Settlement Networks in the Southern Levant in the Mid 4th Millennium BC: Sites with Double-Apsed Houses in the Leja Area of Southern Syria During the EBA IA

Abstract

The social organization of regional settlement systems in the Southern Levant during the mid 4th millennium (EB IA) is addressed through a new interpretation of the spatial patterning of houses and agglomerations in the Syrian Leja. The implications of an explanation which treats residential mobility as a major factor in the spatial and social structure of settlements are first explored at the level of the Leja and subsequently extended to the Southern Levant.

Keywords:

• Southern Syria
• household
• residential mobility
• Early Bronze Age 1
• Leja

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of Levant for their valuable comments on this article and to express our gratitude to the editorial staff for improving our English text.