Socio-cultural changes in north Mesopotamian communitiesin the epipalaeolithic epoch and pre-pottery neolithicas a stage on the path to civilization

The study of socio-cultural transformations in the central part of the FertileCrescent in the epoch of neolitization is extremely important for understanding of theorigins of civilization. The development of early farming cultures in Upper and CentralMesopotamia, which had become a prominent component in the formation of Sumerian city-states, stemmed to a significant degree from the achievements of the population of the prepottery Neolithic in North Mesopotamia. The author draws attention to the formation ofa broad cultural space in the zone of the Fertile Crescent at the transition to a Neolithicway of life. Attention is paid to the way in which regional characteristics were emergingin aspects of ideology, ritual and systems of symbols in North Mesopotamia in the prepottery Neolithic. New ideological concepts were taking shape in response to the challengeof the transition to the Neolithic. The initial organization of religion as a social institutionwas a most important adaptation strategy, able overcome the stress caused by the spread of a settled way of life, which in its turn made possible the emergence of a communal andsupra-communal (regional) sense of identity