The Neolithic was an emergent phenomenon arising from the flow of ideas through social networks that connected people throughout SW Asia. It was a set of concepts about the world and how to act within it that became expressed in action and resulting material culture. Seasonal and periodic social gatherings were critical in the formulation and sharing of those concepts. I will explore the evidence for the social gatherings at Wadi Faynan 16 (WF16), a 12th millennium BP Neolithic site in southern Jordan. I will describe evidence from WF16 for the flow of ideas between the southern and the northern Levant as evident from similarities between artefacts from WF16 and from sites such as Göbekli Tepe, Jerf el Ahmar and Körtik Tepe. Why and when did those ideas originate? What was the ‘invisible force’ that turned them into such powerful concepts that changed the course of history? 

Steven Mithen is Professor of Early Prehistory at the University of Reading, UK. He has undertaken long-term fieldwork in southern Jordan and western Scotland, and has interests in the evolution of language, music, and mind.