Goeytepe: Neolithic Excavations in the Middle Kura Valley, Azerbaijan, publishes the first round of fieldwork and research (2008-2013) at this key site for understanding the emergence and development of food-producing communities in the South Caucasus. Situated close to the Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia, where Neolithisation processes occurred earlier, research in the South Caucasus raises intriguing research questions, including issues of diffusion from the latter and interaction with 'incoming' Neolithic communities as well as the possibility of independent local Neolithisation processes. In order to address these issues in the South Caucasus, a joint Azerbaijan-Japan research programme was launched in 2008 to investigate Goeytepe, one of the largest known Neolithic mounds in the South Caucasus. The results of the first phase of the project (2008-2013) presented here provide rich archaeological data from multi-disciplinary perspectives: chronology, architecture, technology, social organisation, and plant and animal exploitation, to name a few. This volume is the first to present these details in a single report of the South Caucasian Neolithic site using a high-resolution chronology based on dozens of radiocarbon dates.

This book is based on the research performed for the Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans Project. The central issue of the project is the investigation of possible differences between the two populations in cognitive ability for learning. The project aims to evaluate a unique working hypothesis, coined as the learning hypothesis, which postulates that differences in learning eventually resulted in the replacement of those populations. The book deals with relevant archaeological records to understand the learning behaviours of Neanderthals and modern humans. Learning behaviours are conditioned by numerous factors including not only cognitive ability but also cultural traditions, social structure, population size, and life history. The book addresses the issues in two parts, comparing learning behaviours in terms of cognitive ability and social environments, respectively. Collectively, it provides new insights into the behavioural characteristics of Neanderthals and modern humans from a previously overlooked perspective. Furthermore, it highlights the significance of understanding learning in prehistory, the driving force for any development of culture and technology among human society.

The analysis and interpretation of lithics and lithic technology is an important part of reconstructing cultural development in prehistoric societies. In this study, Yoshihiro Nishiaki examines lithic material from four Neolithic sites in Syria (Douara Cave II, Tell Damishliyya, Tell Nebi Mend and Tell Kashkashok II) as well as more general discussions of methodology, chaine operatoire, and the behavioural aspects of lithic procurement and production. Concomitant changes in subsistence, settlement, social and economic organisation are also discussed within the context of the Neolithic period in the Near East.

The four seasons of excavation at Tell Kosak Shamali yielded around 33,000 flaked stone artefacts from the Chalcolithic perid. These discoveries have allowed archaeologists their first ooportunity to study lithic manufacturing activities and their development over this period in the Upper Euphrates valley, Syria. The tools are described and documented within their chronological context, and their functional and morphological properties discussed. There are also chapters devoted to bone objects and small finds, as well as some archaeobotanical and archaeozoological observations. This book is a companion title to Volume I, which documents the Chalcolithic architecture and earlier prehistoric remains.

This first volume in a series of works on Tell Kosak Shamali focuses on the Chalcolithic deposits at the site, or the Ubaid period. Located on the east bank of the Euphrates the site held an important strategic position and one which had a diverse set of resources available. Investigated since the 1980s and most recently by the University of Tokyo, this volume reports on the results of the excavations, detailing the geographical and cultural setting of the site, the architecture and stratigraphy, the radiocarbon dates, the nature of the finds and the history of the site in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic. Evidence from Kosak Shamali provides important insights into the transition from Neolithic agrarian societies to more complex, increasingly urban societies of the Chalcolithic.