PPNA Jericho: A socio-political perspective (Sultanian Culture)

A reexamination of the published data concerning PPNA Jericho is used to demonstrate that various building operations, especially the monumental buildings, were actively functioning in several social spheres, both at the inter-group and intra-group levels. At the inter-group level, the monumental buildings served as a means to establish a hold over an area with favourable resources. At the intra-group level, they functioned in founding and regulating new types of socioeconomic relations. Central themes in the changes occurring at this level include production intensification and the growing prominence of long-term delayed-return obligations within the socioeconomic system.