ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to explore developmental trajectories of social organization in the early Neolithic and interpret the in relation to the process of expansion, changing patterns of mobility and material culture distribution as observed in the archaeological record. It concentrates on the region of Greece, western Turkey and Central Anatolia. The chapter aims to look deeper into the changes in social organisation in Anatolian, Aegean and south-eastern European Neolithic settlements as reflected in the settlement plans, and to discuss these developments with relation to the markedly non-expansive nature of Pre-Pottery Neolithic (PPN) communities between 8500 and 6500 BCE and the expansive nature of early Pottery Neolithic (PN) societies after 6500 BCE. PPN settlements appeared in Central Anatolia about 8500 BCE, and at about the same time after episodic earlier visits in Cyprus. It is evident that the PPN in Central Anatolia was regulated by a strong settlement-wide system of overall social control.
