THE FORMATION OF EARLY NEOLITHIC COMMUNITIES IN THE CENTRAL ZAGROS: AN 11,500 YEAR‐OLD COMMUNAL STRUCTURE AT ASIAB

Communal buildings have been reported from a number of early Neolithic sites from the Levant and Anatolia, but none were known from the central Zagros. Here we report on the recent excavations at Asiab, Kermanshah province, Iran, and argue that the principal feature found during Robert Braidwood’s excavation at the site in 1960 should be interpreted as an example of a communal building. We discuss the results of the previous and recent excavations, highlight the key features of this building, and the implications for our understanding of the early Neolithic in the ‘eastern wing’ of the Fertile Crescent.     

Book reviews

Women's Lives and Public Policy: the international experience. M. Turshen & B. Holcomb (Eds), 1993. Westport, CT, Praeger. xix + 217 pp. ISBN 0–275–94523–5 paperback, 0–313–27354–5 hardback.

Decolonizing Feminisms: race, gender and empire‐building. Laura E. Donaldson, 1992. Chapel Hill, NC, University of North Carolina Press.

African Encounters with Domesticity. K. T. Hansen (Ed.), 1992. New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press. 315 pp., $42.00 hardback, $16.00 paperback. ISBN 0–8135–1803–2 hardback, 0–8135–1804–0 paperback.

Women and the Environment: a reader. S. Sontheimer (Ed.), 1991. New York, Monthly Review Press. 205 pp., $13.00 paperback. ISBN 0 85345–835 9.

Defining Females. S. Ardener (Ed.), 1993. Oxford, Berg. 216 pp., £10.95/$17.95 paperback.

Modernity and Identity. S. Lash & J. Friedman (Eds), 1992. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA, USA, Blackwell. 379 pp., £15.99/$19.95 paperback. ISBN 0–631–17586–5.     

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing landscape.