From mobile Hunter-Gatherers to Sedentary Settlement: A comparative spatial analysis of EpiPalaeolithic and Early Neolithic settlements in the Middle Western fertile Crescent.

Abstract

This dissertation aimed at investigating the strategies, behaviours, and adaptations of hunters and gatherers to determine how they developed into sedentary settlers in the early (Natufian) at Wadi Hammeh 27 (WH27, ca. 12,000 BP) and Wadi Faynan 16 (WF16, 11,600–10,200 BP) in the early Neolithic in the Middle Western Fertile Crescent.. The social transformations that illustrate these changes in the behaviour of people have always been a significant challenge, as there is a scarcity of written materials, and the findings have to be analysed from an archaeological perspective. Therefore, this study sought to use archaeological evidence to trace sedentism during the Epipaleolithic and early Neolithic. The study deployed a theoretical analysis in the collection and analysis of data. As an archaeological study, the researcher conducted an access analysis of two archaeological sites, Wadi Hammeh 27 and Wadi Faynan 16, to understand the social characteristics of the people there. The researcher used space syntax to reconstruct past social spaces through the study of material categories and attributes within the buildings. In this study, the spatial analysis consisted of the access analysis and the application of agency theory.