A much-needed work that will prove invaluable to all students of the archaeology of the Near East, this is the story of the momentous transformation of human society and culture in the Near East. It takes us from the hunter gatherer of 50,000 years ago to a time when densely populated villages employed mixed farming methods 8,000 years ago, and gives a key account of the emergence in our human ancestors and an understanding and articulation of their world and their place in it.