The birth of the gods and the origins of agriculture

Abstract

List of plates List of figures Translator's note Foreword Preface Chronological table Introduction Part I. The Origins of Agriculture: 1. Natural environment and human cultures on the eve of the Neolithic 2. The first pre-agricultural villages: the Natufian 3. The Revolution in symbols and the origins of Neolithic religion 4. The first farmers: the socio-cultural context 5. The first farmers: strategies of subsistence 6. Agriculture, population, society: an assessment 7. The Neolithic Revolution: a transformation of the mind Part II. The Beginnings of Neolithic Diffusion: 8. A geographical and chronological framework for the first stages of diffusion 9. The birth of a culture in the northern Levant and the neolithisation of Anatolia 10. Diffusion into the central and southern Levant 11. The evidence of symbolism in the southern Levant 12. The dynamics of a dominant culture Part III. The Great Exodus: 13. The problem of diffusion in the Neolithic 14. The completion of the neolithic process in the 'Levantine nucleus' 15. The arrival of farmers on the Mediterranean littoral and in Cyprus 16. The sedentary peoples push east: the eastern Jezirah and the Syrian desert 17. Pastoral nomadism 18. Hypotheses for the spread of the Neolithic Conclusion Postscript Notes Bibliography Index.