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Alan H.
Simmons,
Distinguished Professor
Archaeology, arid lands adaptations, cultural resource
management, paleo-economy, multidisciplinary research,
Near Eastern and Mediterranean, Southwest, Great Basin.
Around 10,000 years ago, a momentous change occurred
in society that has irreversibly affected the human
condition. This was the transition from hunting and
gathering economies to ones based on food production —
the so-called Neolithic Revolution. While this
apparently first occurred in the Near East, domestic
economies developed independently at different times in
other parts of the world as well. This was not only an
economic transition, but a social one. With usually
reliable food sources ensured, many cultures became more
complex, ultimately leading to urban societies. The
results of the Neolithic Revolution have shaped the
modern world, both for better and for worse. Through the
interdisciplinary study of the processes leading to food
production, we not only obtain a better understanding of
why this happened in the past, but also gain valuable
insight into the present.
2007.
The Neolithic Revolution in the Near East: Transforming
the Human Landscape. The University of Arizona Press.
2007. (senior author with M. Najjar) Is Big
Really Better? Life in the Resort Corridor Ghwair I, a
Small but Elaborate Neolithic Community in Southern
Jordan. Crossing Jordan: North American Contributions to
the Archaeology of Jordan, edited by T. Levy, P. Daviau,
R. Younker, and M. Shaer, pp. 233-241. Equinox Press,
London, Oakville.
2007. (senior author with R. Mandel) Not Such a
New Light: A Response to Ammerman and Noller. World
Archaeology (December, 2007).
2006. Early People, Early Maize, and Late Archaic
Ecology in the Southwest. In: Environmental Change and
Human Adaptation in the Ancient American Southwest,
edited by D. Doyel and J. Dean, pp. 10-25. University of
Utah Press.
2006. (senior author with M. Najjar) Ghwair I: A
Small but Complex Neolithic Community in Southern
Jordan. Journal of Field Archaeology 31-77-95.
2004. Bitter hippos of Cyprus: The island's first
occupants and last endemic animals: Setting the stage
for colonization. Neolithic Revolution! New Discoveries
in the Neolithic of Cyprus, 1-14. E. Peltenburg and A.
Wasse, eds. Levant Supplementary Series 1. Oxford: Oxbow
Books.
2003. Villages without walls, cows without
corrals. Le Néolithique de Chypre, 61-70. J. Guilaine
and A. LeBrun, eds. BCH Supplement 43, École Française
D’Athènes.
2002. The role of islands in pushing the
Pleistocene extinction envelope: The strange case of the
Cypriot pygmy hippos. World Islands in Prehistory,
406-414. W. Waldren & J. Ensenyat, eds. Oxford: BAR
International Series 1095.
2001. (with R. Mandel). Prehistoric occupation of
Late Quaternary landscapes near Kharga Oasis, western
desert of Egypt. Geoarchaeology 16:95-117.
2000. Villages on the edge: regional settlement
change and the end of the Levantine Pre-Pottery
Neolithic. Life in Neolithic Farming Communities,
211-230. I. Kuijt, ed. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum
Publishers.
1999. Faunal Extinctions in an Island Society:
Pygmy Hippopotamus Hunters of Cyprus. New York: Kluwer
Academic/Plenum Publishers.
1988. Extinct Pygmy Hippopotamus and Early Man in
Cyprus. Nature 333(6173):554-557.
1988. (with G. Rollefson, I. Kohler Rollefson, R.
Mandel, and Z. Kafafi) 'Ain Ghazal: A Major Neolithic
Settlement in Central Jordan. Science 240(4848):35-39.
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