Reconstructing early neolithic social and economic organization through spatial analysis at Ayn Abu Nukhayla, Southern Jordan

This study involves the high-resolution spatial analysis of a 9, 500-year-old Early Neolithic site in an effort to reconstruct the social and economic organization of the settlement at household and community scales. We introduce an approach to distinguishing stratified occupational surfaces (floors) from intervening deposits (fills), to tracing the different formation processes associated with floors and fills, and to critically examining various factors (curation behaviors, palimpsests, and the Clarke Effect) that may have shaped house floor assemblages. The spatial analyses of behavioral residuals, features, and structures are then presented at intramural and intrasite scales, and the results are discussed as they relate to certain aspects of the social and economic organization of the community. These include family structure, control of resources, social differentiation, ritual participation, craft specialization, and gender-linked activities.