The Neolithic of the near East

This critique of The Neolithic of the Near East includes five major sections which will be considered in the following sequence: 1) background and author's purpose, 2) previous areal syntheses, 3) problems of organization and method, 4) summary of salient points, and 5) evaluation. James Mellaart, Lecturer in Anatolian Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London, has written the best summary presently available on the archeological materials of the Neolithic of the Near East up to 1975. The book focuses on the development of the Food Producing Revolution during the chronological period from approximately 15,0005200 B.C. The spatial range of this Greater Near East is from the Iron Gates of the southern Balkans eastward into the Turkestan Plain of northern Afghanistan, and from the Black Sea and Azerbaijan southward through Mesopotamia into southwestern Iran and into the Levant and Egyptian Fayum. Encompassed within is the area 30 -45 0 North latitude by 25 0650 East longitude, hence I shall use the term Greater Near East to indicate the total area under consideration. The author states that his purpose in writing this book was: