ABSTRACT
The rise of complex societies in southwest Asia during the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE is accompanied by major changes in the societies of the periphery. The transition from subsistence level herder-gatherer to pastoral nomad, in the sense of complex dependence relationships with the settled zone, is well refl ected in the archaeological record, and comprises major changes in external relations, economics, and settlement. In essence it is in this period that one can trace the rise of specialized pastoral nomadism in asymmetric core-periphery economic structures which will continue to characterize the phenomenon throughout the millennia. Although the primary focus of this essay will be on the Negev and its neighbors in Jordan and the Sinai ( Fig. 9.1 ), it is no coincidence that assays in explaining the rise of pastoral societies in other parts of the Near East, notably Mesopotamia and Iran, have focused on similar phenomena (e.g., Alizadeh 2008, 2010; Lees and Bates 1974; Porter 2004, 2012; Sumner 1986).
