Monumental architecture in Levantine sites such as Jerf el-Ahmar, Göbekli Tepe, or Jericho appears to play an important role in place-making practices and in the organization of a possibly hierarchical sociopolitical life at the very beginning of the Neolithic. This paper focuses on an underdeveloped aspect of this phenomenon: all these buildings were ritually destroyed in a highly spectacular and costly fashion. Their ruins were purposefully curated and accumulated. Far from being static remains, these structures are the meaningful result of the dynamic re-production of monumental space and of its inscription in the landscape. Understanding these actions calls for decentering the dominant vision of architectural valuation associated primarily with ideas of “creation” or “heritage.” Architectural destruction, I shall finally claim, may well be more significant than construction for understanding the Neolithic consolidation of sedentism in the Near East.

中文翻译：

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废墟动力学：新石器时代革命来临时的建筑破坏和久坐空间的产生

黎凡特遗址（例如杰弗尔·阿赫玛（Jerf el-Ahmar），戈贝克利·特佩（GöbekliTepe）或耶利哥（Jericho））的纪念性建筑在新石器时代初期就在场所营造实践和可能的等级化社会政治生活的组织中起着重要作用。本文着眼于这种现象的欠发达方面：所有这些建筑物都以极为壮观且昂贵的方式在仪式上被摧毁。他们的遗迹经过精心策划和积累。这些结构绝不是静止的遗迹，而是对纪念性空间及其在景观中的铭文进行动态复制的有意义的结果。理解这些行为需要使主要与“创造”或“遗产”观念相关的建筑估价的主导视野偏离中心。我最后要声明是建筑破坏