Reconstructed Neolithic House Beidha, Jordan

Reconstructed Neolithic House
Beidha, Jordan

Here is a later, mid-Pre-Pottery Neolithic B style, rectangular house as reconstructed by the archaeologists. The interior of such a house (photo) can be divided up into rooms, which in turn can lead to localization of function and occupation (kitchen/bedroom/workroom/storeroom/my room/etc.). Consequences include new ideas about privacy, personal ownership of possessions, the accumulation and storage of goods, status, rank, and hierarchy. Rectangular houses can be constructed right next to each other, or even on top of each other, leading to vast changes in social organization and the creation of cities. The ability to impose a conceptual grid upon man's inner and outer landscape, as implicated in the Neolithic transition to right-angled walls, is considered by many anthropoligists to be one of the key events in the cultural development of human societies.