Abstract
Summary The research programme comprises multidisciplinary research into the material, technological, economic, social and ecological changes in Syria during the seventh and early sixth millennium BC. This period (the Late Neolithic) is a crucial link in the development of the first complex societies in the ancient Near East. Special attention is given to the relationship between an abrupt climatic change around 6200 BC and a number of contemporaneous, very far-reaching, material innovations and socio-economic transformations in prehistoric society. This abrupt climate change of 8200 years ago (the so-called 8.2k calBP climate event) has received wide attention among natural scientists, also because of today's rapid climate changes and their impact on our own society. The archaeological implications, however, have not been investigated so far. This research programme is based on extensive recent fieldwork at Tell Sabi Abyad in Syria, a unique excavation and the only one where the relevant occupation layers from 6200 BC have been uncovered. The research treats a number of important cultural and ecological changes that have not been dealt with before in Near Eastern archaeology. The project includes the analysis of natural isotopes, animal bone material, fossil plant remains, architecture, settlement history and material culture. An essential part is the reevaluation of existing concepts and explanatory models for the Late Neolithic period. The integration of new data and insights from recent fieldwork will throw a completely new light on what has so far been one of the darkest periods in the history of the Near East.