%0 Journal Article
%T Ruin dynamics: Architectural destruction and the production of sedentary space at the dawn of the Neolithic revolution
%A R¨¦mi Hadad
%J Journal of Social Archaeology
%@ 1741-2951
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1469605318794241
%X Monumental architecture in Levantine sites such as Jerf el-Ahmar, G£¿bekli Tepe, or Jericho appears to play an important role in place-making practices and in the organization of a possibly hierarchical sociopolitical life at the very beginning of the Neolithic. This paper focuses on an underdeveloped aspect of this phenomenon: all these buildings were ritually destroyed in a highly spectacular and costly fashion. Their ruins were purposefully curated and accumulated. Far from being static remains, these structures are the meaningful result of the dynamic re-production of monumental space and of its inscription in the landscape. Understanding these actions calls for decentering the dominant vision of architectural valuation associated primarily with ideas of ¡°creation¡± or ¡°heritage.¡± Architectural destruction, I shall finally claim, may well be more significant than construction for understanding the Neolithic consolidation of sedentism in the Near East
%K Pre-Pottery Neolithic
%K monumentality
%K tell formation
%K ruination
%K taphonomy
%K memory
%K situationism
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1469605318794241