Sha'ar hagolan and new insights on near eastern proto-historic urban concepts

The new results from the Pottery Neolithic site of Sha'ar Hagolan in Israel, dated to 6400-6000 BC (calibrated), reveal advanced notions of settlement planning, including the introduction of courtyard houses, a street system and infrastructure such as the construction of a water well. It is suggested, on the basis of the Near Eastern archaeological evidence from the eighth to sixth millennia BC, that early signs of urban concepts may be found at this stage. These signs show the development of 'functionally hierarchical' concepts reflected in domestic architecture and settlement planning. At least from the cognitive point of view, these concepts may be on the direct trajectory towards the full-blown urban centres of the fourth and third millennia BC in the Near East.