the Near Eastern origins and European dispersal of the western house mouse

“…The occurrence of M. m. domesticus in all the PPNA and Early and Late PPNB contexts of our dataset in the Zagros, Levant, Anatolia, and Cyprus, suggests that the emergence of the agricultural system was the key driving force in the house mouse's commensal trajectory. PPNA plant cultivation of wild cereals and pulses [52][53][54] correlates with the emergence of the first settlement with communal buildings and cereal storage 55,56 , marking a substantial increase in the degree of sedentism of human societies. PPNB plant and animal domestication, which entails a greater reliance on cereals 57 and storage 14,58 , correlates with an increase in settlement sizes from less than two hectares, during the PPNA, to more than 10 hectares during the Late PPNB 16,59 .…”

“…All these factors prompted the development of proto-urban environments with a unique anthropogenic ecosystem disturbance 60 , fostering the subsequent adaptedness of the house mouse to such altered human environments 61 . With regards to agriculture, the villages and buildings provided greater protection against predators and competitors, a buffer from temperature fluctuation, and a constant food supply due to large scale grain storage from the PPNA 53,56 onwards, driving M. m. domesticus to become an anthro-dependent organism 62 .…”

Tulán-52: a Late Archaic ceremonial centre at the dawn of the Neolithisation process in the Atacama Desert

“…The amount of work implied by the transport of the slabs and the construction of the proto-templete suggest the control and provisioning of taskforces by leaders, possibly belonging to a religious elite (Carballo et al 2014; Hadad 2014; Stordeur 2015). Accordingly, some form of social complexity, understood as functional differentiation among social units (Feinman 2013), was already present.…”

From Pleistocene to Holocene: the prehistory of southwest Asia in evolutionary context

“…Some of the most striking, and genuinely monumental, examples of public buildings have been found in the course of salvage excavations in settlements in the Euphrates valley. The most extensively investigated of those settlements was Jerf el Ahmar (Stordeur 2015 ), which was occupied for almost a millennium around 11,000 years ago. Over that long time, as old buildings were repeatedly replaced, the village footprint drifted, and at least four, conspicuously larger, circular, semi-subterranean public buildings succeeded one another.…”

“…Over that long time, as old buildings were repeatedly replaced, the village footprint drifted, and at least four, conspicuously larger, circular, semi-subterranean public buildings succeeded one another. The excavator, Danielle Stordeur, has called them communal buildings (‘bâtiments communautaires’) (Stordeur 2015 ; Stordeur et al 2000 ). Very similar monumental, circular, subterranean buildings have been found at other contemporary settlements in the region; for example, a series of several was found at Tell ‘Abr 3, also in the Euphrates valley (Yartah 2005 , 2016 ).…”