We aim to organise a conference on, specifically, the Late Neolithic in the northern Fertile Crescent. Both the earlier, aceramic period and the succeeding Chalcolithic-Ubaid period in the Near East have received ample archaeological attention recently with specialized conferences; the intermediate period which is the Late Neolithic has been largely neglected. In spite of this, a wealth of fascinating new data is rapidly accumulating from the region. The Late Neolithic has developed into a research field characterized by a diverse range of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives. In terms of absolute date, the Late Neolithic covers the 7th-6th millennium cal. BC. It includes what has been termed the Early Pottery Neolithic, Pre-Halaf, Hassuna-Samarra and Halaf cultures. In our conference, we focus upon the northern parts of the Fertile Crescent because this area in particular has been the focus of much new work over the last two decades: the northern Levant, northern Syria, southeastern Anatolia and northern Iraq. Relevant contributions crossing these chronological and regional boundaries are welcomed, to the degree that the program allows for it.

The conference aims to bring together interpretative, synthesizing contributions. Although we also welcome presentations of new field data, we ask contributors to keep purely descriptive presentations at a minimum. As provisional themes guiding contributions, we think of settlement patterns, village lay out and biography, ritual, problems of chronology, regional perspective, economic and ecological perspectives, exchange, mobility, and the constitution and meanings of material culture.