ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book devotes to a discussion of evidence for elite burials, replete with fancy metal, basalt and ivory goods. The copper industry of the southern Levant and complex social structures co-evolved with one another during the Chalcolithic, although the causal relationships between the two are unclear. For one, the question of whether copper technology was imported or was an independent local invention must remain unanswered for now. The earliest part of the Chalcolithic period is often difficult to distinguish from the late Neolithic. Material culture changed little, save a few new ceramic forms some of which show outside influence, but there is little indication of major social change. By the mid-Chalcolithic, the southern Levant witnessed the rise of several important regional centers and there is evidence for shifts in economic strategies, in ritual practices and in overall social organization.
