Abstract

First human experimentation with plant cultivation 12,000 years ago took place within the context of community-oriented forms of social organization that were constructed and reified by the built environment and mortuary performance. The later incorporation of domesticated livestock into Pre-Pottery Neolithic subsistence systems further increased the reliability and predictability of food available for human consumption, but also disrupted community cohesion and stimulated a break from ‘hearth and home’ . Drawing from the stable isotopic record, I discuss how shifting scales of mobility and daily practice encouraged this profound social transformation while also critically addressing the challenges in establishing human and animal movement in geologically complex, semi-arid regions such as the southern Levant.